During his stay in Assisi, Anthony visited with maximum respect all the places of memories. The house in which Friar Elijah had received him was part of the construction sprouted from the dark church of the Madonna of the Angels. The friars had told Anthony that the small church, completely ruined, had been re-built by Friar Francis. The heavy rocks were arranged without much mastery. The small church belonged to the Benedictines, but they had given it to Francis. Here, ten years before, in a March night, Chiara Offreducci had received by Francis the habit of poverty and had become the founder of the congregation of the Poor Dames, who, at the moment, had their house close to the church of Saint Damiano. Before that, here, in this chapel, Francis, praying in front of the picture of Mary surrounded by the angels, had heard in his heart the words of the Gospel: 'Do not plan to conquer gold, silver, or copper for your pockets. Do not take for your trip a bag, two suits, sandals or a baton…’ Those words heard by Fracis became his vocation and the motto of the small order.
Five years earlied Pope Onorio III implored by Francis, during their meeting in Perugia, conferred the small Church of Porziuncola the extraordinary priviledge of plenary indulgence, the same that was obtained by the knights who set off to fight in the Holy Land.
Anthony stayed for a long time kneeling in the dark inside and prayed with all the fervour of which he was capable. The interview with Friar Elijah had aroused in him new perplexities. He, that had renounced to his old dreams, and had decided to renounce once for all his aspirations of the conquest of knowledge, all of a sudden, had heard by the Minister General that he had to resume his knowledge aspiration and deepen his doctrine in order to educate the other Friars. Now he was questioning himself: Did he have to obey blindly? Did he have to be happy the his previous projects had not been accepted? Or Did he have to cry on this decision?
"O Mother" he whispered
"Make sure that I do not commit an error. Indicate to me the path I have to follow. You too accepted blindly your role of being the Mother of Christ while you lived in front of events. You, that were not able to understand…"
He did the complete tour around the city walls, in order to reach the mountain that brought the name of Subasio. He climbed up with great effort till the peak. On the ridge covered by a dense brushwood there were some caves. The place was called Carceri. The Friars would go there to recover their strengths in silence and solitude, in prayer and in contemplation. In one of these caves there was Francis. Anthony, however didn’t have any intention to interrupt his meditations. He only desired to see the hermitage.
Between the trees, in a clearing, Anthony saw a well. There was nobody close to it. It was so peaceful. Amidst that silence one could hear only the chirrupping of the birds who seemed to have gathered for a meeting on the trees of that clearing, so many there were and of many kinds. On the grass instead one could see and hear the darting of the grass-hoppers and the humming of the hard-working bees.
And then there was the Church of Saint Damiano. This too, was restored by Francis`s hands. A small Church, very old, ruined because the parish priest didn`t want to accept money from Francis who had sold his father`s fabric. It was, in fact, during the work of restoration that the dramatic scene between Francis and his father took place which was in the presence of the Bishop who had been called to judge.
Currently the small church has passed in the hands of Chiara and her companions, alongside there was her sister, Beatrix and other two young girls, the camaldolesi. Chiara in fact had pronounced her vows at the Portiuncola and lived initially at the Benedictines in the Romanesque isle. Evenctually they were joined by Ortolane, Chiara`s mother, her sister,
Beatrix and the camaldolesi sisters. This place was offered to Chiara and her companions while Pope Innocence III had conferred them the priviledge of poverty along with the duty of seclusion.
The convent was closed and to no man was able to approach it. However the Church remained open. In the Church there was a small altar and above it there was a byzantine Crucifix. Anthony heard that Jesus spoken to Francis from that very Cross. He
said:
"Go. Build my house because it is falling." These words had incited the fatuous representative of the gilded youth from Assisi, namely Francis, to go and restore the Porziuncola Church of Saint Damiano. He didn`t imagine that Christ was actually inviting to reconstruct something of immeasurable height.
Genuflected in front of the cross Anthony said:
"Allow me too, Lord, to follow you. Take my will and you yourself indicate to me the way. I beg you tell me, what should I do? I continue to re-start again, and I continue of being not sure if I am on the right way. However it could be that it is you who want me to continually search. If it is you, may your will be done. I place myself totally in your hands, Jesus…"
The day after he left for Rimini.
