'Goodness is in God on high.' Over long have men hardened their hearts
in their own wisdom. Over long have they set up the Lion and the
She-Wolf above the Gates of their Cities. Their wisdom and their
prudence have brought about slavery and wars and the shedding of much
innocent blood. Wherefore you should put your guidance in God's hand, as
the blind man trusts himself to his dog's guidance. Fear not to shut the
eyes of your spirit and have done with Reason, for has not Reason made
you unhappy and wicked? By Reason have you grown like the man who,
having guessed the secrets of the Beast crouching in the cavern, waxed
proud of his knowingness, and deeming himself wiser than his fellows,
slew his father and wedded his mother.
"God was not with him; but He is with the humble and simple-minded.
Learn not to will and He will put His will in you. Seek not to guess the
riddles of the Beast. Be ignorant, and you shall not fear to go astray.
'Tis only wise men that are deceived."
Fra Giovanni having thus spoken, the Dean got up and said:
"The miscreant has insulted me, and I willingly forgive him the insult.
But he has spoken against the laws of Viterbo, and it is meet he should
be punished."
So Fra Giovanni was led before the Judges, who had him loaded with
chains and cast him into the city gaol.
XI
THE REVOLT OF GENTLENESS
The holy man Giovanni was chained to a massive pillar in the middle of
the dungeon over which the river flowed.
Two other prisoners were plunged along with him in the thick and fetid
darkness. Both these had realized and proclaimed the injustice of the
Laws. One was for overthrowing the Republic by force. He had been guilty
of startling assassinations, and his hope was to purify the city with
fire and sword. The other trusted to be able to change men's hearts, and
had delivered very persuasive discourses. Inventor of wise laws, he
counted on the charms of his genius and the innocency of his life to
induce his fellow-citizens to submit to them. But both had met with the
same doom.
When they learned how the holy man was chained alongside of them for
having spoken against the laws of the city, they congratulated him. And
the one who had invented wise laws, said to him:
"If ever, brother, we are restored to liberty, seeing you think as I do,
you shall help me to persuade the citizens that they ought to set up
above them the empire of just laws."
But the holy man Giovanni answered him:
"What matter for Justice being in the Laws, if it is not in men's
hearts? And if men's hearts are unjust, what gain shall it be that
Equity reign in the Courts of Law?
"Say not, 'We will stablish just laws, and we will render to every man
what is his due.' For no one is just, and we know not what is meet for
men. We are no less ignorant what is good for them and what is evil. And
whensoever the Princes of the People and the Chiefs of the Commonwealth
have loved Justice, they have caused the slaying of many folk.
"Give not the compass and the level to the false measurer; for with true
instruments, he will make untrue apportionments. And he will say: 'See,
I carry on me the level, the rule and the square, and I am a good
measurer.' So long as men shall be covetous and cruel, will they make
the most merciful laws cruel, and will rob their brethren with words of
love on their lips. This is why it is vain to reveal to them the words
of love and the laws of gentleness.
"Set not up laws against laws, nor raise tables of marble and tables of
brass before men's eyes. For whatever is written on the tables of the
Law, is written in letters of blood."
So spoke the holy man. And the other prisoner,--he who had committed
startling murders, and contrived the ruin that was to save the city,
approved his words and said:
"Comrade, you have spoken well. Know you, I will never set up law
against law, right rule against crooked rule; my wish is to destroy the
law by violence and compel the citizens to live thenceforth in happy
freedom. And know further that I have slain both judges and soldiers,
and have committed many crimes for the public good."
Hearing these words, the man of the Lord rose, stretched out his
manacled arms in the heavy darkness and cried:
"Ill betide the violent! for violence ever begets violence. Whosoever
acts like you is sowing the earth with hate and fury, and his children
shall tear their feet with the wayside briars, and serpents shall bite
their heel.
"Ill betide you! for you have shed the blood of the unjust judge and the
brutal soldier, and lo! you are become like the soldier and the judge
yourself. Like them you bear on your hands the indelible stain.
"A fool the man who says, 'We will do evildoing in our turn, and our
heart shall be comforted. We will be unjust, and it shall be the
beginning of justice.' Evildoing is in evil desiring. Desire nothing,
and evildoing will be done away. Injustice hurts only the unjust; I
shall suffer no harm of it, if I am just. Oppression is a sword whose
hilt wounds the hand of him who holds it; but its point cannot pierce
the heart of the man who is simple-minded and good and kind.
