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it!’ he exclaimed loudly, and the server placed it in his hand.
    The abbot motioned to stop Ezekiel
when Asa, the infirmarian, entered the refectory looking flushed. Hastily
finding his seat at the end of the table under the glare of many eyes, he
begged his abbot’s pardon in inaudible whispers.
    The inquisitor muttered, ‘I shall put
a curb upon my mouth!’ but no one else heard him, they were far too preoccupied
with their meal, as yet another course of cheeses was brought before them.
    When a man eats well, the world
appears not only more pleasing to his eye, but he feels gladdened and cheered,
and perhaps a little indolent. My master attributed this to the illusion of
digestion. He said that the internal organs borrow from the heart and head the
energy with which to accomplish this wonderful work and, as was his custom, indulged
in eating as much as possible in order to rest his mind. Whatever the cause,
however, it had a pleasant effect on all those seated at the table. Even the
inquisitor’s voice was gradually tempered, and soon he was forgetting his own
admonition concerning the silence.
    ‘I see you live contrary to the
fifty-seventh capital of your rule, preceptor, namely, Ut fratres non
participent cum excommunicatis . That is to say, that you are in communication
with the excommunicated.’
    My master remained surprisingly silent.
The pause seemed to last too long, however, and the inquisitor, not about to
miss his opportunity, glared in Eisik’s direction and in a voice that carried
well in the large hall, continued. ‘He is a Jew and therefore diabolical. What
is your order coming to, preceptor, when it allows into its ranks infidels, and
condones communication with Jews?’
    My master’s face reddened, and I saw
his fists clench in his lap.
    ‘The order shall soon stink of dog.’
    ‘Then it shall smell like a most
learned dog,’ Andre remarked, ‘for that dog speaks not only Latin, Rainiero,
but six other languages, even as he does his mother tongue.’
    In my mind I admonished Andre, for it
seemed that he was praising Eisik’s accomplishments as a way of justifying
their friendship, and I suspected that Eisik may have been right in thinking
that he had become prey to culpable sentiments.
    ‘He is a follower of Maimonides?’ the
Dominican raised his brows and narrowed his eyes.
    ‘I believe so.’
    There was a smile, ‘Not only is he a
Jewish dog then, an unbeliever, but also a heretic into the bargain!’
    ‘A heretic in whose eyes? Some would
say your order had no place in burning Maimonides’ books. After all, he was not
baptised and so not bound by Christian laws.’
    ‘That may be . . .’ the inquisitor
dismissed. ‘However, all books, especially those of the Jews, contain heresies
that undermine the very principle of faith! Even the infidel,’ he said with a
grin turning up the corners of his mouth, as if to say to my master, ‘I should
be very pleased to see your infidel carcass upon a burning dais’, ‘even the
infidel,’ he continued, ‘who is the Devil himself, as you no doubt know,
preceptor, finds no affection for this animal. Intellectual pride, this is at
the root of all evil!’ he said pointing one finger at Eisik. ‘Maimonides
rejected the resurrection of the body, and said that we can prove neither
eternity nor the creation of the world! Furthermore, he approved the saying
that ‘a bastard who is a scholar takes precedence over an ignorant priest’ . .
. That he who studies the law, is closer to God, than he who follows it!’
    ‘He said this, Rainiero, at a time
when Jewish priests had become decadent, lazy, and so ignorant of the laws
which they enforced. No doubt you understand? However there is much to
be said for a priest who does nothing more than what he is told.’
    ‘Exactly!’ exclaimed the inquisitor,
thinking my master had finally come to his senses. ‘Ignorance is a blissful
state, preceptor, one obeys what one is told to obey. After all,