After three days of pilgrimage he saw the city. It was surrounded by walls. The river Marecchia flowed into the sea. Near his mouth there was a small harbour. Above the city on high ground there was a castle, the Count Malatesta`s residence. The representative of the family of the commanders Ghibellini governed from the castle in the name of the emperor the entire province of Ancona. The rich bourgeois class of the city was formed by merchants that dealt with commerce with Dalmazia, in particular through the harbour of Parenzo, and supplied oriental goods to Romagna`s people. Gone beyond the door of the city Anthony reached the dark lanes. The shade thrown by the houses had increased further by the leaning out loggias and balconies and the laundry spread from one side to the other side of the road. The paved brick roads were invaded by garbage of all kind. They were the nourishment of the pigs that wandered between the pedestrians with a mark hung at the ear, which pointed out that they belonged to the town hall. These very pigs were practically cleaning the roads.
From the dark tunnel of the streets Anthony came out in an ample plaza of the city. From one side of the place rose the palace of the municipal council, similar to a defensive tower, because instead of the windows had tightened loopholes. On the opposite side rose the church, which could have been reached through a tall stairway.
The city plaza was at the same time the center of the market. At the feet of the town hall there were many small and big shops. The heavy studded shutters were opened and on them, as on so many other benches, laid in heaps of varied merchandise: bales of cloth, braids, slippers of skin and belts. There were stalls overflowed of swords, knives, harnesses. Merchants richly dressed were sitting at the bottom of the shops, while their apprendices were trying to sell. They were cutting, measuring, weighing and persuading the clients to buy. Only from time to time, if the buyer was a person worth of consideration, the owner of the shop would come out and would entertain him with some conversation, often offering him a jug of wine. The transactions in front of the shop were happening pacifically. There were city guardians that wondered around the shops to make sure that people not well dressed, with suspicious attitude, wouldn’t touch the precious goods exposed on the benches.
The situation was different outside the area of the rich shops. In this part of the city wandered a noisy crowd that hedged around the small clefts and stalls. Some sellers were holding their merchandise in their hands or were displaying it on the ground on a handkerchief or a small rag. There were relentless bargaining, there was shouting, gesticulation, wrangling. There was chatter and an indescrivable confusion. Ever so often from the crowd, above the deafening noise, would raise the acute cry of someone that, in the press here and press there, had been robbed, or deprived of his wallet with the money that he was holding in his hand. Around the victim there was a bigger crowd. There was pushing and shoving of one another.
At the borders of the area of the market, in a group of curious people, a small group of jugglers and conjurers were performing their tricks. Crouched or sat on a mat on the ground were some players enjoying playing dices. Even them had spectators that were moved by the game not lesser than the actual players. A man with hair which fell on his shoulders, wearing a cloak from which hung coloured amulets, invited to acquire them. Girls with their eyebrows blackened and the cheeks blushed, with meaningful push were inviting men. A person was playing the trumpet, and when the people would gather around, he was proposing them to read their future in the cards. On the threshold of a hut screened by rolls of cloth dangling there was a woman that with gestures was calling men. Some entered, and after a bit were coming out snickering.
Being tired at this stage, Anthony sat on a small well. He observed curiously the noisy crowd. He noticed that between the cram wandered men with long black clothes that gaited with a slow and solemn footstep. He guessed right away that they were the 'perfects' of the sect of the heretics. Therefore friar Elijah was right: the sect was dominating the city. The sects were powerful in all the cities that were subject to the emperor. The imperial representatives, perennially in conflict with the Pope and the bishops, supported the followers of the sect. Even the city population accepted quite well the teachings of the heretics. The sect was divided in a small group of 'perfects' that they had denied the church and they had pronounced the oath of abstain of eating 'impure' things and of renounce sexual life. The common 'faithful' must not promise nothing neither renounce to anything. They could eat and drink as much as they wanted and they could live with the women both in marriage and outside marriage. However each of them at the point of death could gain access to the so called consolamentum, through which they would become 'perfect', and that exempted them from ulterior re-incarnations purifiers that attended the imperfects. In the environments dominated by the heretics, the ideal of the renouncements that led up to the death by hunger, was judged to be the fullest of perfection., They united to a general dissoluteness and to excesses of any kind, along with being against the laws of the Church. Based on these extreme attitudes, the heretics denied the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, also honoring Jesus as 'God good' against the 'Wicked God' that according to them was God the father.