"For such an one nothing is dangerous, if he fear nothing. To endure all
things, is to endure nothing. Let us be good and kindly, and the whole
round world shall be the same. For the world will be an instrument for
your goodness, and your persecutors will work to make you better and
more beautiful.
"You love life, and this is an affection which rules the heart of every
man. Then love suffering; for to live is to suffer. Never envy your
cruel masters; rather have compassion for the commanders of armies. Pity
the Publicans and Judges; the proudest of them have known the stings of
grief and the terrors of death. Happier you, because your consciences
are void of offence; for you, let grief lose its bitterness and death
its terrors.
"Be ye God's children, and tell yourselves, 'All is well in Him.'
Beware of pursuing even the public good with overmuch violence and
avidity, for fear something of cruelty mar your integrity. Rather should
your desire of universal loving-kindness have the unction of a prayer
and the soft fervour of a hope.
"Fair the table, whereat every man shall get his just portion, and the
guests shall each one wash the other's feet. But say not, 'I will set up
this table by force in the streets of the city and in the public
squares.' For it is not knife in hand you must call together your
brethren to the feast of Justice and Gentleness. Of its own accord must
the board be spread in the Campo di Marte, by virtue of graciousness and
good will.
"This shall be a miracle; and be sure, miracles are not wrought save by
faith and love. If you disobey your masters, let it be by love. Neither
fetter nor kill them, but tell them rather, 'I will never slay my
brothers, nor throw them into chains.' Endure, suffer, submit, will what
God wills, and your will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven. What
seems evil is evil, and what seems good is good. Striving and discontent
is the true curse of mankind. Let us then be peaceful and content, and
never strike the wicked, for fear we make ourselves like them.
"If we have not the good fortune to be poor in very deed, let us not
make ourselves rich men in spirit, and heartbound to the things of this
world that make folk unjust and unhappy. Let us suffer persecution with
gentleness, and be those chosen vessels that turn into balm the gall
poured into them."
XII
WORDS OF LOVE
Then the Judges had the holy man, Giovanni, brought before them chained
to him who had thrown Greek fire in the Palace of the Priors. And they
said to the holy man:
"You are alongside of the guilty because you are not on our side. For
whosoever is not with good citizens is with evil."
And the holy man answered them:
"There are neither good nor evil among men; but all alike are unhappy.
And they who suffer neither hunger nor contumely, they are afflicted by
riches and power. It is not given to any man born of woman to escape the
miseries of life, and the son of woman is like a fever patient, who
turns and turns in his bed, and can find no rest, because he will not
lie down on the Cross of Jesus, his head among the thorns, and take his
joy in suffering. Yet is it in suffering that joy is found; and they who
love know this.
"I companion with Love, but that man with Hate; and for this cause we
can never come together. And I say to him, 'Brother, you have done ill,
and your crime is great and grievous,' And I speak so, because Charity
and Love urge me. But you, you condemn yonder guilty man in the name of
Justice. But invoking Justice, you take a vain oath, for there is no
such thing as Justice among men.
"We are all of us guilty. And when you say, 'The life of peoples is in
our hand,' you are lying, and you are the coffin which declares, 'I am
the cradle.' The life of peoples is in the harvests of the fields, which
grow yellow beneath the Lord's sight. It is in the vines hanging from
the elms, and in the smiles and tears wherein heaven bathes the fruits
of the trees in the orchard closes. It is not in the laws, which are
made by the rich and powerful for the maintenance of their own power and
riches.
"Ye forget how ye are all born poor and naked. And He who came to lie in
the manger at Bethlehem, has come without profiting you. And He must
needs be born again and be crucified a second time for your salvation.
"The man of violence has laid hold of the arms you forged; and is well
compared to the warriors you hold in honour because they have destroyed
cities. What is defended by force shall be attacked by force. And if you
have wit to read the book you have written, you will find what I say
therein. For you have put in your book that the right of nations is the
right of war; and you have glorified violence, paying honours to
conquering generals and raising statues in your public squares to them
and their war-horses.
