laughing under its crown of olives. And he said in his heart: "I will
tempt that man yonder." He conceived this purpose in his spirit, because
he had seen Fra Giovanni, girt about with a cord, and a sack over his
shoulder, crossing the meadows below on his way to the city to beg his
bread there according to the rules.
So Satan took on the appearance of a holy Bishop, and came down into the
plain. A mitre was on his head sparkling with precious stones, that
flashed like actual fire in the sunlight. His cope was covered with
figures embroidered and painted so beautifully no craftsman in all the
world could have wrought their like.
Amongst the rest he was depicted himself, in silk and gold, under the
guise of a St. George and a St. Sebastian, as also under that of a
Virgin St. Catherine and the Empress Helena. The loveliness of the
faces troubled the mind and saddened the heart. The garment was truly of
a wondrous workmanship, and nothing so rich and rare is to be seen in
the Treasuries of Churches.
Thus decked in cope and mitre, and majestic as St. Ambrose, the glory of
Milan, Satan pursued his way, leaning on his crozier, over the flowery
plain.
Presently nearing the holy man, he hailed him and said:
"Peace be with you!"
But he said not of what sort this peace was; and Fra Giovanni supposed
it was the peace of the Lord. He thought to himself:
"This Bishop, who gives me the salutation of peace, was doubtless in his
lifetime a sainted Pontiff and a blessed Martyr unshakable in his
constancy. That is why Jesus Christ has changed the wooden cross to a
golden in the hands of this gallant Confessor of the Faith. To-day he is
powerful in Heaven; and lo! after his holy and happy death, he walks in
these meadows that are painted with flowers and broidered with pearls of
dew."
Such were the good Giovanni's thoughts, and he was in no wise abashed.
So saluting Satan with a deep reverence, he said:
"Sir! you are exceeding gracious to appear to a poor man such as I. But
indeed these meadows are so lovely, 'tis no wonder if the Saints of
Paradise come to walk here; they are painted with flowers and broidered
with pearls of dew. The Lord did very kindly when he made them."
And Satan said to him:
"It is not the meadows, it is your heart I am fain to look at; I have
come down from the Mountain to speak with you. I have, in bygone
Centuries, held many high disputations in the Church. Amid the assembled
Doctors my voice would boom forth like thunder, and my thoughts flash
like lightning. I am very learned, and they name me the Subtle Doctor. I
have disputed with God's Angels. Now I would hold dispute with you."
Fra Giovanni made answer:
"Nay! but how should the poor little man that I am hold dispute with the
Subtle Doctor? I know nothing, and my simplicity is such I can keep
nothing in my head but those songs in the vulgar tongue where they have
stuck in rhymes to help the memory, as in
'Jesus, mirror of my soul,
Cleanse my heart and make it whole.'
or in
'Holy Mary, Maid of Flowers,
Lead me to the Heavenly Bowers.'"
And Satan answered:
"Fra Giovanni, the Venetian ladies amuse their leisure and show their
adroitness in fitting a multitude of little pieces of ivory into a box
of cedar-wood, which at the set-off seemed all too small to contain so
many. In the same fashion I will pack ideas into your head that no one
would have dreamed it could ever hold; and I will fill you with a new
wisdom. I will show that, thinking to walk in the right way, you are
straying abroad all the while like a drunken man, and that you are
driving the plough without any heed to draw the furrows straight."
Fra Giovanni humbled himself, saying:
"It is most true I am a fool, and do nothing but what is wrong."
Then Satan asked him:
"What think you of poverty? "--and the holy man replied:
"I think it is a pearl of price."
But Satan retorted:
"You pretend poverty is a great good; yet all the while you are robbing
the poor of a part of this great good, by giving them alms."
Fra Giovanni pondered over this, and said:
"The alms I give, I give to Our Lord Jesus Christ, whose poverty cannot
be minished, for it is infinite. It gushes from Him as from an
inexhaustible fountain; and its waters flow freely for His favourite
sons. And these shall be poor always, according to the promise of the
Son of God. In giving to the poor, I am giving not to men, but to God,
as the citizens pay tax to the Podesta, and the rate is for the City,
which of the money it so receives supplies the town's needs. Now what I
give is for paving the City of God. It is a vain thing to be poor in
deed, if we be not poor in spirit. The gown of frieze, the cord, the
sandals, the wallet and the wooden bowl are only signs and symbols. The
Poverty I love is spiritual, and I address her as _Lady_, because she is
an idea, and all beauty resides in this same idea."