"I have arrived here to fight against them," thought Anthony "not with the sword, but with the word. Not to kill, but to convince and to conquer." Observing the figure of the 'perfects' that walked amidst the people with a sure and proud gaiting, Anthony understood that the work would have been difficult and could have been even more dangerous than the work between the Muslims. He was attacked by impatience. He desired right away, without delays, to pass to the action. Pushed by an interior leap, he climbed on the edge of the well and raising his voice he said:
"Praised be the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God who sits at the right hand of the Father..."
Those who heard him turned towards him and approached him. Between the chatter domineering and the echoing recalls, Anthony’s voice seemed to get lost. However behind those that had come close to him initially, others had come. A moment later he was surrounded by a thick multitude.
He started to say:
"I am speaking to you, inhabitants of the noble city of Rimini, to remind you that the feast of Saint Michael Archangel is approaching, who by the will of God crushed Satan to free us men of his power. That archangel, as it is written in the book of the Apocalypse, was sent to Saint John apostle to reveal him what was going to happen shortly. Jesus, in fact, will come again, and the world must be duly prepared. This is why John wrote to the Church of Pergamo: 'I know that you are holding yourself strongly to my name and that you haven’t repudiated the faith in me. But I have to reproach you that you have followers of the doctrine of Belial, and of those that follows the doctrine of Nicolaiti. Mend your ways!' This is the way Jesus reproached the old Church of Pergamo where people had rised an altar to Satan. But doesn’t He say the same thing and doesn’t He alert you respectable inhabitant of the good city of Rimini, that listen to the teaching of men that, hiding under the appearances of purity, of the renunciation and of poverty, modify the teaching of the Church, define the Almighty God 'Wicked God' Lucifer invites to suicide, to refuse marriage life, to dissoluteness and disobedience towards the
Church?"
He was now surrounded by an enormous crowd. He could see hundreds of eyes fixed on him. It didn’t escape to his attention that in the crowd there were also men dressed in black. After the last words of Anthony someone the crowd yelled:
"Ehi, people. Once again one of those beggar Friars has opened his mouth! Could it be that our perfect teachers haven’t ordered them to keep quiet?"
"Listen to me" continued Anthony "and I will tell you how much the teaching of these people is contrary to the teaching of Jesus Christ and his church..."
"Be silent! Shut your mouth!" One could hear here and there, whilst raising angy whistles.
"Be silent, beggar!"
"Let him speak..." said somebody, but he was immediately silenced.
"Our great teacher has forbidden to ramble!"
"He may be one of the silent and lousy friars of the stall of the Pope! Down! "
"They pretend to be poor and are instead at the service of the rich!"
"Valets of the
Bishops!"
"Filthy mendicant from Assisi!"
"Down! Down! Down! "
The stones whistled around his head. He leaped down from the edge of the well; he began to run instinctively in the direction of the Church. The crowd pursued him without stopping in casting stones. One struck him while he was running down the staircase. He fell down. He heard behind his shoulders a howl similar to a flock of wolves that were pursuing him. He stood up again, he was knocked down against the door of the church. He felt a hit on his head; it all became black. He was now certain that he was dying, when some hands dragged him on the inside and closed with a great din the heavy door, isolating him from the crowd by which he was pursued.
"What have you done?" He heard above himself the desolate voice of the priest. "Why have you spoken to them? They had alerted us that they would have killed whoever would try to catechise in public..."
Anthony supported himself heavily to the wall. A rivulet of blood flowed from the crown of his head. He felt an acute pain to the arm which was hit by a stone.
"I have just arrived..." he was able to whine.
"You were very lucky to be able to get yourself here. The heretics dominate the city. But they don't dare to break in Church. I have never invited the public to have contempt against them.