"And you have laid it down, 'There is violence that is right, and
violence that is wrong. And this is the right of nations and this is the
law.' But so soon as the men shall have put you outside the law, they
will be the law, even as you became the law, when you had overthrown the
tyrant that was the law before you.
"Now, be assured, it is very certain that there is no true right save in
the renouncing of right. There is no hallowed law save in love. There is
no Justice save in Charity. 'Tis not by force we should resist force,
for strife only hardens the fighters' hearts and the issue of battles is
aye dubious. But if we oppose gentleness to violence, this latter
getting no hold upon its adversary, falls dead of itself.
"It is related by learned men in the _Bestiaries_ how the unicorn, which
bears on its forehead a flaming sword, transfixes the hunter in his
coat-of-mail, but falls to its knees before a pure virgin. Be ye
gentle-hearted, therefore, and simple-souled; keep your heart pure, and
ye shall fear nothing.
"Put not your trust in the sword of the Condottieri, for did not the
shepherd boy's smooth stone pierce Goliath's brow? But be ye strong in
love, and love them that hate you. Hate, when unreturned, is robbed of
half its sting; and what is left is weak, widowed, and like to die.
Strip yourselves, that other men strip you not. Love your enemies, that
they become your friends. Forgive, that ye may be forgiven. Say not,
'Gentleness is a bane to the shepherds of the peoples.' For how can you
know, seeing these have never tried? They profess by harshness to have
lessened the evil of the world. Yet is evil still rampant among men, and
there is never a sign of its growing less.
"I said to some, 'Be not oppressors,' and to others, 'Rise not in revolt
against oppression,'--and neither hearkened to me. They cast the stone
of derision at me. Because I was on all men's side, each reproached me
and said, 'You are not on my side.'
"I said, 'I am the friend of the wretched.' But you never thought I was
your friend, because in your pride, you know not that you are wretched.
Nevertheless the wretchedness of the master is more cruel than that of
the slave. My tender pity for your woes only made you think I was
mocking you; and the oppressed deemed me to be of the party of the
oppressors. 'He has no bowels,' they said. Nay! but I am on the side of
love and not of hate. This is why you scorn me; and because I preach
peace on earth, you hold me for a fool. You think my words wander all
ways, like the steps of a drunken man. And it is very true I walk your
fields like those harpers who on the eve of battles, come to play before
the tents. And the soldiers say, as they listen: ''Tis some poor
simpletons come playing the tunes we heard long ago in our mountains.' I
am this harper that roams between the hosts in battle array of hostile
armies. When I think whither human wisdom leads, I am glad to be a
madman and a simpleton; and I thank God that He has given me the harp to
handle and not the sword."
XIII
THE TRUTH
The holy man Giovanni was very straitly confined in gaol, where he was
fastened by chains to rings built into the wall. But his soul was
unfettered, and no tortures had been able to shake his firmness. He
promised himself he would never betray the faith that was in him, and
was ready to be witness and martyr of the Truth, to the end he might die
in God. And he said to himself, "Truth shall go along with me to the
scaffold. She shall look at me and weep and say, 'My tears flow, seeing
it is for my sake this man is going to his death.'"
And as the holy man was thus holding colloquy of his own thoughts in the
solitude of his dungeon, a knight entered into the prison, without ever
the doors having been opened. He was clad in a red mantle, and carried
in his hand a lighted lantern.
Fra Giovanni accosted him and said:
"What is your name, subtle sir, that slips through prison walls?"
And the knight made answer:
"Brother, what use to tell you the names folk give me? For you I will
bear the one you shall call me by. Know this, I am come to you full of
helpfulness and goodwill, and being informed you dearly love the Truth,
I bring you a word touching this same Truth that you have taken for lady
and companion."
And Fra Giovanni began to tender thanks to his visitor. But the knight
stopped him in the midst, saying:
"I warn you, this word of mine will seem to you at the first empty and
of no account, for it is with it as with a tiny key, that the heedless
man throws away without using.
"But the careful householder tries it in lock after lock, till he finds
at last it opens a chest full of gold and precious stones.
"Wherefore I say to you, Fra Giovanni, seeing you have chosen
peradventure to take Truth for your Lady and darling, it behoves you
greatly to know concerning her all that may be known. Well then, know
that she is _white_. And from her appearance, which I will describe you,
you shall gather her nature, which will be very useful to you in making
up to her and kissing her fair body with all sorts of pretty caresses,
after the fashion of a lover fondling his mistress. Therefore take it as
proven, brother mine, that she is _white_."