Satan smiled, and replied:
"Your maxims, Fra Giovanni, are the maxims of a wise man of Greece,
Diogenes by name, who taught at their Universities in the times when
Alexander of Macedon was waging his wars."
And Satan said again:
"Is it true you despise the goods of this world?"
And Fra Giovanni replied:
"I do despise them."
And Satan said to him:
"Look you! in scorning these, you are scorning at the same time the
hard-working men who produce them, and so doing, fulfil the order given
to your first father, Adam, when he was commanded, 'In the sweat of thy
face, thou shalt eat bread.' Seeing work is good, the fruit of this work
is good too. Yet you work not, neither have any care for the work of
others. But you receive and give alms, in contempt of the law laid on
Adam and on his seed through the ages."
"Alas!" sighed Brother Giovanni, "I am laden with crimes, and at once
the most wicked and the most foolish man in all the world. Wherefore
never heed me, but read in the Book. Our Lord said, 'Consider the lilies
of the field; they toil not, neither do they spin.' Again he said, 'Mary
hath chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.'"
Then Satan lifted up his hand, with the gesture of one who disputes and
prepares to count off his arguments on the fingers. And he said:
"Giovanni, Giovanni! what was written in one sense, you read in another;
you are less like a Doctor at his desk than an ass at the manger. So
must I correct you, as a master corrects his scholar. It is written the
lilies of the field have no need to spin--because they are beautiful,
and beauty is a virtue. Again it is written how Mary is not to do the
household tasks, because she is doing lovingly to Him who has come to
see her. But you, who are not beautiful nor yet instructed, like Mary,
in the things of love, you drag out a contemptible existence wandering
the highways."
Giovanni made reply:
"Sir! just as a Painter will depict on a narrow panel of wood an entire
city with its houses and towers and walls, so you have painted in a few
words my soul and my similitude with a wondrous exactness. And I am
altogether what you describe. But if I followed perfectly the rule
etablished by St. Francis, that Angel of God, and if I practised
spiritual poverty to the full, I should be the lily of the fields and I
should have the good part of Mary."
But Satan interrupted him, and cried:
"You profess to love the poor, yet you prefer the rich man and his
riches, and adore Him who possesses treasures to give away."
And Fra Giovanni answered:
"He I love possesses not the good things of the body, but those of the
spirit."
And Satan retorted:
"All good things are of the flesh, and are tasted of through the flesh.
This Epicurus taught, and Horace the Satirist said the same in his
Verses."
At these words the holy man only sighed and said:
"Sir! I cannot tell what you mean."
Satan shrugged his shoulders and said:
"My words are exact and literal, yet the man cannot tell what I mean. I
have disputed with Augustine and Jerome, with Gregory and him of the
Golden Mouth, St. Chrysostom. And they comprehended me still less.
Miserable men walk groping in the dark, and Error lifts over their head
her monstrous canopy. Simple and sage alike are the plaything of eternal
falsehood."
And Satan said again to the holy man Giovanni:
"Have you won happiness? If you have happiness, I shall not prevail
against you. A man's thoughts are only stirred by sorrow, and their
meditations by grief. Then, tortured by fears and desires, he turns
anxiously in his bed and rends his pillow with lies. What use to tempt
this man? He is happy."
But Fra Giovanni sighed:
"Sir! I am less happy since listening to you. Your words trouble my
mind."
On hearing this, Satan cast away his pastoral staff, his mitre and his
cope; and stood there naked and unashamed. He was black and more
beautiful than the loveliest of the Angels.
He smiled gently, and said to the holy man:
"Friend, be comforted. I am the Evil Spirit."
VIII
THE BURNING COAL
Now Brother Giovanni was simple of heart and spirit, and his tongue was
tied; he knew not the secret of speaking to his fellow-men.
But one day when he was praying, as his habit was, at the foot of an
ancient holm-oak, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and saluting
him, said:
"I salute you, because it is I who visit the simple-minded, and announce
the mysteries to virgins."
And the Angel held in his hand a burning coal. This he laid on the holy
man's lips, and spoke again, and said:
"By virtue of this fire shall your lips remain pure, and they shall glow
with eloquence. I have burned them, and they shall be burned. Your
tongue shall be loosed, and you shall speak to your fellows. For men
must hear the word of life, and learn how they shall not be saved but
by innocency of heart. For this cause the Lord has unloosed the tongue
of the simple and innocent."