"It is a horrible sect...They teach our Lord Jesus is not in the Holy Sacrament, they refuse the church’s doctrine.
"I know, I know. But they have on their side the governor Malatesta and the city magistrates. They feel unpunishable. They are ready to burn the Church with me inside."
"I have heard that in this city there are Friars minor..."
"Haven’t you seen them? There are. They hide themselves, since the great teacher of the 'perfects' has forbidden them to speak in public. As soon as twilight descends, I will accompany you to them..."
The priest drew near the door and from a peephole he looked outside.
"They are still shouting." he said.
"But they are now dispersing. Thank the Lord and me, if you are still alive. Now I will bandage your head, and at twilight, through the orchards I will take you to your
Friars. But as soon as you are better, flee from this city. Here you can’t even wonder around, if they would recognise you, they would kill you immediately.
He took Anthony in the sacristy, he cleansed the wound on his head and he bandaged it with a handkerchief. He brought a jug of cool water and a piece of bread.
"Have something to eat. Have eaten anything today?"
"Not yet."
"Eh… Francis disciples. You should stay in your convents and not wander around the world. Nothing good will come by this wandering about. You are only able to irritate those disgusting heretics."
"We want to explain to them that they are wrong."
"You will really persuade them! The only remedy is to do what was done in France, to send the knights and kill them all till the last one!"
When it was dark, the parish priest went stealthily with Anthony to a small and half-ruined cottage under the city walls. Rubble and rafters barricaded the entry, but when the priest knocked in a certain way, from the dark inside appeared the head of a Friar minor.
"I have brought here" said the priest "one of your friars. He has just come to the city and he tried to preach. He was nearly killed. I was barely able to offer him shelter."
Behind him appeared other three Friars. Hearing of Anthony’s aggression they writhed their hands.
"What have you done, Friar! Now we are lost. They were making fun of us, they forbade us to preach, but at least they were not threatening us of death. Now they are ready to come, to kill us or to burn us alive.
We don’t have a place to hide. Perhaps we need to run away from the city…"
"Where are you coming from, Friar?" asked one of the friars, certainly the elder of the group."
"Friar Elijah, the general minister, sent me here."
He didn’t reply, but all the four of them sighed loudly.
They were in the dark because they were afraid to light the oil lamp. They didn’t stop complaining about their fate. There was nothing to eat for supper, the Friars didn’t have the courage to go out and beg for something to eat. They prepared themselves to go to sleep while starving. But evidently they could not sleep. Anthony heard in the obscurity their buzzes and sighs.
He too couldn’t sleep. He thought instead. He was now sure. What he was longing for was now actually happening. That is why he left the Canonicals to enter in the order of the Friar minor. Tomorrow he was going to die. When he emigrated to Africa of his own will, God had not welcomed his sacrifice. This time however it was going to happen. He didn`t come of his own will. He was sent by Friar Elijah. He was following orders. He had to speak to the crowd of Rimini. The friars could have been afraid and run. He couldn’t run. Tomorrow he would have gone out and would have spoken. Death was waiting for him. The parts of his body that had been hit, were sore. In vain his body was trying to find a position on the straw. Even where he wasn’t hit much he felt the pain. Before death, that he longed for, was growing the threshold of the suffering that he had to bear it. Getting over that threshold without giving in… Bearing it all, till the last moment, that was necessary, so that death could become the meeting with God, not a run from the suffering… The body is so weak. He too was afraid of dying. So, getting over the fear for him and for all those... For those unhappy people that didn’t believe that the One that is, by itself the good, couldn’t have possibly created a wicked world…
He remembered about the prayer made by Francis:
"Praise the Lord, rivers of the earth, praise the Lord, because he is good. Bless the Lord, all creatures. You all, birds of the sky, give him honour..."
"The world" he thought "despite all the sins that continually are repeated, has preserved the trace of the divine beauty. What does it mean if we continually spoil it and upset his harmony? Our nature is wounded. But suffering redeems... How good is" he thought "that I have received an order. I can be afraid, but in me there is no hesitation. If tomorrow I will die, I will see Berardo.
