Temple of the Grail(74)

There was a loud murmur. I looked around and found a face in the crowd staring at me. It was Anselmo. I looked away, pretending that I had not seen him, certain that the singer was of evil disposition. Who else would smile during an inquiry?

‘Perhaps Brother Samuel was strangled by the Devil,’ the inquisitor said, ‘after all, he was found gasping for breath!’

‘I do not know. But I did not say that he was . . .’ The brother shook his head. ‘He was old . . . should the devil leave marks on his neck?’

Rainiero raised his brows. ‘Are you saying that there were marks, or that there were no marks?’

‘No . . . no marks!’

‘Ahh, but it may not have been the Devil, but the Devil’s own who has committed these heinous crimes . . . perhaps our pious brothers found out what you were doing with these manuscripts of yours, and you put an end to them before they could take matters to the abbot?’

‘No, no!’ Asa exclaimed anxiously, for the first time realising his peril.

‘What manuscripts are these, then? Tell us and we shall judge if they be good or evil.’

‘Medical manuscripts, your lordship.’

‘Tell me.’

‘There are many . . . let me see . . . the works of the Doctor Admirabilis, Avicenna and his canon of medicine, Averroes . . . many . . . many! Dozens of works of supreme importance in this field.’ He added, trying to convince the man before him of their significance. ‘Hippocrates’s Corpus Hippocraticum is a wealth of knowledge for any young aspiring physician, there is also the classic works of Roger Salerno and his Practica Chirurgiae. As well, the wonderful works of Galen of Pergamon, Aulus Cornelius Celsus, who wrote entire volumes, the physician Pedanius Dioscorides who became the first medical botanist – a man whom I humbly hold as a model – Rufus of Ephesus renowned for his investigations of the heart and eye . . . and there are many more.’

‘You see! All works of pagans, infidels, and heretics!’ he shouted in a sudden outburst that shook the congregation.

‘Your grace,’ Asa answered, wrenching his hands, ‘if that were so, then why are there copies to be found in the abbey of Monte Cassino where the good doctor Constantine has translated into Latin from Arabic many Greek classics. As did another by the name of Albertus Magnus. And if so impure and loathsome, why can they be so easily found at the medical school at Montpellier or the University of Paris?’

‘Do not seek to mask your guilt by quoting translations over which there have been grave misgivings. One day all these works will be branded heresy and condemned, along with those who found them exceedingly fruitful.’

‘But these are fine books, they have provided many with immeasurable and illuminated knowledge. I have always thought that one must distinguish a man’s faith from his wisdom.’

‘That is not possible, one is dependent on the other.’

‘Perhaps, but a man of science, your grace, must lay aside all other concerns, and work from natural laws.’

‘Another heretical statement! What can one expect from a man who reads the thoughts of devils and infidels. These natural laws of which you speak are nothing other than precepts for committing necromancy and witchcraft!’ There was a stir and the inquisitor, not one to miss an opportunity, seized his moment. ‘Yes, witchcraft! Do you not call forth all the chiefs of the infernal legions to assist you in these miraculous healings?’

‘No.’

‘Is that not why monks have been dying at this monastery? Because there have been monks practising abominable acts? Is that what you mean by ‘natural laws’?’

‘Natural laws are the eyes through which we see a divine will at work in the world around us,’ said Asa, ‘and can measure and calculate its existence. Knowledge is God and God is knowledge. In the words of the loving Brother Vincent of Beauvais, ‘The mind lifting itself from the dunghill of its affections, and rising, as it is able, into the light of speculation, sees as from a height the greatness of the universe containing in itself infinite places filled with the diverse orders of creatures’, and Ephesus tells us, ‘Gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth’, and again, ‘The spirit searcheth all things. Yea the deep things of God’. In Proverbs we are told to, ‘Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her for she is thy life’.’

‘I see you are also accomplished in ways to justify your heresy through your own diabolical rendering of holy words! Another impudent trait!’ He bounded with agility onto the dais and brought his fist down hard on the oak table before shouting. ‘Is it not true . . . that you read these heretical manuscripts so that you may practise the perverse rituals dictated therein? Is it not also true that these rituals call for the use of astrology and alchemy and other abominations such as the calling forth of devils and demons and the eating of mummified cadavers?’