Then the Angel went back again to Heaven. And the holy man was seized
with terror, and he prayed, saying:
"O God, my heart is so sore troubled I cannot find on my lips the sweet
savour of the fire Thy Angel hath touched them with.
"Thou wouldst chasten me, O Lord, seeing Thou dost send me to speak to
the folk, who will not hearken to my words. I shall be hateful to all
men, and Thy priests themselves will declare, 'He is a blasphemer!'
"For Thy reason is contrary to the reason of men. Nevertheless Thy will
be done."
Then he rose up from his knees, and set out on his way citywards.
IX
THE HOUSE OF INNOCENCE
On that day Fra Giovanni had left the Monastery at early dawn, the hour
when the birds awake and begin singing. He was on his way to the city
and he thought within himself: "I am going to the city to beg my bread
and to give bread to other beggars; I shall give away what I receive,
and take back what I have given. For it is good to ask and to receive
for the love of God. And he who receives is the brother of him who
gives. And we should not consider too curiously which of the twain
brothers we are, because truly the gift is naught, but everything is in
the gracious giving.
"He that receives, if he have gracious charity, is the equal of him that
gives. But he who sells is the enemy of him who buys, and the seller
constrains the buyer to be his foe. Herein lies the root of the curse
that poisons cities, as the venom of the serpent is in his tail. And it
must needs be a Lady set her foot on the serpent's tail, and that Lady
is Poverty. Already hath she visited King Louis of France in his Tower;
but never yet entered among the Florentines, because she is chaste and
will not put foot in a place of ill repute. Now the money-changer's shop
is an ill place, for it is there Bankers and Changers commit the most
heinous of sins. Harlots sin in the brothels; but their sin is not so
great as is that of the Bankers, and whosoever grows rich by banking and
money-dealing.
"Verily I say unto you, Bankers and Money-changers shall not enter into
the Kingdom of Heaven, nor yet bakers, nor dealers in drugs, nor such as
practise the trade of wool, which is the boast of the City of the Lily.
Forasmuch as they give a price to gold, and make a profit out of
exchange, they are setting up idols in the face of men. And when they
declare 'Gold has a value,' they tell a lie. For Gold is more vile than
the dry leaves that flutter and rustle in the Autumn wind under the
terebinths. There is nothing precious save the work of men's hands, when
God gives it His countenance."
And lo! as he was meditating in this wise, Fra Giovanni saw that the
Mountain side was torn open, and that men were dragging great stones
from its flank. And one of the quarrymen was lying by the wayside, with
a rag of coarse cloth for all covering; and his body was disfigured by
bitter marks of the biting cold and scorching heat. The bones of his
shoulders and chest showed all but bare beneath the meagre flesh; and
Despair looked out grim and gaunt from the black cavern of his eyes.
Fra Giovanni approached him, saying:
"Peace be with you!"
But the quarryman made no answer, and did not so much as turn his head.
So Fra Giovanni, thinking he had not heard, repeated:
"Peace be with you!"--and then the same words again for the third time.
At last the quarryman looked up at him sullenly, and growled:
"I shall have no peace till I am dead. Begone, cursed black crow! you
wish me peace; that shows you are a glozing cheat! Go to, and caw to
simpler fools than I! I know very well the quarryman's lot is an utterly
miserable one, and there is no comfort for his wretchedness. I hale out
stones from dawn to dark, and for price of my toil, all I get is a scrap
of black bread. Then when my arms are no longer as strong as the stones
of the mountain, and my body is all worn out, I shall perish of hunger."
"Brother!" said the holy man Giovanni; "it is not just or right you
should hale out so much stone, and win so little bread."
Then the quarryman rose to his feet and pointing,
"Master Monk," said he, "what see you up yonder on the hill?"
"Brother, I see the walls of the City."
"And above them?"
"Above them I see the roofs of the houses, which crown the ramparts."
"And higher still?"
"The tops of the pines, the domes of the Churches and the Belltowers."
"And higher still?"
"I see a Tower overtopping all the rest, and crowned with battlements.
It is the Tower of the Podesta."
"Monk, what see you above the battlements of that Tower?"
"I see nothing, brother, above the battlements save the sky."
"But I," cried the quarryman, "I see upon that Tower a hideous giant
brandishing a club, and on the club is inscribed: OPPRESSION. Yea!