Chapter 18
Chapter 18
During his stay in Assisi, Anthony visited with maximum respect all the places of memories. The house in which Friar Elijah had received him was part of the construction sprouted from the dark church of the Madonna of the Angels. The friars had told Anthony that the small church, completely ruined, had been re-built by Friar Francis. The heavy rocks were arranged without much mastery. The small church belonged to the Benedictines, but they had given it to Francis. Here, ten years before, in a March night, Chiara Offreducci had received by Francis the habit of poverty and had become the founder of the congregation of the Poor Dames, who, at the moment, had their house close to the church of Saint Damiano. Before that, here, in this chapel, Francis, praying in front of the picture of Mary surrounded by the angels, had heard in his heart the words of the Gospel: 'Do not plan to conquer gold, silver, or copper for your pockets. Do not take for your trip a bag, two suits, sandals or a baton…’ Those words heard by Fracis became his vocation and the motto of the small order.
Five years earlied Pope Onorio III implored by Francis, during their meeting in Perugia, conferred the small Church of Porziuncola the extraordinary priviledge of plenary indulgence, the same that was obtained by the knights who set off to fight in the Holy Land.
Anthony stayed for a long time kneeling in the dark inside and prayed with all the fervour of which he was capable. The interview with Friar Elijah had aroused in him new perplexities. He, that had renounced to his old dreams, and had decided to renounce once for all his aspirations of the conquest of knowledge, all of a sudden, had heard by the Minister General that he had to resume his knowledge aspiration and deepen his doctrine in order to educate the other Friars. Now he was questioning himself: Did he have to obey blindly? Did he have to be happy the his previous projects had not been accepted? Or Did he have to cry on this decision?
"O Mother" he whispered
"Make sure that I do not commit an error. Indicate to me the path I have to follow. You too accepted blindly your role of being the Mother of Christ while you lived in front of events. You, that were not able to understand…"
He did the complete tour around the city walls, in order to reach the mountain that brought the name of Subasio. He climbed up with great effort till the peak. On the ridge covered by a dense brushwood there were some caves. The place was called Carceri. The Friars would go there to recover their strengths in silence and solitude, in prayer and in contemplation. In one of these caves there was Francis. Anthony, however didn’t have any intention to interrupt his meditations. He only desired to see the hermitage.
Between the trees, in a clearing, Anthony saw a well. There was nobody close to it. It was so peaceful. Amidst that silence one could hear only the chirrupping of the birds who seemed to have gathered for a meeting on the trees of that clearing, so many there were and of many kinds. On the grass instead one could see and hear the darting of the grass-hoppers and the humming of the hard-working bees.
And then there was the Church of Saint Damiano. This too, was restored by Francis`s hands. A small Church, very old, ruined because the parish priest didn`t want to accept money from Francis who had sold his father`s fabric. It was, in fact, during the work of restoration that the dramatic scene between Francis and his father took place which was in the presence of the Bishop who had been called to judge.
Currently the small church has passed in the hands of Chiara and her companions, alongside there was her sister, Beatrix and other two young girls, the camaldolesi. Chiara in fact had pronounced her vows at the Portiuncola and lived initially at the Benedictines in the Romanesque isle. Evenctually they were joined by Ortolane, Chiara`s mother, her sister,
Beatrix and the camaldolesi sisters. This place was offered to Chiara and her companions while Pope Innocence III had conferred them the priviledge of poverty along with the duty of seclusion.
The convent was closed and to no man was able to approach it. However the Church remained open. In the Church there was a small altar and above it there was a byzantine Crucifix. Anthony heard that Jesus spoken to Francis from that very Cross. He
said:
"Go. Build my house because it is falling." These words had incited the fatuous representative of the gilded youth from Assisi, namely Francis, to go and restore the Porziuncola Church of Saint Damiano. He didn`t imagine that Christ was actually inviting to reconstruct something of immeasurable height.
Genuflected in front of the cross Anthony said:
"Allow me too, Lord, to follow you. Take my will and you yourself indicate to me the way. I beg you tell me, what should I do? I continue to re-start again, and I continue of being not sure if I am on the right way. However it could be that it is you who want me to continually search. If it is you, may your will be done. I place myself totally in your hands, Jesus…"
The day after he left for Rimini.
