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Fra Giovanni having thus spoken, the Dean got up and said:

“The miscreant has insulted me, and I willingly forgive him the insult. But he has spoken against the laws of Viterbo, and it is meet he should be punished.”

So Fra Giovanni was led before the Judges, who had him loaded with chains and cast him into the city gaol.

XI

THE REVOLT OF GENTLENESS

The holy man Giovanni was chained to a massive pillar in the middle of the dungeon over which the river flowed.

Two other prisoners were plunged along with him in the thick and fetid darkness. Both these had realized and proclaimed the injustice of the Laws. One was for overthrowing the Republic by force. He had been guilty of startling assassinations, and his hope was to purify the city with fire and sword. The other trusted to be able to change men’s hearts, and had delivered very persuasive discourses. Inventor of wise laws, he counted on the charms of his genius and the innocency of his life to induce his fellow-citizens to submit to them. But both had met with the same doom.

When they learned how the holy man was chained alongside of them for having spoken against the laws of the city, they congratulated him. And the one who had invented wise laws, said to him:

“If ever, brother, we are restored to liberty, seeing you think as I do, you shall help me to persuade the citizens that they ought to set up above them the empire of just laws.”

But the holy man Giovanni answered him:

“What matter for Justice being in the Laws, if it is not in men’s hearts? And if men’s hearts are unjust, what gain shall it be that Equity reign in the Courts of Law?

“Say not, ‘We will stablish just laws, and we will render to every man what is his due.’ For no one is just, and we know not what is meet for men. We are no less ignorant what is good for them and what is evil. And whensoever the Princes of the People and the Chiefs of the Commonwealth have loved Justice, they have caused the slaying of many folk.

“Give not the compass and the level to the false measurer; for with true instruments, he will make untrue apportionments. And he will say: ‘See, I carry on me the level, the rule and the square, and I am a good measurer.’ So long as men shall be covetous and cruel, will they make the most merciful laws cruel, and will rob their brethren with words of love on their lips. This is why it is vain to reveal to them the words of love and the laws of gentleness.

“Set not up laws against laws, nor raise tables of marble and tables of brass before men’s eyes. For whatever is written on the tables of the Law, is written in letters of blood.”

So spoke the holy man. And the other prisoner,–he who had committed startling murders, and contrived the ruin that was to save the city, approved his words and said:

“Comrade, you have spoken well. Know you, I will never set up law against law, right rule against crooked rule; my wish is to destroy the law by violence and compel the citizens to live thenceforth in happy freedom. And know further that I have slain both judges and soldiers, and have committed many crimes for the public good.”

Hearing these words, the man of the Lord rose, stretched out his manacled arms in the heavy darkness and cried:

“Ill betide the violent! for violence ever begets violence. Whosoever acts like you is sowing the earth with hate and fury, and his children shall tear their feet with the wayside briars, and serpents shall bite their heel.

“Ill betide you! for you have shed the blood of the unjust judge and the brutal soldier, and lo! you are become like the soldier and the judge yourself. Like them you bear on your hands the indelible stain.