‘Perhaps, but only because you receive your own bastard sons as oblates to plump up your diminishing population!’ cried the Franciscan triumphantly. ‘How many nephews do you have, bishop? You are, of course yourself, a nephew . . .’
‘You profane devil!’ The bishop lunged forward, trying to grasp the friar by the scapular.
‘Brothers! Brothers!’ cried the abbot, standing between the two men, avoiding a volley aimed at the bishop who, snarling, prepared to land a punch squarely on the friar’s weak chin.
‘May the Devil take you!’ yelled the Franciscan from behind the abbot, his animated face contrary to his nature. ‘It is no wonder there is so much unrest in Italy! I begin to sympathise with the Ghibellines of Umbria!’
This struck the bishop better than a blow. ‘Traitor!’ he vociferated, breathing heavily and waving his fat fists about. ‘I can see why even the heretic Frederick would not allow your kind into Sicily, for you give off the odour of a woman!’
‘I would rather give off the odour of a woman than to be the son of a whore!’
‘And I would rather be a good son, even to a whore, than to slip into your lice-infested habit each miserable day!’
‘Mind your tongue, you desecrator of saints!’ broke in the Cistercian, waving his knife at the bishop. ‘You Benedictines are a bunch of idolaters who build your grand churches stuffed with gold and silver so that you can seek your own greedy reflections on every surface!’
‘And your order’s bare walls are only a reflection of St Bernard’s buttocks; pale and exceedingly dull!’
My master cast a look of victory at the inquisitor, and again I noted that the Devil of rivalry that existed between the two men was almost at the point of embodiment. I began to wonder if the bishop had been right – if the infidel in my master’s blood was stronger than the Christian, since it seemed that he took pleasure in division and confusion as much as the inquisitor took pleasure in fear and pain. At that moment, it appeared that they had much in common.
‘Venerable brothers!’ the inquisitor shouted, raising his arms in an effort to stop the blows and cries. ‘Peace! Peace!’ He frowned at those responsible, and continued only after he was certain that they had each calmed down, ‘I pray that we might sit down and collect ourselves before it is too late. Might I remind you of our sensitive mission here, and of the great peril that faces us? Surely this is the work of the Devil who seeks to divide us, so that we may not come to a judgement, for if I have ever seen him, I have seen him tonight, snarling from out of the mouths of pious men the most odious and disdainful words! Let us be filled with contrition, let us pray for guidance and also for forgiveness. The enemy is among us and we feed him with our dissension and our hatred of one another.’
He sat down and silence reigned once more but, in truth, it was an unhappy silence, because once a word is spoken it has the ability to alter things, create things, even destroy them.
Now, only the wind outside could be heard beating itself against stone, making the candles flicker about, casting ominous shadows on the walls of the refectory. I wondered as I looked at all the now solemn and frightened faces around me if any here was without sin.
AQUA
THE SECOND TRIAL
And he dreamed
Genesis XXVIII
10
Capitulum
I was in the midst of a storm, alone within elements that burst forth in the most violent manner. Thunder shook the world, and out of a bolt of lightning, these are the things that I saw.
Behold a door was opened in heaven and emerging, a throne, surrounded by four creatures. I saw four and twenty seats upon which sat four and twenty elders, dressed in white raiment.
‘Give Glory and honour and thanks to Him that sitteth upon the throne who liveth forever and ever!’ a voice cried. ‘Woe be unto him that followeth the foulness that is spewed from the belly of the underworld.’
Suddenly I heard a grumbling coming from below, and from out of the penumbral night, a crack in the earth thrust out lava whose sulphurous light illuminated the firmament, revealing waves of mud, smoke, scum, and dung. Creatures of every kind in bursts of liquid fell upon mankind, the multitude who, like little ants at first congregated, dispersed as the progeny of demons sought them out. Vipers, minotaurs, salamanders, serpents, hydras, lizards and vultures, gryphons, crocodiles and scorpions, became one boiling convulsing substance – a thick oily matter that, ignited by the first rays of a black sun, descended upon a convention of discord, an assembly of abominations, a cohort of transgressors. They tore eyes from their sockets, ripped souls from out of mouths, stripped the flesh from naked bodies with sharp, jagged teeth.