After three days of pilgrimage he saw the city. It was surrounded by walls. The river Marecchia flowed into the sea. Near his mouth there was a small harbour. Above the city on high ground there was a castle, the Count Malatesta`s residence. The representative of the family of the commanders Ghibellini governed from the castle in the name of the emperor the entire province of Ancona. The rich bourgeois class of the city was formed by merchants that dealt with commerce with Dalmazia, in particular through the harbour of Parenzo, and supplied oriental goods to Romagna`s people. Gone beyond the door of the city Anthony reached the dark lanes. The shade thrown by the houses had increased further by the leaning out loggias and balconies and the laundry spread from one side to the other side of the road. The paved brick roads were invaded by garbage of all kind. They were the nourishment of the pigs that wandered between the pedestrians with a mark hung at the ear, which pointed out that they belonged to the town hall. These very pigs were practically cleaning the roads.
From the dark tunnel of the streets Anthony came out in an ample plaza of the city. From one side of the place rose the palace of the municipal council, similar to a defensive tower, because instead of the windows had tightened loopholes. On the opposite side rose the church, which could have been reached through a tall stairway.
The city plaza was at the same time the center of the market. At the feet of the town hall there were many small and big shops. The heavy studded shutters were opened and on them, as on so many other benches, laid in heaps of varied merchandise: bales of cloth, braids, slippers of skin and belts. There were stalls overflowed of swords, knives, harnesses. Merchants richly dressed were sitting at the bottom of the shops, while their apprendices were trying to sell. They were cutting, measuring, weighing and persuading the clients to buy. Only from time to time, if the buyer was a person worth of consideration, the owner of the shop would come out and would entertain him with some conversation, often offering him a jug of wine. The transactions in front of the shop were happening pacifically. There were city guardians that wondered around the shops to make sure that people not well dressed, with suspicious attitude, wouldn’t touch the precious goods exposed on the benches.
The situation was different outside the area of the rich shops. In this part of the city wandered a noisy crowd that hedged around the small clefts and stalls. Some sellers were holding their merchandise in their hands or were displaying it on the ground on a handkerchief or a small rag. There were relentless bargaining, there was shouting, gesticulation, wrangling. There was chatter and an indescrivable confusion. Ever so often from the crowd, above the deafening noise, would raise the acute cry of someone that, in the press here and press there, had been robbed, or deprived of his wallet with the money that he was holding in his hand. Around the victim there was a bigger crowd. There was pushing and shoving of one another.
At the borders of the area of the market, in a group of curious people, a small group of jugglers and conjurers were performing their tricks. Crouched or sat on a mat on the ground were some players enjoying playing dices. Even them had spectators that were moved by the game not lesser than the actual players. A man with hair which fell on his shoulders, wearing a cloak from which hung coloured amulets, invited to acquire them. Girls with their eyebrows blackened and the cheeks blushed, with meaningful push were inviting men. A person was playing the trumpet, and when the people would gather around, he was proposing them to read their future in the cards. On the threshold of a hut screened by rolls of cloth dangling there was a woman that with gestures was calling men. Some entered, and after a bit were coming out snickering.
Being tired at this stage, Anthony sat on a small well. He observed curiously the noisy crowd. He noticed that between the cram wandered men with long black clothes that gaited with a slow and solemn footstep. He guessed right away that they were the 'perfects' of the sect of the heretics. Therefore friar Elijah was right: the sect was dominating the city. The sects were powerful in all the cities that were subject to the emperor. The imperial representatives, perennially in conflict with the Pope and the bishops, supported the followers of the sect. Even the city population accepted quite well the teachings of the heretics. The sect was divided in a small group of 'perfects' that they had denied the church and they had pronounced the oath of abstain of eating 'impure' things and of renounce sexual life. The common 'faithful' must not promise nothing neither renounce to anything. They could eat and drink as much as they wanted and they could live with the women both in marriage and outside marriage. However each of them at the point of death could gain access to the so called consolamentum, through which they would become 'perfect', and that exempted them from ulterior re-incarnations purifiers that attended the imperfects. In the environments dominated by the heretics, the ideal of the renouncements that led up to the death by hunger, was judged to be the fullest of perfection., They united to a general dissoluteness and to excesses of any kind, along with being against the laws of the Church. Based on these extreme attitudes, the heretics denied the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, also honoring Jesus as 'God good' against the 'Wicked God' that according to them was God the father.