After hearkening to these words, the holy man Giovanni answered:
"Subtle Sir, the meaning of your discourse is not so hard to guess as
you would seem to fear. And my wit, albeit naturally thick and dull, was
instantly transfixed by the fine point of your allegory. You say that
Truth is white to manifest the perfect purity that is in her, and show
clearly she is a lady of immaculate virtue. And truly I picture her to
myself such as you describe, overpassing in whiteness the lilies of the
garden and the snow that in winter clothes the summits of Monte
Alverno."
But the visitor shook his head and said:
"Nay! Fra Giovanni, that is not the meaning of my words, and you have in
no wise broken the bone to extract the marrow. I instructed you that
Truth is white, _not_ that she is pure; and it shows little discernment
to think that she is pure."
Grieved at what he now heard, the holy man Giovanni replied:
"Even as the Moon, when the Earth hides the Sun's light from her, is
darkened by the thick shadow of this World, where was wrought the crime
of our mother Eve, so, most Subtle Sir, you have obscured a plain
saying under baffling phrases. Thus we have you astray in the dark; for
indeed Truth is pure, coming from God, the fountain of all purity."
But the Opponent retorted:
"Fra Giovanni, your logic is at fault, or you would know that purity is
an inconceivable quality. This is what the shepherds of Arcady did, so
they say, who named pure gods the gods they knew not the nature of."
Then the good Fra Giovanni sighed and said:
"Sir! your words are dark and wrapped in sadness. At times in my sleep
angels have visited me. Their words I could not comprehend; but the
mystery of _their_ thought was full of joy."
Hereupon the subtle visitor resumed:
"Come, Fra Giovanni, let us argue it out both of us according to the
rules of syllogism."
But the holy man answered:
"Nay! I cannot argue with you; I have neither wish nor wit for the
task."
"Well then!" returned the Subtle Sophist, "I must needs find another
Opponent."
And in a moment, lifting the index finger of his left hand, he made with
his right out of a corner of his gown a red cap for this finger. Then
holding it up before his nose,
"Look!" he said, "look at this finger. He's a learned Doctor now, and I
am going to hold a learned argument with him. He's a Platonist, maybe
Plato himself.
"Messer Plato, what is purity? I wait your answer, Messer Plato. Oh! you
say. Consciousness is pure. Consciousness only when it is devoid of
everything which may be seen, heard, handled, in one word proved by the
senses. You grant me further,--yes! you nod your cap, that Truth will be
pure Truth under the same conditions, that is to say provided only you
make her dumb, blind, deaf, legless, paralytic, crippled of all her
limbs. And I am quite ready to allow that in this state she will escape
the delusions that make mock of mankind, and will have no temptations to
play the runagate. You are a scoffer, and you have made much mock at the
world. Doff your cap."
And the Opponent, dropping the corner of his gown, once more addressed
the holy man Giovanni:
"My friend, these old Sophists knew not what Truth was. But I, who am a
student of physics and a great observer of natural curiosities, you may
believe me when I tell you she is white, or, more strictly speaking,
whiteness itself.
"From which we must not conclude, I have told you before, that she is
pure. Consider the Lady Eletta, of Verona, whose thighs were like milk;
think you for this they were abstract from the world in general,
withdrawn in the invisible and intangible, which is the pure, according
to the Platonic doctrine? You would be much mistaken if you supposed
so."
"I do not know this Lady Eletta you speak of," said the holy man
Giovanni.
"She gave herself and her living body," said the Opponent, "to two
Popes, sixty Cardinals, fourteen Princes, eighteen merchants, the Queen
of Cyprus, three Turks, four Jews, the Lord Bishop of Arezzo's ape, a
hermaphrodite, and the Devil. But we are wandering from our subject,
which is to discover the proper character of Truth.
"Now, if this character is not purity, as I have just established it
cannot be in argument with Plato himself, it is conceivable it may be
impurity, which impurity is the necessary condition of all existing
things. For have we not just seen how the pure has neither life nor
consciousness? And you must yourself, I trow, have learned amply from
experience that life and all pertaining thereto is invariably compound,
blended, diversified, liable to increase and decrease, unstable,
soluble, corruptible--never pure."