Oppression is lifted up above the citizens' heads on the Great Tower of
the Magistrates and the City's Laws."
And Fra Giovanni answered:
"What one man sees, another cannot see, and it may be the horrid shape
you describe is set on the Tower of the Podesta yonder, in the city of
Viterbo. But is there no remedy for the ills you endure, my brother? The
good St. Francis left behind him on this earth so full a fountain of
consolation that all men may draw refreshment therefrom."
Then the quarryman spoke after this fashion:
"Men have said, 'This mountain is ours.' And these men are my masters,
and it is for them I hew stone. And they enjoy the fruit of my labour."
Fra Giovanni sighed:
"Surely men must be mad to believe they own a mountain."
But the quarryman replied:
"Nay! they are not mad; and the Laws of the City guarantee them their
ownership. The citizens pay them for the stones I have hewn, which are
marbles of great price."
And Fra Giovanni said:
"We must change the laws of the City and the habits of the citizens. St.
Francis, that Angel of God, has given the example and shown the way.
When he resolved, by God's command, to rebuild the ruined Church of St.
Damian, he did not set out to find the master of the quarry. He did not
say, 'Go buy me the finest marbles, and I will give you gold in
exchange.' For the holy man, who was called the son of Bernardone and
who was the true son of God, knew this, that the man who sells is the
enemy of the man who buys, and that the art of Trafficking is more
mischievous, if possible, than the art of War. Wherefore he did not
apply to the master-masons or any of them that give marble and timber
and lead in exchange for money. But he went forth into the Mountain and
gathered his load of wood and stones, and bore it himself to the spot
hallowed to the memory of the Blessed Damian. With his own hands, by
help of the mason's line, he laid the stones to form the walls; and he
made the cement to bind together the stones one to another. Finished, it
was a lowly circuit of roughly fashioned stones, the work of a weakling.
But who considers it with the eyes of the soul recognizes therein an
Angel's thought. For the mortar of this wall was not worked with the
blood of the unfortunate; this house of St. Damian was not raised with
the thirty pieces of silver paid for the blood of that Just Man, which,
rejected by Iscariot, go travelling the world ever since, passing from
hand to hand, to buy up all the injustice and all the cruelty of the
earth.
"For, alone of all others, this house is founded on Innocence,
stablished on Love, based on Charity, and alone of all others it is the
House of God.
"And I tell you verily, quarryman and brother, the poor man of Jesus
Christ, in doing these things, gave to the world an example of Justice,
and one day his foolishness shall shine forth as wisdom. For all things
in this earth are God's and we are His children; and it is meet the
children should share alike in His inheritance. That is, each should get
what he has need of. And seeing grown men do not ask for broth, nor
babes for wine, the share of each shall not be the same, but each shall
have the heritage that is fitting for him.
"And labour shall be a joyful thing, when it is no longer paid. 'Tis
gold only, the cursed gold, that makes the sharing uneven. When each man
shall go severally to the Mountain for his stone, and carry his load to
the city on his own back, the stone shall weigh light and it shall be
the stone of cheerfulness. And we will build the house of joy and
gladness, and the new city shall rise from its foundations. And there
shall be neither rich nor poor, but all men will call themselves poor
men, because they will be glad to bear a name that brings them honour."
So spoke the gentle Fra Giovanni, and the unhappy quarryman thought to
himself:
"This man clad in a shroud and girt with a cord has proclaimed new
tidings. I shall not see the end of my miseries, for I am going to die
of hunger and exhaustion. But I shall die happy, for my eyes, before
they close, will have beheld the dawn of the day of Justice."
X
THE FRIENDS OF ORDER
Now in those days there was in the very illustrious city of Viterbo a
Confraternity of sixty old men. These counted among their number many of
the chief men of the place; and their objects were the accumulation of
honours and riches, and the pursuit of virtue. The Brotherhood included
a Gonfalonier of the Republic, Doctors of either faculty, Judges,
Merchants, Money-changers of conspicuous piety, and one or two old
Soldiers of Fortune grown too ancient and feeble for the Wars.
Seeing they were banded together for the purpose of stirring up their
fellow-citizens to goodness and good order, and to bear mutual witness
to the practice of these virtues, they gave themselves the title of _The
Friends of Order_. This name was inscribed on the banner of the
Confraternity, and they were all of one mind to persuade the poor to
follow goodness and good order, to the end no changes might be made in
the Constitution.
