by Andrea Japp
‘Of course not. He found it out. He claims you can already see a woman’s eyes in those of a child and that only a fool would confuse them with a man’s eyes.’
Agnès grew anxious.
‘Do you think he will tell the Comte?’
‘No. He holds his lord in high esteem, but he gave me his word that he would say nothing And you see, Madame, you and he are the only two people whose word I completely trust.’
Agnès felt relieved and quipped:
‘Don’t say it too loud. You’ll upset a lot of people.’
‘Why should I care if I make you happy? Getting back to the subject of La Haute-Gravière, which is part of your dower, plenty of nettles grow there.’
‘And little else,’ the lady agreed with a sigh. ‘Even the oxen won’t graze there. I was thinking of buying some goats at the next livestock fair. At least we could make cheese from their milk.’
‘Nettles thrive in ferrous soil.’
Agnès understood immediately what the child was implying.
‘Really? Is Maître Joseph sure of this?’
‘Yes. According to him, an abundance of nettles means the soil is rich in iron ore. We must find out, Madame. Is it the soil’s composition or do the plants point to a deposit?’
‘What must we do? How does one go about finding an ironore deposit?’
Clément pulled out of his thick winter tunic what looked like a dark-grey sharpening stone, and declared:
‘By means of this wonderful, inestimably rare object Joseph lent me in order to help you.’
‘Is it a piece of carved rock?’
‘It is magnetite, Madame.’
‘Magnetite?’
‘A very useful stone that comes from a region of Asia Minor known as Magnesia.’90
‘How can it help us, my dear Clément?’
‘This little piece of stone you see here has the power to attract iron, or soil containing iron. It sticks to it. We don’t know why.’
Rising from her bench, Agnès commanded:
‘Saddle a horse! You will sit behind me on a pillion. You are right, we must find out immediately.’
Clément left at once. A smile spread across Agnès’s lips, and she muttered to herself:
‘I have you, Eudes. If, God willing, this is an iron mine, you will soon pay for the suffering you caused me.’
She drove out the images flooding into her mind, of Mathilde; her tiny nails when she closed her baby fist round her mother’s finger; charging through the corridors at Souarcy, shrieking whenever a goose came up to her flapping its wings.
She must banish from her thoughts these happy memories that wounded her like a knife.
*
Where had the strange, beautiful man disappeared to, the Knight Hospitaller who had saved her, for she suspected that Florin’s death had been more than fortuitous. If the story of the ill-fated encounter with a drinking or orgy companion had convinced those who wanted to destroy the inquisitor’s already monstrous reputation, it had left Agnès sceptical. She had pondered for hours their brief exchange, attempting to reconstruct every detail, every word spoken. She had the bewildering certainty of having come close to a mystery that had then rapidly eluded her. Francesco de Leone was Éleusie de Beaufort’s nephew, or rather her adoptive son. Would the Abbess agree to tell her more, to enlighten her about him?
Had Mathilde remained at Clairets, would her uncle have been able to corrupt her like that? Had she, whose only thought had been to protect her daughter, been at fault?
Stop!
Mathilde. Her cold eyes, her pretty fingers adorned with Madame Apolline’s rings. Her lies aimed at sending her mother to the stake and Clément to the torture chamber.
No. She would cry no more. She was beyond tears.
APPENDIX I: HISTORICAL REFERENCES
Abu-Bakr-Mohammed-ibn-Zakariya al-Razi, 865–932, known as Rhazes. Philosopher, alchemist, mathematician and prodigious Persian physician to whom we owe, among other things, the discovery and the first description of allergy-based asthma and hay fever. He demonstrated the connection of the latter with certain flowers. He is considered to be the forefather of experimental medicine and successfully performed cataract operations.
Anagni, the Outrage at, September 1303. Pope Boniface VIII, who challenged the authority of Philip IV (the Fair), was ‘detained’ in Anagni. Guillaume de Nogaret happened to be in Anagni; he had come to ask the Pope to convoke a general council in Lyon. The origin of the conflict between Pope and King was the tithe that Philip was trying to impose on the French clergy to support his war effort against the English. (Some historians think, on the other hand, that Guillaume de Nogaret orchestrated the sequestration of Boniface on the orders of Philip the Fair, with the aid of the Colonna brothers, who entertained a personal hatred for the sovereign pontiff.)
