“A world”
“Arise, Sire, from that unseemly posture, for this is not the moment for penitence and plaint, but for action that will save men’s souls; what an urgent task the Redeemer has entrusted to us, He who died to redeem our souls, there is much to do if we are to carry the light of the Gospel to the afflicted nations of which this young pilgrim, if he speaks the truth, has told us.” “Who are you, for God’s sake? Tell me, Señor Bishop, who is this man accompanying you? I have never seen him before, and I wish to see nothing new here, neither person nor thing, least of all this creature you have brought into my presence, a devil, a demon, the Antichrist: you must recognize him, my sweet Jesus told me, you must recognize him, for your life is bound up in his, and I believe that this is he.” “Calm yourself, Señor, calm yourself, this is the Inquisitor of Teruel.” “A devil, I tell you, look at his red eyes, see how his flesh clings to his bones, his skin is bone, his face is a skull.” “Sire, I owe allegiance to you and to my order, that of St. Augustine; I have been a professor of theology, a defender of the faith, an enemy of heresies, and for these reasons I have succeeded the former Inquisitor of Teruel; I followed with admiration your admirable conduct as you prepared your astute trap for the heresiarchs of your domains, delivering them into your father’s hands, may he rest in glory, after endangering your own life by joining with them; I celebrated your zeal in the campaigns against the pertinacious Cathari, the wily Waldenses, and their deformed stepchildren of the North, the Flemish Adamites; great and good accomplishments all, but even greater had you but made use of your natural ally, the ecclesiastical arm of power: error is still not eradicated in Europe, and now you find yourself facing yet another gigantic undertaking: that of evangelizing the savage nations of this new world, if it exists, bringing to them the light of the Faith, and converting them for Christ the King, and having done that, the no less awesome task of extirpating pagan idolatry and protecting the new Faith, our Faith, against the dangers of a reemergence of barbaric and heinous behavior, like that exposed here today.” “Yes, yes, I have always so stated, I have always so sworn: war against idolatry, I never doubted that.” “One would say, Sire, that you had doubted something.” “Nononono.” “Arise, Sire, take my hands, look with me at the Sweet Jesus upon the altar of the Eucharist, and with me consider how your obligations are now multiplied.” “Nononono.” “For if the new world exists you must take it for yourself, your fortune, and your Faith.” “Nononono.” “And if this world and that world are to be governed, the same rigorous law must pertain to all men, there and here; there must not be, either here or there, even one vassal, no matter how independent of your power, who escapes immediate subjection, who is not subject to your mandates, your censures, your taxes, and your prisons; regard, Señor, with what harmony God’s ways are manifested: you may subject all dissidents with one blow, the laws against Moors and Jews extended against idolaters, and the laws against idolaters applied equally to Moors and Jews; sons must pay for the sins of their fathers, for did not the blood of our crucified Lord stain forever the blood of His executioners? and let the accuser speak in secret, for must he who works in the name of God be held to account for his actions? nor shall accuser and accused ever confront one another, for would the common thief confront the Supreme Maker? nor shall the names of witnesses be made public, for who would confuse those who sell their soul to the Devil with those who sell themselves to God?; and thus, investigate everyone, until every man fear to speak or listen to another; let all intellect serve the Faith; and finally, both here and there, impose total silence upon every man, for through the least chink of science or poetry slips heterodoxy, error, the poison of the Jew, the Arab, and the idolater. Sire: do as you will with the riches these new territories hold. But do so in the name of the Faith, for if not, you shall have gained the world but lost your soul, and what profiteth it a man to have gained the world…”
“New”
“Oh, Señor Don Guzmán, doubt is excellent when it is a question of securing what we already possess, but it can be fatal if it impedes us in pursuit of what we seek.” “Are you out of your mind? Have you swallowed that pack of lies?” “No, but I shall have the prudence, with no illusions, to submit everything I have heard to the harshest test: the same proof that you demand; but you must see things in my manner, Don Guzmán; if the new world does not exist, we shall have lost nothing; but if it does, by chance, exist, we have everything to gain; oh, my dear friend; I cannot ever sleep again in peace for thinking that the riches recounted by that young voyager may exist, and may lie there for centuries, wasted, unless my hand take them and turn them to their true purpose, which is not the adornment of idols, but commerce, the arts, prosperity, change … Did you notice how naïvely those natives exchanged their jewels for a mirror or a pair of scissors? Oh, Don Guzmán: these ancient eyes and these feeble ears have never seen or heard of better business…”
“Beyond”
“Azucena, Lolilla, I tell you that everything that hangs, that tastes and smells comes from another place, even the rosary of our devotions, which comes from Syria, oh, I shall have it bead by bead, I shall have everything, guided by my homunculus, away from here, far from this accursed cloister of death, I shall be reborn, I shall live, I who have longed for a garden of jasmine and mosques, I who asked only that the shepherds return beneath my window with their flutes and flocks, I who came from misty England in search of the land of the sun and its orange trees and instead found myself on a plain of weeds, my flesh pierced by nettles and thistles, now I shall have the greatest garden in the world at my feet, the free land, the new land, without the burdens and crimes and prohibitions of this accursed plain to which my English aunt and uncle sent me, oh, Don Juan, pleasure will be for everyone or no one, and in the free land woman, to be woman, need not sell her soul to the Devil, oh, I shall beat the Devil at his own game, I shall sell my soul for the second time, he cannot keep his records straight, for so great is his desire to make himself master of souls that he buys them once and twice and a thousand times, I shall deceive the horned and tailed one himself, for if after it is all over I am condemned, what do I lose, my dear scrubbing maids? and if in deceiving him I win, I win nothing less than a second chance: a second life, in the second land; oh, my most cherished scrubbing lasses, what happiness you have brought me.” “Mistress, mistress, remember that the Devil may refuse to come in spite of your potions and spells and fancy words; we have tried everything and nothing happens; where is the Devil? Surely he’s not this little bit of a man, this slobbering root that inspires only disgust, not fear, and who would be lucky not to end up as a partner for that clown of a Barbarica.” “But I know, Azucena, Lolilla, I know; now I know, now I know where the Devil is…”