Maria and Lucrezia were born in one of the Papal States in the year 788.  They were identical twins born into a wealthy, aristocratic family.  It was rare indeed in those days for twins to survive and so they were treated as something akin to a miracle by the rest of their family.   From birth they were inseparable.  It was not possible to tell them apart, so alike were they. In personality, however, there was a vast difference.  Maria was deeply religious and very unselfish while Lucrezia scorned religion and was very self centred.  Lucrezia adored her sister above all others and to such an extent that she felt that Maria belonged to her.  Maria was the younger of the twins.

The twin's father attended some of the ceremonies associated with the Coronation of Charlemagne in the year 800 and there met a man with whom he was most desirous of making an alliance.  He arranged a marriage between Lucrezia and Armand, the son of this nobleman from Tuscany. On hearing this news Lucrezia flew into one of her familiar rages.  Maria, ever on the alert to calm her beloved sister offered to be the one to marry this unknown man and thus spare her sister the ordeal. After giving the matter deep thought the twin's father realised that Maria would make the better wife as she was so meek and compliant.  He thus sent a proposal to the Tuscan Nobleman suggesting a change of bride for Armand.  As there was no good reason to object, the change was made and Maria was officially betrothed to Armand. Both Maria and Lucrezia did not want to be separated and as their 13th birthday approached and therefore Maria's wedding, they both began to think of how the wedding could still go ahead but that they be allowed to stay together. After much cajoling by both his daughters the twin's father agreed to allow Lucrezia to accompany her sister into her new life and he also agreed that any marriage for her would be to a suitable man in the same locality as Maria.

Two months after their 13th birthday Maria and Lucrezia set off for Tuscany, never to see their childhood home again.A Much to Lucrezia's dismay Maria fell deeply in love with Armand. During the next four years Armand tried to arrange a marriage for Lucrezia but each time Lucrezia had some reason to find the proposed husband unsuitable and Maria would give in to her every time.  By this time Lucrezia was very jealous of Maria's love for Armand as she felt that it took Maria's love away from her.  Each month she dreaded to hear from Maria that she was pregnant as children would also lay claim to her love which in Lucrezia's mind meant less love for her.  So far this had not happened.  She could not comprehend that love is infinite.

Lucrezia had by this time become obsessed with regaining the undivided attention of her sister and she devised a most despicable plan.  The two girls were still so much alike in appearance that even Armand would mistake Lucrezia for Maria and vice versa if they wore each other's clothes. Lucrezia determined to pretend to be Maria and seduce him so that she could cry rape and therefore destroy Maria's love for Armand.   She knew enough to be aware that Armand would be able to tell that she was a virgin and it was when he discovered this and realised that he had Lucrezia and not Maria in his bed, that she planned to cry rape.

Her plan worked perfectly but for some reason Armand did not seem to notice that Lucrezia was a virgin and she lost her courage to cry rape.  Another alarming thing occurred in that she found herself falling in love with Armand.  Then she began to worry that Armand would say something to Maria about their afternoon tryst in bed.  "Oh, why didn't I think this through properly?", she said to herself. The weeks passed and nothing happened to suggest that Armand suspected that it was not his wife he had bedded on that blissful afternoon.  Lucrezia found herself daydreaming about another such tryst with Armand and after about six weeks she dared to seduce Armand again. Once more she had a worrying time waiting to see if her little deception had been found out.  Again she dared to seduce Armand. 

By now she was more obsessed with Armand than Maria.  Her love for Maria prevented her from actually wanting her out of the way so that she could take her place although the thought did cross her mind from time to time.  After the fifth tryst with Armand a most alarming thing happened.  Lucrezia was pregnant.  Now she was in real trouble and with no thoughts but for herself she went crying to Maria that Armand had raped her and she would not have said anything about it except that she was now pregnant with Armand's child. Poor Maria's world fell apart.  Who should she believe, her adored husband or her adored sister? 

While Maria was struggling to come to grips with this betrayal a marriage had to be hastily arranged for Lucrezia.  Even Lucrezia knew that she had to have a husband, quickly and so she agreed to the first man who would have her knowing that she carried a child not his. Deep in her heart Maria knew what her beloved sister was capable of although she wondered how Armand could have been fooled.  Maria's happy marriage was never the same again although after five years of marriage she finally became pregnant and this did a lot to bring back the happiness to the marriage. As the years went by Maria tended to believe that Armand was the guiltless one and eventually she stopped answering Lucrezia's letters as each letter would bring the whole thing back to her, along with all the hurt and the doubts.

Poor Giovanni should have been sainted.  Lucrezia was the most dreadful wife to him.  She refused to consummate the marriage and it was only when her beloved son to Armand died at the age of three years that she came to her senses in that regard.  She missed Maria and Armand dreadfully and when her child died she had no one but Giovanni.  The fact that Giovanni also mourned little Armand made her look at him with different eyes. She desperately wanted another child to fill the emptiness of her life and so she finally agreed to be a proper wife to Giovanni. 

They had five children and Lucrezia frequently took out her anger and despair at the loss of Maria on her husband and children.  There were times though when she could be the most loving mother and after 15 years of marriage, when Giovanni nearly died of a fever, Lucrezia realised that she had grown to love him as a husband should be loved.

It was during Giovanni's illness that Lucrezia came across a wise woman who had recently moved into a small hut on the edge of her estate.  She was so distraught that she poured out her heart to this woman who took her in her arms and told her that she had the gift of healing and would do what she could for Giovanni if Lucrezia would allow her to.  In her desperation Lucrezia agreed and with the wise woman's care and attention Giovanni slowly began to recover. Lucrezia was so grateful that she offered the woman a home but the wise woman wanted to stay where she was.  Lucrezia spent much time with the wise woman in the next few years and she eventually told her the truth about her seduction of Armand.   The wise woman told her that she must confess what she had done to her sister and Armand and ask them for forgiveness. This Lucrezia did in a letter written to both of them.  She received no reply and this distressed her greatly. The wise woman told her that she must forgive herself and that one day the others would forgive her. 

The wise woman taught Lucrezia many things of a spiritual nature that explained the many questions she had always had and that the church's answers could not satisfy.

By the end of that life Lucrezia realised that love was indeed infinite and that a person could love many people without diminishing the love for any of them.   The teachings of the wise woman brought her to the realisation of the existence of a Creator, a Most High God and that selfishness rarely leads to happiness.  She had a burning desire to share these teachings with others but she was afraid of what people would say.  The local people had come to call the wise woman a witch even though they mostly left her in peace.  Lucrezia realised that people were starting to say the same thing about her and so when the wise woman died Lucrezia kept very much to herself and her family and did not speak of the things that she knew to be Spiritual Truths.