NONES
In which Cardinal1 del Poggetto arrives, with Bernard Gui and the other men of Avignon, and then each one does something different.
Men who had already known one another for some time, men who without knowing one another had each heard the others spoken of, exchanged greetings in the courtyard with apparent meekness2. At the abbot’s side, Cardinal Bertrand del Poggetto moved like a man accustomed to power, as if he were virtually a second pope himself, and to one and all, especially to the Minorites, he distributed cordial smiles, auguring3 splen?did agreement for the next day’s meeting and bearing explicit4 wishes for peace and good (he used deliberately5 this expression dear to the Franciscans) from John XXII.
“Excellent,” he said to me, when William was kind enough to introduce me as his scribe and pupil. Then he asked me whether I knew Bologna and he praised its beauty to me, its good food and its splendid university, inviting6 me to visit the city, rather than return one day, as he said, among those German people of mine who were making our lord Pope suffer so much. Then he extended his ring for me to kiss, as he directed his smile at someone else.
For that matter, my attention immediately turned to the person of whom I had heard most talk recently: Bernard Gui, as the French called him, or Bernardo Guidoni or Bernardo Guido, as he was called elsewhere.
He was a Dominican of about seventy, slender and erect8. I was struck by his gray eyes, capable of staring without any expression; I was to see them often flash with ambiguous light, shrewd both in concealing9 thoughts and passions and in deliberately conveying them.
In the general exchange of greetings, he was not affectionate or cordial like the others, but always and just barely polite. When he saw Ubertino, whom he already knew, he was very deferential10, but stared at him in a way that gave me an uneasy shudder11. When he greeted Michael of Cesena, his smile was hard to decipher, and he murmured without warmth, “You have been awaited there for some time,” a sentence in which I was unable to catch either a hint of eagerness or a shadow of irony12, either an injunction or, for that matter, a sugges?tion of interest. He met William, and when he learned who he was, he looked at him with polite hostility13: not because his face betrayed his secret feelings, I was sure of that (even while I was unsure that he harbored any feelings at all), but because he certainly wanted William to feel he was hostile. William returned his hostility, smiling at him with exaggerated cordiality and saying, “For some time I have been wanting to meet a man whose fame has been a lesson to me and an admonition for many important decisions that have inspired my life.” Certainly words of praise, almost of flattery, for anyone who did not know, as Bernard did know well, that one of the most important decisions in William’s life had been to abandon the position of inquisitor. I derived14 the impression that, if William would gladly have seen Bernard in some imperial dungeon15, Bernard certainly would have been pleased to see William sud?denly seized by accidental and immediate7 death; and since Bernard to those days had men-at-arms under his command, I feared for my good master’s life.
Bernard must already have been informed by the abbot of the crimes committed in the abbey. In fact, pretending to ignore the venom16 in William’s words, he said to him, “it seems that now, at the abbot’s request, and in order to fulfill17 the mission entrusted18 to me under the terms of the agreement that has united us all here, I must concern myself with some very sad events in which the pestiferous stink19 of the Devil is evident. I mention this to you because I know that in remote times, when you would have been closer to me, you fought as did I—and those like me—in that field where the forces of good are arrayed against the forces of evil.”
“True,” William said calmly, “but then I went over to the other side.”
Bernard took the blow well. “Can you tell me any?thing helpful about these criminal deeds?”
“No, unfortunately,” William answered with civility. “I do not have your experience of criminal deeds.”
From that moment on I lost track of everyone. William, after another conversation with Michael and Ubertino, withdrew to the scriptorium. He asked Malachi’s leave to examine certain books, but I was unable to hear the titles. Malachi looked at him oddly but could not deny permission. Strangely, they did not have to be sought in the library. They were already on Venantius’s desk, all of them. My master immersed himself in his reading, and I decided20 not to disturb him.
I went down into the kitchen. There I saw Bernard Gui. He probably wanted to comprehend the layout of the abbey and was roaming about everywhere. I heard him interrogating21 the cooks and other servants, speak?ing the local vernacular22 after a fashion (I recalled that he had been inquisitor in northern Italy). He seemed to be asking for information about the harvest, the organization of work in the monastery23. But even while asking the most innocuous questions, he would look at his companion with penetrating24 eyes, then would abruptly25 ask another question, and at this point his victim would blanch26 and stammer27. I concluded that, in some singu?lar way, he was carrying out an inquisition, and was exploiting a formidable weapon that every inquisitor, in the performance of his function, possesses and employs: the fear of others. For every person, when questioned, usually tells the inquisitor, out of fear of being suspected of something, whatever may serve to make somebody else suspect.
For all the rest of the afternoon, as I gradually moved about, I saw Bernard proceed in this fashion, whether by the mills or in the cloister28. But he almost never confronted monks29: always lay brothers or peasants. The opposite of William’s strategy thus far.
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1
cardinal
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| n.(天主教的)红衣主教；adj.首要的，基本的 | |
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2
meekness
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| n.温顺，柔和 | |
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3
auguring
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| v.预示，预兆，预言( augur的现在分词 )；成为预兆；占卜 | |
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4
explicit
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| adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的 | |
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5
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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6
inviting
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| adj.诱人的，引人注目的 | |
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7
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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9
concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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10
deferential
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| adj. 敬意的，恭敬的 | |
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11
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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12
irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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13
hostility
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| n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争 | |
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14
derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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15
dungeon
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| n.地牢，土牢 | |
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16
venom
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| n.毒液，恶毒，痛恨 | |
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17
fulfill
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| vt.履行，实现，完成；满足，使满意 | |
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entrusted
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| v.委托，托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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19
stink
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| vi.发出恶臭；糟透，招人厌恶；n.恶臭 | |
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20
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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21
interrogating
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| n.询问技术v.询问( interrogate的现在分词 )；审问；（在计算机或其他机器上）查询 | |
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22
vernacular
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| adj.地方的，用地方语写成的；n.白话；行话；本国语；动植物的俗名 | |
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23
monastery
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| n.修道院，僧院，寺院 | |
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24
penetrating
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| adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的 | |
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25
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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26
blanch
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| v.漂白；使变白；使(植物)不见日光而变白 | |
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27
stammer
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| n.结巴，口吃；v.结结巴巴地说 | |
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28
cloister
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| n.修道院；v.隐退，使与世隔绝 | |
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29
monks
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| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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