Archimedes, 287–212 BC. Greek mathematical genius and inventor to whom we owe very many mathematical advances, including the famous hydrostatic principle, which is named after him. He also gave the first precise definition of the number pi, and set himself up to be the advocate of experimentation and demonstration. Archimedes is credited with being the author of several inventions, including the catapult, the Archimedes screw, the pulley and the cog.
A palimpsest was recently auctioned at Christie’s for US$2 million. It recounted the progress made by Archimedes in getting to grips with infinity. The document, which had been overwritten with the copy of a religious text, also contained the first crucial steps towards differential calculus, a branch of mathematics that had to be re-invented after the Renaissance. It is rumoured that Bill Gates was the successful bidder for the document, which has been donated to the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, where it has been subjected to sophisticated analysis.
Ballads of Marie de France. Twelve ballads popularly attributed to a certain Marie, originally from France but living at the English court. Some historians believe she was a daughter of Louis VII or the Comte de Meulan. The ballads were written before 1167 and Marie’s fables around 1180. Marie de France was also the author of a novel Le Purgatoire de Saint-Patrice.
Benoît (Benedict) XI, Pope, Nicolas Boccasini, 1240–1304. Relatively little is known about him. Coming from a very poor background, Boccasini, a Dominican, remained humble throughout his life. One of the few anecdotes about him demonstrates this: when his mother paid him a visit after his election, she made herself look pretty for her son. He gently explained that her outfit was too ostentatious and that he preferred women to be simply dressed. Known for his conciliatory temperament, Boccasini, who had been Bishop of Ostia, tried to mediate in the disagreements between the Church and Philip the Fair, but he showed his disapproval of Guillaume de Nogaret and the Colonna brothers. He died after eight months of the pontificate, on 7 July 1304, poisoned by figs or dates.
Boniface VIII, Pope, Benedetto Caetani, c.1235–1303. Cardinal and legate in France, then pope. He was a passionate defender of pontifical theocracy, which was opposed to the new authority of the State. He was openly hostile to Philip the Fair from 1296 onwards and the affair continued even after his death – France attempted to try him posthumously.
Calling. See Prostitution.
Carcassonne. In August 1303, when Philip the Fair paid a visit to the town, its population rebelled against the Inquisition, encouraged by the campaign of Bernard Délicieux, a Franciscan who was passionately opposed to the Dominicans and their Inquisition. He even took part in a plot to stir up the Languedoc against Philip. He was arrested several times and ended his days in prison in 1320.
Catharism. From katharoi, meaning ‘the pure ones’ in Greek. The Cathar movement originated in Bulgaria towards the end of the tenth century and spread as a result of the preachings of a priest named Bogomile. Viewed as heretics, the Cathars were pursued by the Inquisition. Very broadly Catharism was a form of Dualism. It contrasted irreversible Evil (matter, the world) with God and Goodness (perfection). Catharism condemned society, the family, the cler
gy, but also the Eucharist and the communion of saints. Although not definitive on the point, the first Cathars denied that Christ was human, seeing him as an angel sent to earth. Catharism was defined by an extreme purity, which encompassed, along with sexual abstinence, a ban on meat-eating, and was particularly appealing to the well-off and the cultivated who were suffering from spiritual malaise. From 1200 onwards the Catholic Church struggled to suppress the Cathars, after having condemned them in 1119 in Toulouse. The ‘crusades’ against the Albigensians followed. Simon de Montfort led the ‘crusaders’ from 1209 to 1215. This bloody war, taken up by the Inquisition, did not end until the surrender of the last strongholds of the Cathars, notably Montségur in 1244. The Cathar Church was never to recover from that, despite the attraction its ideal of purity exercised on the mendicant orders. Catharism died out around 1270.