Their habit was to meet on the last day of each month, in the Palace of
the Podesta, to make inquiry of each other what of good had been done in
the city during the month. And to such of the poorer citizens as had
done well and orderly, they used to present pieces of money.
Now on a certain day the Friends of Order were holding meeting. At one
end of the Hall was a raised platform covered with velvet, and over the
platform a magnificent canopy of state, held up by four figures carved
and painted. These figures represented Justice, Temperance, Strength and
Chastity; and beneath the canopy sat the Officers of the Brotherhood.
The President, who was entitled the Dean, took his place in the middle
on a golden chair, which in richness was scarce inferior to the throne
that once upon a time the disciple of St. Francis saw prepared in Heaven
for the poor man of the Lord. This seat of state had been presented to
the Dean of the Brotherhood to the end that in him should be honoured
all the goodness done in the city.
And as soon as the Members of the Confraternity were ranged in the
fitting order, the Dean got up to speak. He congratulated any
serving-maids that served their masters without receiving wages, and
spoke highly of the old men who, having no bread to eat, did not ask for
any.
And he said:
"These have done well, and we shall reward them. For it behoves that
goodness be rewarded, and it is our bounden duty to pay the price of it,
being as we are the first and foremost citizens of the city."
And when he finished speaking, the crowd of the general folk that stood
under the platform clapped their hands.
But no sooner had they done applauding than Fra Giovanni lifted up his
voice from the midst of the miserable, poverty-stricken band, and asked
loudly:
"What is goodness?"
At this great clamour arose in the assembly, and the Dean shouted:
"Who was it spoke?"
And a red-haired man who was standing among the people, answered:
"It was a Monk, by name Giovanni, who is the disgrace of his Cloister.
He goes naked through the streets, carrying his clothes on his head, and
gives himself up to all sorts of extravagances."
Next a Baker spoke up and said:
"He is a madman or a miscreant! He begs his bread at the Bakers' doors."
Then a number of those present, shouting noisily and dragging Fra
Giovanni by the gown, tried to hustle him out of the hall, while others
more angry still, began throwing stools and breaking them over the holy
man's head. But the Dean rose from his seat under the canopy, and said:
"Leave the man in peace, so that he may hear me and be confounded. He
asks what goodness is, because goodness is not in him and he is devoid
of virtue. I answer him, 'The knowledge of goodness resides in virtuous
men; and good citizens carry within them a proper respect for the laws.
They approve what has been done in the city to insure to each man
enjoyment of the riches he may have acquired. They support the
established order of things, and are ready to fly to arms to defend the
same. For the duty of the poor is to defend the good things belonging to
the rich; and this is how the union betwixt citizens is maintained. This
is goodness and good order. Again, the rich man has his serving-man
bring out a basket full of bread, which he distributes to the poor; and
this is goodness again.' These are the lessons this rough, ignorant
fellow required to be taught."
Having so said, the Dean sat down, and the crowd of poor folks raised a
murmur of approval. But Fra Giovanni, stepping on one of the stools
that had been thrown at his head with contumely and insult, addressed
them all and said:
"Hear the words of comfort! Goodness resides not in men, for men know
not of themselves what is good. They are ignorant of their own nature
and destiny. What seems good, may be evil all the while; and what is
deemed useful, harmful. No man can choose the things meet for him,
because he knows not his own needs, but is like the little child sitting
in the meadows, that sucks for wholesome milk the juice of the deadly
nightshade. The babe does not know that the nightshade is a poison; but
its mother knows. This is why goodness is to do the will of God.
"It is false to say, 'Tis I teach goodness, and goodness is to obey the
city laws.' For the Laws are not of God; they are of man, and share in
man's craft and cunning and imperfection. They are like the rules
children make in the Square of Viterbo, when they are playing ball.
Goodness is not in customs nor in laws; it is in God and in the
accomplishment of God's will upon earth, and it is neither by law-makers
nor magistrates that God's will is accomplished upon the earth.
"For the great men of this world do their own will, and their will is
contrary to God's. But they who have stripped off pride and know there
is no goodness in them, these men receive noble gifts, and God Himself
distils His sweetness within them like honey in the hollow of the oaks.
"And we must be the oak-tree full of honey and dew. Humble, ignorant and
simple folks, these have knowledge of God; and by them shall God's
kingdom be stablished on earth. Salvation is not in the strength of laws
nor in the multitude of soldiers; it is in poverty and humbleness of
spirit.