"I have arrived here to fight against them," thought Anthony "not with the sword, but with the word. Not to kill, but to convince and to conquer." Observing the figure of the 'perfects' that walked amidst the people with a sure and proud gaiting, Anthony understood that the work would have been difficult and could have been even more dangerous than the work between the Muslims. He was attacked by impatience. He desired right away, without delays, to pass to the action. Pushed by an interior leap, he climbed on the edge of the well and raising his voice he said:
"Praised be the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God who sits at the right hand of the Father..."
Those who heard him turned towards him and approached him. Between the chatter domineering and the echoing recalls, Anthony’s voice seemed to get lost. However behind those that had come close to him initially, others had come. A moment later he was surrounded by a thick multitude.
He started to say:
"I am speaking to you, inhabitants of the noble city of Rimini, to remind you that the feast of Saint Michael Archangel is approaching, who by the will of God crushed Satan to free us men of his power. That archangel, as it is written in the book of the Apocalypse, was sent to Saint John apostle to reveal him what was going to happen shortly. Jesus, in fact, will come again, and the world must be duly prepared. This is why John wrote to the Church of Pergamo: 'I know that you are holding yourself strongly to my name and that you haven’t repudiated the faith in me. But I have to reproach you that you have followers of the doctrine of Belial, and of those that follows the doctrine of Nicolaiti. Mend your ways!' This is the way Jesus reproached the old Church of Pergamo where people had rised an altar to Satan. But doesn’t He say the same thing and doesn’t He alert you respectable inhabitant of the good city of Rimini, that listen to the teaching of men that, hiding under the appearances of purity, of the renunciation and of poverty, modify the teaching of the Church, define the Almighty God 'Wicked God' Lucifer invites to suicide, to refuse marriage life, to dissoluteness and disobedience towards the
Church?"
He was now surrounded by an enormous crowd. He could see hundreds of eyes fixed on him. It didn’t escape to his attention that in the crowd there were also men dressed in black. After the last words of Anthony someone the crowd yelled:
"Ehi, people. Once again one of those beggar Friars has opened his mouth! Could it be that our perfect teachers haven’t ordered them to keep quiet?"
"Listen to me" continued Anthony "and I will tell you how much the teaching of these people is contrary to the teaching of Jesus Christ and his church..."
"Be silent! Shut your mouth!" One could hear here and there, whilst raising angy whistles.
"Be silent, beggar!"
"Let him speak..." said somebody, but he was immediately silenced.
"Our great teacher has forbidden to ramble!"
"He may be one of the silent and lousy friars of the stall of the Pope! Down! "
"They pretend to be poor and are instead at the service of the rich!"
"Valets of the
Bishops!"
"Filthy mendicant from Assisi!"
"Down! Down! Down! "
The stones whistled around his head. He leaped down from the edge of the well; he began to run instinctively in the direction of the Church. The crowd pursued him without stopping in casting stones. One struck him while he was running down the staircase. He fell down. He heard behind his shoulders a howl similar to a flock of wolves that were pursuing him. He stood up again, he was knocked down against the door of the church. He felt a hit on his head; it all became black. He was now certain that he was dying, when some hands dragged him on the inside and closed with a great din the heavy door, isolating him from the crowd by which he was pursued.
"What have you done?" He heard above himself the desolate voice of the priest. "Why have you spoken to them? They had alerted us that they would have killed whoever would try to catechise in public..."
Anthony supported himself heavily to the wall. A rivulet of blood flowed from the crown of his head. He felt an acute pain to the arm which was hit by a stone.
"I have just arrived..." he was able to whine.
"You were very lucky to be able to get yourself here. The heretics dominate the city. But they don't dare to break in Church. I have never invited the public to have contempt against them.