Chrétien de Troyes, c.1140–c.1190. Poet from Champagne, sometimes described as the creator of the modern novel. He travelled widely and possibly visited England. He was closely associated with Countess Marie, daughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine who became Queen of England. Devoted to Ovid, he translated his Art of Love and reinvented narrative romance, injecting an element of psychological insight. He played with symbolism and crafted subtle plots, and in Cligès introduced elements of mythology. His best-known poem is probably Perceval or The Story of the Grail, but he also wrote Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart; Yvain, the Knight of the Lion and Eric and Enid.
Clairets Abbey, Orne. Situated on the edge of Clairets Forest, in the parish of Masle, the abbey was built by a charter issued in July 1204 by Geoffroy III, Comte du Perche, and his wife Mathilde of Brunswick, sister of Emperor Otto IV. The abbey’s construction took seven years and finished in 1212. Its consecration was co-signed by the commander of the Knights Templar, Guillaume d’Arville, about whom little is known. The abbey is only open to Bernardine nuns of the Cistercian order, who have the right to all forms of seigneurial justice.
Délicieux, Bernard. Franciscan monk who fiercely opposed the Dominicans and their Inquisition. He was a good public speaker and his independence of spirit drew enormous crowds. He organised a demonstration against Philip the Fair when the King visited Carcassonne in August 1303. He went as far as to participate in a plot to enflame Languedoc against the King. He was arrested several times and ended his days in prison in 1320.
Galen, Claudius, 131–210, a Greek born in Asia Minor, was one of the greatest scientists of antiquity. He became chief physician to the gladiator school in Pergamum, and allegedly made use of ‘volunteers’ to perfect his knowledge of surgery. He served as physician to Marcus Aurelius and treated the Emperor’s two sons, Commodus and Sextus. Among other discoveries, Galen described how the nervous system works and its role in muscular activity, and the circulation of blood through veins and arteries. His most important discovery was that arteries carry blood and not air, as had previously been believed. He also demonstrated that it is the brain that controls the voice.
Got, Bertrand de, c.1270–1314. He is best known as a canon and counsellor to the King of England. He was, however, a skilled diplomat, which enabled him to maintain cordial relations with Philip the Fair even though England was at war with France. He became Archbishop of Bordeaux in 1299 then succeeded Benoît XI as pope in 1305, taking the name Clément V. He chose to install himself in Avignon, because he was wary of the politics of Rome, which he knew little about. He was good at handling Philip the Fair in their two major differences of opinion: the posthumous trial of Boniface VIII and the suppression of the Knights Templar. He managed to rein in the spite of the sovereign in the first case, and to contain it in the second case.
The Hospitallers of Saint John of Jerusalem were recognised by Pope Paschal III in 1113. Unlike the other soldier orders, the original function of the Hospitallers was charitable. It was only later that they assumed a military function. After the Siege of Acre in 1291, the Hospitallers withdrew to Cyprus then Rhodes, and finally Malta. The order was governed by a Grand-Master, elected by the general chapter made up of dignitaries. The chapter was subdivided into provinces, governed in their turn by priors. Unlike the Templars and in spite of their great wealth, the Hospitallers always enjoyed a very favourable reputation, no doubt because of their charitable works, which they never abandoned, and because of the humility of their members.
Inquisitorial procedure. The conduct of the trial and the questions of doctrine put to the accused are adapted from the work of Nicholas Eymerich (1320–1399) and Francisco Peña (1540–1612) – The Inquisitor’s Manual.
The Knights Templar. The order was created in 1118 in Jerusalem by the knight Hugues de Payens and other knights from Champagne and Burgundy. It was officially endorsed by the Church at the Council of Troyes in 1128, having been championed by Bernard of Clairvaux. The order was led by a Grand-Master, whose authority was backed up by dignitaries. The order owned considerable assets (3,450 chateaux, fortresses and houses in 1257). With its system of transferring money to the Holy Land, the order acted in the thirteenth century as one of Christianity’s principal bankers. After the Siege of Acre in 1291 – which was in the end fatal to the order – the Templars almost all withdrew to the West. Public opinion turned against them and they were regarded as indolent profiteers. Various expressions of the period bear witness to this. For example, ‘Going to the Temple’ was a euphemism for going to a brothel. When the Grand-Master Jacques de Molay refused to merge the Templars with the Hospitallers, the Templars were arrested on 13 October 1307. An investigation followed, confessions were obtained (in the case of Jacques de Molay, some historians believe, with the use of torture), followed by retractions. Clément V, who feared Philip the Fair for various unrelated reasons, passed a decree suppressing the order on 22 March 1312. Jacques de Molay again stood by the retraction of his confession and on 18 March 1314 was burnt at the stake along with other Templars. It is generally agreed that the seizure of the Templars’ assets and their redistribution to the Hospitallers cost Philip the Fair more money than it gained him.
