Table of Contents
Dramatis Personae xi
Prologue: "Save, Save Me!" 3
Chapter 1 "Such Turpitudes": Katharina von Hohenzollern Complains to the Inquisition 7
Rome as a Heavenly Jerusalem 7
A Road-to-Damascus Experience and Its Consequences 11
A Roman Cloistered Idyll 17
Salvation from a Cloistered Hell 21
Denunciation as a Moral Duty 23
The Secret of Sant'Ambrogio 25
A Possessed Seducer of Nuns 27
A False Saint 29
Poisoning 33
The Savior's Perspective 40
Chapter 2 "The 'Delicatezza' of the Matter as Such": Extrajudicial Preliminary Investigations 46
Irformal Questioning 46
The Outcast's Testimony 50
Two Nuns in a Bed 55
Unchastity and Sodomy 58
A Dominican Wants the Details 61
Many Convincing Proofs 64
An Inquisition Trial After All 67
The Inquisition Tribunal: Processes and Protagonists 70
The Sources from the Archive of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith 75
Chapter 3 "I Am the Little Lion of My Reformed Sisters": The Informative Process and the Devotees of the Mother Founder 81
The Convent of Sant'Ambrogio della Massima 82
Franciscans of the Third Order 83
Agnese Firrao is Venerated as a Saint 88
Agnese Firrao Is Accused of False Holiness 92
The Inquisition's 1816 Verdict 94
The Miraculous Conversion of Leo XII 98
True and False Holiness 102
Proof of the Continuing Cult of Firrao 107
The Secret Abbess 110
Relics 112
Inspired Texts 115
A "Mother Confessor" 117
The Confessors Proclaim the False Cult 118
Chapter 4 "Wash Me Well, for the Padre Is Coming": The Madre Vicaria's Pretense of Holiness 121
Visions on the Road to Power 121
Mysticism 126
The Earthly Origins of Heavenly Rings and the Scent of Roses 130
Letters from the Mother of God 136
The Marian Century 142
Forging Letters from the Virgin 146
Pastoral Care in Bed 153
Lesbian Intimacies in a Convent Cell 158
The Sant'Ambrogio System 162
Chapter 5 "An Act of Divine Splendor": Murder on the Orders of the Virgin 166
The Americano and His Obscene Letter 166
The Cord Around Katharina's Neck 170
Heavenly Letters Foretell Katharina's Murder 173
The Dramaturgy of a Poisoning 176
"It Was Most Certainly the Devil' 193
More Murders 198
Pennies from Heaven 203
The Confessors as Confidants and Accomplices 205
The Results of the Informative Process 207
Chapter 6 "It Is a Heavenly Liquor": The Offensive Process and the Interrogation of the Madre Vicaria 210
"I Always Wanted to Become a Nun" 210
The Story of an Innocent Lamb 213
Evidence and First Confessions 222
Maria Luisa and Her Novices 224
Sexual Abuse 226
Jesuit Confessors and Their Very Special Blessing 233
The Confessors Affair with Alessandra N. 237
Maria Luisa and Padre Peters: Blessing or Bedding? 240
"My Only Defense Is Jesus Christ" 244
Chapter 7 "That Good Padre Has Spoiled the Work of God": The Interrogations of the "Father Confessor and the Abbess 250
Giuseppe Leziroli: A Confessor Before the Court 250
The Apostle of Saint Agnese Firrao 252
The Confessor and "Saint" Maria Luisa 256
Leziroli and the Poisonings 260
Maria Veronica Milza: An Abbess Before the Court 262
Confessions 267
Chapter 8 "During These Acts I Never Ceased My Inner Prayer": The Interrogation of Giuseppe Peters 271
Padre Peters's True identity 271
The Defendants Spontaneous Admissions 278
A Cardinal Breaks the Secret of the Holy Office 288
And After All, the Cult of Firrao Was Permitted 291
Theology and French Kissing 297
New Scholastic Convolutions 305
The Court's Final Proposition 309
A Proxy War? 312
Chapter 9 "Sorrowful and Contrite": The Verdict and Its Consequences 320
Consultors, Cardinals, Pope: The Verdict 320
Internal Abjurations and External Secrecy 326
A Founder Instead of a Nun 331
A Cardinal's Poison Paranoia 337
Friends in High Places 342
A Saint in the Madhouse 345
A Heretic Writes Dogma 351
Epilogue: The Secret of Sant'Ambrogio as Judged by History 363
Acknowledgments 373
Notes 377
Sources and Literature 449
Illustration Credits 467
Index 469