"Doctor," replied Giovanni, "your reasons are nothing worth, forasmuch
as God, who is all pure, exists."
But the Subtle Doctor retorted:
"If you would read your books more carefully, my son, you would see it
is said of Him you have just named, _not_, 'He exists,' but, 'He is.'
Now to exist and to be are not one and the same thing, but two opposite
things. You are alive, and do you not say yourself, 'I am nothing; I am
as if I were not'? And you do not say, 'I am he who is.' Because to
live, is each moment to cease to be. Again you say, 'I am full of
impurities,' forasmuch you are not a single thing, but a blending of
things that stir and strive."
"Now do you speak wisely," answered the holy man, "and I see by your
discourse that you are very deep read, Subtle Sir, in the sciences,
divine as well as human. For true indeed it is God is He who is."
"By the body of Bacchus," exclaimed the other, "He is, and that
perfectly and universally. Wherefore are we dispensed from seeking Him
in any single place, being assured He is to be discovered neither more
nor less in any one spot than in any other, and that you cannot find so
much as a pair of old spatterdashes without their due share of Him."
"Admirably put, and most true," returned Giovanni. "But it is right to
add that He is more particularly in the sacred elements, by the way of
transubstantiation."
"More than that!" added the learned Doctor; "He is actually edible in
them. Note moreover, my son, that He is round in an apple, long-shaped
in an aubergine, sharp in a knife and musical in a flute. He has all the
qualities of substances, and likewise all the properties of figures. He
is acute and He is obtuse, because He is at one and the same time all
possible triangles; his radii are at once equal and unequal, because He
is both the circle and the ellipse--and He is the hyperbola besides,
which is an indescribable figure."
While the holy Giovanni was still pondering these sublime verities, he
heard the Subtle Doctor suddenly burst out a-laughing. Then he asked
him:
"Why do you laugh?"
"I am laughing," replied the Doctor, "to think how they have discovered
in me certain oppositions and contradictions, and have reproached me
bitterly for the same. It is very true I have many such. But they fail
to see that, if I had them all, I should then be like the Other."
The holy man asked him:
"What other is it you speak of?"
And the Adversary answered:
"If you knew of whom I speak, you would know who I am. And my wisest
words you would be loath to listen to, for much ill has been said of
me. But, if you remain ignorant who I am, I can be of much use to you. I
will teach you how intensely sensitive men are to the sounds that the
lips utter, and how they let themselves be killed for the sake of words
that are devoid of meaning. This we see with the Martyrs,--and in your
own case, Giovanni, who look forward with joy to be strangled and then
burned to the singing of the Seven Psalms, in the Great Square of
Viterbo, for this word _Truth_, for which you could not by any
possibility discover a reasonable interpretation.
"Verily you might ransack every hole and corner of your dim brain, and
pick over all the spiders' webs and old iron that cumber your head,
without ever lighting on a picklock to open this word and extract the
meaning. But for me, my poor friend, you would get yourself hanged and
your body burned for a word of one syllable which neither you nor your
judges know the sense of, so that none could ever have discovered which
to despise the most, hangmen or hanged.
"Know then that Truth, your well-beloved mistress, is made up of
elements compacted of wet and dry, hard and soft, cold and hot, and that
it is with this lady as with women of common humanity, in whom soft
flesh and warm blood are not diffused equally in all the body."
Fra Giovanni doubted in his simplicity whether this discourse was
altogether becoming. The Adversary read the holy man's thought, and
reassured him, saying:
"Such is the learning we are taught at School. I am a Theologian, I!"
Then he got up, and added:
"I regret to leave you, friend; but I cannot tarry longer with you. For
I have many contradictions to pose to many men. I can taste no rest day
nor night; but I must be going ceaselessly from place to place, setting
down my lantern now on the scholar's desk, now at the bed's head of the
sick man who cannot sleep."
So saying, he went away as he had come. And the holy man Giovanni asked
himself: "Why did this Doctor say, Truth was white, I wonder?" And lying
in the straw he kept revolving this question in his head. His body
shared the restlessness of his mind, and kept turning first one side
then the other in search of the repose he could not find.
XIV
GIOVANNI'S DREAM