"It is a horrible sect...They teach our Lord Jesus is not in the Holy Sacrament, they refuse the church’s doctrine.
"I know, I know. But they have on their side the governor Malatesta and the city magistrates. They feel unpunishable. They are ready to burn the Church with me inside."
"I have heard that in this city there are Friars minor..."
"Haven’t you seen them? There are. They hide themselves, since the great teacher of the 'perfects' has forbidden them to speak in public. As soon as twilight descends, I will accompany you to them..."
The priest drew near the door and from a peephole he looked outside.
"They are still shouting." he said.
"But they are now dispersing. Thank the Lord and me, if you are still alive. Now I will bandage your head, and at twilight, through the orchards I will take you to your
Friars. But as soon as you are better, flee from this city. Here you can’t even wonder around, if they would recognise you, they would kill you immediately.
He took Anthony in the sacristy, he cleansed the wound on his head and he bandaged it with a handkerchief. He brought a jug of cool water and a piece of bread.
"Have something to eat. Have eaten anything today?"
"Not yet."
"Eh… Francis disciples. You should stay in your convents and not wander around the world. Nothing good will come by this wandering about. You are only able to irritate those disgusting heretics."
"We want to explain to them that they are wrong."
"You will really persuade them! The only remedy is to do what was done in France, to send the knights and kill them all till the last one!"
When it was dark, the parish priest went stealthily with Anthony to a small and half-ruined cottage under the city walls. Rubble and rafters barricaded the entry, but when the priest knocked in a certain way, from the dark inside appeared the head of a Friar minor.
"I have brought here" said the priest "one of your friars. He has just come to the city and he tried to preach. He was nearly killed. I was barely able to offer him shelter."
Behind him appeared other three Friars. Hearing of Anthony’s aggression they writhed their hands.
"What have you done, Friar! Now we are lost. They were making fun of us, they forbade us to preach, but at least they were not threatening us of death. Now they are ready to come, to kill us or to burn us alive.
We don’t have a place to hide. Perhaps we need to run away from the city…"
"Where are you coming from, Friar?" asked one of the friars, certainly the elder of the group."
"Friar Elijah, the general minister, sent me here."
He didn’t reply, but all the four of them sighed loudly.
They were in the dark because they were afraid to light the oil lamp. They didn’t stop complaining about their fate. There was nothing to eat for supper, the Friars didn’t have the courage to go out and beg for something to eat. They prepared themselves to go to sleep while starving. But evidently they could not sleep. Anthony heard in the obscurity their buzzes and sighs.
He too couldn’t sleep. He thought instead. He was now sure. What he was longing for was now actually happening. That is why he left the Canonicals to enter in the order of the Friar minor. Tomorrow he was going to die. When he emigrated to Africa of his own will, God had not welcomed his sacrifice. This time however it was going to happen. He didn`t come of his own will. He was sent by Friar Elijah. He was following orders. He had to speak to the crowd of Rimini. The friars could have been afraid and run. He couldn’t run. Tomorrow he would have gone out and would have spoken. Death was waiting for him. The parts of his body that had been hit, were sore. In vain his body was trying to find a position on the straw. Even where he wasn’t hit much he felt the pain. Before death, that he longed for, was growing the threshold of the suffering that he had to bear it. Getting over that threshold without giving in… Bearing it all, till the last moment, that was necessary, so that death could become the meeting with God, not a run from the suffering… The body is so weak. He too was afraid of dying. So, getting over the fear for him and for all those... For those unhappy people that didn’t believe that the One that is, by itself the good, couldn’t have possibly created a wicked world…
He remembered about the prayer made by Francis:
"Praise the Lord, rivers of the earth, praise the Lord, because he is good. Bless the Lord, all creatures. You all, birds of the sky, give him honour..."
"The world" he thought "despite all the sins that continually are repeated, has preserved the trace of the divine beauty. What does it mean if we continually spoil it and upset his harmony? Our nature is wounded. But suffering redeems... How good is" he thought "that I have received an order. I can be afraid, but in me there is no hesitation. If tomorrow I will die, I will see Berardo.