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Then the Judge cried out in anger:

“Speak! tell us who are the men of violence.”

But the holy man said:

“You are for milking the cow that has given all her milk, and would learn of me more than I know.”

However the Judge imposed silence on the holy man, and he said:

“Your tongue has discharged the arrow of your discourse, and its shot was aimed at the Republic. Only it has lighted lower, and turned back upon yourself.”

And the holy man said:

“You judge me, not by my acts and my words, which are manifest, but by my motives, which are visible only to God’s eye.”

And the Judge replied:

“Nay! if we could not see the invisible and were not gods upon earth, how would it be possible for us to judge folk? Do you not know a law has just been passed in Viterbo, which punishes even men’s secret thoughts? For the police of cities is for ever being perfected, and the wise Ulpian, who held the rule and the square in the days of Cæsar, would be astonished himself, if he could see our rules and squares, improved as they are.”

And the Judge said again:

“Giovanni, you have been conspiring in your prison against the common weal.”

But the holy man denied having ever conspired against the weal of Viterbo. Then the Judge said:

“The gaoler has given testimony against you.”

And the holy man asked the Judge:

“What weight will my testimony have in one scale, when that of the gaoler is in the other?”

The Judge answered:

“Why! yours will kick the beam.”

Wherefore the holy man held his peace henceforth.

Then the Judge declared:

“Anon you were talking, and the words you said proved your perfidy. Now you say nothing, and your silence is the avowal of your crime. So you have confessed your guilt twice over.”

And the Magistrate they entitled the Accuser rose and said:

“The illustrious city of Viterbo speaks by my voice, and my voice shall be grave and calm, because it is the public voice. And you will think you are listening to a bronze statue speaking, for I make accusation not with my heart and bowels, but with the tables of bronze whereon the Law is inscribed.”

And straightway he began to gesticulate furiously and utter a raging torrent of words. And he declaimed the argument of a play, in imitation of Seneca the Tragedian: and this drama was filled full of crimes committed by the holy man Giovanni. And the Accuser represented in succession all the characters of the tragedy. He mimicked the groans of the victims and the voice of Giovanni, the better to strike awe into his audience, who seemed to hear and see Giovanni himself, intoxicated with hate and evildoing. And the Accuser tore his hair and rent his gown and fell back exhausted on his august seat of office.

And the Judge who had questioned the accused before took up the word again and said:

“It is meet a citizen defend this man. For none, so says the law of Viterbo, may be condemned without having been first defended.”

Thereupon an Advocate of Viterbo got up on a stool and spoke in these terms:

“If this monk has said and done what is laid to his charge, he is very wicked. But we have no proof that he has spoken and acted in the manner supposed. Moreover, good sirs, had we this proof, it would behove us to consider further the extreme simplicity of the man and the feebleness of his understanding. He was the laughing-stock of the children in the Public Square. He is ignorant; he has done a thousand extravagances. For my own part I believe he is beside himself. What he says is worthless nonsense, and there is nothing sensible he can do. I think he has been frequenting seditious societies; and goes about repeating what he heard there, without understanding a word of it. He is too dull-witted to be punished. Look out for his instructors; it is they are to blame. There are many difficulties in the matter, and the wise man has told us, ‘In doubt, refrain from action.'”