I announce to you the truth that is well known.  You see in what sorrows and what opposition I must now live, and I can say with Jeremiah:  “O, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and contention to the whole earth!” But where is a father or a mother that can say I have led their son into sin; one that can say I have ruined her husband or his wife?  Everybody knows my manner of life, therefore it is right for you to believe that I speak the truth which everybody knows.  You think that it is impossible for a man to do what the faith I have preached tells him to do:  with God it would be easy for you.

The ass alone saw the angel, the others did not; so open your eyes.  Thank God, many have them open.  You have seen many learned men whom you thought wise, and they have withstood our cause:  now they believe; many noted masters who were hard and proud against us:  now humility casts them down.  You have also seen many women turn from their vanity to simplicity; vicious youths who are now improved and conduct themselves in a new way.  Many, indeed, have received this doctrine with humility.  That doctrine has stood firm, no matter how attacked with the intention of showing that it was a doctrine opposed to Christ.  God does that to manifest His wisdom, to show how it finally overcomes all other wisdom.  And He is willing that His servants be spoken against that they may show their patience and humility, and for the sake of His love not be afraid of martyrdom.

O ye men and women, I bid you to this truth; let those who are in captivity contradict you as much as they will, God will come and oppose their pride.  Ye proud, however, if you do not turn about and become better, then will the sword and the pestilence fall upon you; with famine and war will Italy be turned upside down.  I foretell you this because I am sure of it:  if I were not, I would not mention it.  Open your eyes as Balaam opened his eyes when the angel said to him:  “Had it not been for thine ass, I would have slain thee.”  So I say to you, ye captives:  Had it not been for the good and their preaching, it would have been wo unto you.  Balaam said:  “If this way is not good, I will return.”  You say likewise, you would turn back to God, if your way is not good.  And to the angel you say as Balaam said:  “What wilt thou that we should do?” The angel answers thee as he answered Balaam:  “Thou shalt not curse this people, but shalt say what I put in thy mouth.”  But in thy mouth he puts the warning that thou shouldst do good, convince one another of the divine truth, and bear evil manfully.  For it is the life of a Christian to do good and to bear wrong and to continue stedfast unto death, and this is the Gospel, which we, according to the text of the Gospel for today, shall preach in all the world.