Historical setting: 584 C.E. The house of Eve
Anatase warns me that the page about monastery life is not all that interesting. She’s read ahead. But since I asked she’s conceded to read Nic’s Page 4 about the acceptance of Nic and my other two friends into Ligugè.
“He said they had no problem getting accepted at Ligugè. He wrote, ‘We didn’t even have to wait outside, begging for entry and reciting the Psalms for three days in the sleet and snow. That’s what some monasteries are requiring to test for kept promises in these new times.’
“He goes on and on, ‘There are all sorts of new rules monasteries are using maybe because monasteries are popular places for the nobility to send their extra children. Some of the churchmen of Rome are expecting every monastery to follow one Rule and some only want holy orders to go to unmarried men or women who have not the slightest comprehension of families and children. And no telling what will become of all the holy eunuchs like August. More rules tend to look like more power. But really friend Laz, you know the pope in Rome now, Pelagius, who is himself an Ostrogoth in a tight spot. He needs more power any way he can get it. With no strength in Empire he’s the only one in Rome warring against the hoards of Arian heretics. He asked the Emperor of the east to send soldiers to Rome. But when turned down, he called in the Franks. They came and took a bribe from the enemy and didn’t have a single battle against the Lombards. [Footnote] Peace has a high price and apparently the Franks will trade for it in goods. So armies still taunt Rome and at this writing the pope still looks for power by tightening down on his monasteries.’”
Anatase stops reading in order to share a topic more interesting to her. “Have you ever seen soldiers?”
“Yes, at times I’ve known them to be quite common.”
“Did you know the guardsmen for the Bishop Gregory of Tours came right here to this house last year in the season of harvest? They had horses, and swords and shields!”
“You mean the Bishop of Tours is Gregory now?”
“Yes! And he sent his guardsmen right here to this very house! I saw them myself! They came right inside where my teacher was making bread! The horses were outside snorting steam from their nostrils, and the men were clattering and clanking in those iron suits.”
[Footnote] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Pelagius_II, retrieved 5-7-2021.
(Continues tomorrow)
Lazarus Ink 