Medieval Inquisition. It is important to distinguish the Medieval Inquisition from the Spanish Inquisition. The repression and intolerance of the latter were incomparably more violent than anything known in France. Under the leadership of Tomas de Torquemada alone, there were more than two thousand deaths recorded in Spain.
The Medieval Inquisition was at first enforced by the bishops. Pope Innocent III (1160–1216) set out the regulations for the inquisitorial procedure in the papal bull Vergentis in senium of 1199. The aim was not to eliminate individuals – as was proved by the Fourth Council of the Lateran, called by Innocent III a year before his death, which emphasised that it was forbidden to inflict the Ordeal on dissidents. (The Ordeal or ‘judgement of God’ was a trial by fire, water or the sword to test whether an accused person was a heretic or not.) What the Pope was aiming for was the eradication of heresies that threatened the foundation of the Church by promoting, amongst other things, the poverty of Christ as a model way to live – a model that was obviously rarely followed if the vast wealth earned by most of the monasteries from land tax is anything to go by. Later the Inquisition was enforced by the Pope, starting with Gregory IX, who conferred inquisitorial powers on the Dominicans in 1232 and, in a lesser way, on the Franciscans. Gregory’s motives in reinforcing the powers of the Inquisition and placing them under his sole control were entirely political. He was ensuring that on no account would Emperor Frederick II be able to control the Inquisition for reasons that had nothing to do with spirituality. It was Innocent IV who took the ultimate step in authorising recourse to torture in his papal bull Ad extirpanda of 15 May 1252. Witches as well as heretics were then hunted down by the Inquisition.
The real impact of the Inquisition has been exaggerated. There were relatively few inquisitors to cover the whole territory of the kingdom of France and they would have had little effect had they not received the help of powerful lay people and benefited from numerous denunciations.
But, thanks to their ability to excuse each other for their faults, certain inquisitors were guilty of terrifying atrocities that sometimes provoked riots and scandalised many prelates.
In March 2000, roughly eight centuries after the beginnings of the Inquisition, Pope John Paul II asked God’s pardon for the crimes and horrors committed in its name.
Mendicant convents. They were founded sometime between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and were distinguished by their refusal to own land in common, promoting the return to evangelical poverty. They very quickly attracted a significant level of patronage, which led to a rivalry with the secular clergy, who considered that they had lost several of their regular donors to the mendicant orders. This conflict led to the suppression of many of the mendicant orders in 1274 (by the Second Council of Lyon); only the Carmelites, the Hermits of Saint Augustine, the Dominicans and the Franciscans were officially recognised by the Council. The Celestines joined the mendicant orders in 1294.
Nogaret, Guillaume de, c.1270–1313. Nogaret was a professor of civil law and taught at Montpellier before joining Philip the Fair’s Council in 1295. His responsibilities grew rapidly more widespread. He involved himself, at first more or less clandestinely, in the great religious debates that were shaking France, for example the trial of Bernard Saisset. Nogaret progressively emerged from the shadows and played a pivotal role in the campaign against the Knights Templar and the King’s struggle with Pope Boniface VIII. Nogaret was of unshakeable faith and great intelligence. He would go on to become the King’s chancellor and, although he was displaced for a while by Enguerran de Marigny, he took up the seal again in 1311.
Peña, Francisco, 1540–1612. In citing this name, the author has knowingly committed an anachronism. Francisco Peña is the specialist in canonical law whom the Holy See charged, in the sixteenth century, with producing the new edition of The Inquisitor’s Manual by Nicholas Eymerich.
