#50.12, Tues., Nov. 28, 2023

Historical Setting, 610 C.E. Besançon Fortress

         Here we are in the midst of this daring plot to free Father Columbanus from his cell on the main level and I’ve already broken the chains of the other prisoners. 

         Our plan is that the three of us Ezras will seem as only one monk who can do three tasks at once.  One Brother Ezra is waiting in the church to take the prisoners to safety; one is waiting with the Father, to guide him to safety through the tunnel, and here I am with the prisoners we are sending to the church who seem unwilling to escape.

         It would help our cause if these prisoners were singing hymns just now. It would remind anyone who gets suspicious of the biblical prisoners when Paul and Silas set all the prisoners free while praising God in song. [Acts 16:16-40] So I suggest to the prisoners, “Maybe we should sing some hymns while we watch the cell for the cue to go free.”

         “Hymns?” One of them speaks.

         “Like ‘Praise God…’” This fellow just stares at me like I’m the crazy one, and I see his wrath rising and his newly freed righthand joins with his left to gesture the threat of strangling me.

         “No, no. I was just thinking of hymns, but of course that is optional. All you really have to do is jump up when the cage at the top of the ladder is opened, and go up the other ladder before the guard can get down the cage ladder to stop you, then all of you run to the church to be safe. I will follow the guard so if he is chasing you I won’t let him catch up with you.  But you’ll all have to hurry.”

         “You mean we are supposed to walk, then climb, then run to the church?”

         I have to hide, just now, as the guard is already coming down to this level on his way to the other ladder to let Brother Ezra-Gabe out of the Father’s cell. We don’t have time now to discuss this. I duck behind the binding rock.

         I shout from behind the rock, “Let’s go now, quickly to the church! The Bishop will absolve all your sins!“ May the guard assume all my shouting of instructions is simply the mumbling of one of these prisoners.  He doesn’t turn to look.

(Continues tomorrow)

#50.11, Thurs., Nov. 23, 2023

Historical Setting, 610 C.E. Besançon Fortress

         Now, according to the plan to free the Father, Brother Ezra-Greg goes into the tunnel to the basilica so he takes the candle I had left here and we send him on his way. Brother Ezra-Gabe goes up the ladder to the main level to get the guard with the keys to open the Father’s cell.  When I see the guard returning from unlocking the cell, turning to go back up to his station on the main floor, I will go on to the prisoners on this dungeon level with the smithy’s tool in hand.

         The tool to open the chains is simply an iron wedge. Slipped into a chain link, the link spreads opened when I pound the wedge through with a stone. These prisoners are not impressed.  But then, if I were an earthquake or angels here to do this task, I don’t think these fellows would be any more amazed. The first man I cut free suspects me of being the executioner. This chain, he believes, is his link to life – such as it is here. Had he any strength left, he would fight me off and shout for the guards. I try to calm all of their terrors by giving them instructions for what to do now and where to go.

         These fellows surely won’t be much help in fending off guards and soldiers.  But they also don’t seem to be raging and ranting demoniacs with superhuman strength — at least not at this moment.

         I free one limp hand from the chains after the other, until all five have the option of freedom.

         I instruct the freed men, “Do you see the monk standing at the door of the cage at the top of that ladder?”

         Gabe is watching from the Father’s cell to know when I have finished breaking these chains.  I point to him.

         “That monk will call the guard back to unlock the Father’s cell. When the cell is opened, and the guard is ready to lock the cell again, behind the monk and lead him down, let that signal for all of you to get yourselves up and run to the ladder. Hurry to the main level and run before the guard has time to get down the cell ladder and follow after you.”

         This lot of prisoners seem unwilling to participate. Maybe we were just assuming that freeing them was a kindness. But I can clearly see they won’t survive here.

(Continues Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2023)

#50.10, Weds., Nov. 22, 2023

Historical Setting, 610 C.E. Besançon Fortress

         Greg is thinking through his assignment to be the Brother Ezra at the church. “When I pop up through the trap door into the basilica, what if someone sees me?”

         I answer, “You’ll know what to do. You have a good mind for this. You don’t have to keep it a secret that Brother Ezra found the tunnel. Tell it to anyone who sees you and wonders why a monk is coming up through the floor. Most likely it will be the Bishop who asks. He expects to find Brother Ezra waiting in the church. Tell him you noticed the door under the rug table and you went exploring and found the tunnel to the same place you had just been waiting, so you came back to wait at the church. No one will wonder why you were waiting around in the basilica. Let’s just trust Gaillard’s plan.”

         Suddenly I feel like my perfectly adult sons are following me like newly hatched goslings only capable of imitating the gander.

         “Like Gaillard said. ‘The most important thing is that we not be seen together. Any one Brother Ezra alone won’t stir curiosity’.”

         “What if the Brother Ezra-Gabe is already meeting with the Father, and there I am at the church, waiting for the guard to take me over to his cell?”

         “Just don’t let the bishop call for the guard. Instead, ask to speak with him, and you might also learn what we really need to know. What is this bishop’s opinion of the Father’s work at Luxeuil? Will he be defending the Father, or is he one of the noble Frankish bishops hoping to see him gone?” [Footnote]

         “Of course. That’s why I have the sword, isn’t it?”

         “Don’t use the sword. If you find him foe, detain him with your chatter. If he is a follower of Father Columbanus, ask him to pray with you for the release of the Father.

         “Our prayer now, dear God, let us be your hands and feet in this work of freeing the prisoners. Amen.” So, I tell them one more time, “just don’t use the sword.”

         The stench of the prisoners is thick in the tunnel now.  We are reaching the end, or the beginning, depending. We extinguish the torches, and peer through the wood slats to visualize our plans, each of us to our own purpose.

[Footnote] “St. Rothadius, Archbishop of Besançon in 611, from Luxeuil” is a questionable entry to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_Archdiocese_of_ Besançon . Searching books in English and the internet, this blogger was not able to find at what point Luxeuil provided bishops for this see.

(Continues tomorrow)

#50.9, Tues., Nov. 21, 2023

Historical Setting, 610 C.E. Besançon Fortress

         “So we might be releasing dangerous men into Besançon?” asks Gabe.

         I answer, “As far as I know, people usually end up in chains due to poverty; often the crime is theft or unpaid debt. So maybe these prisoners are just poor people.” [Footnote]

         “Or maybe they are demoniacs.” suggests Gabe.

         Greg dismisses this worry, “The reason why they are prisoners isn’t our concern. Our mission is to free the Father. Gaillard told us logistically, if the chains are broken the prisoners can become a distraction and possibly helpful.

         So, we light torches and go back into the tunnel – three matching Celtic monks, all named Brother Ezra. Gaillard will wait for us with the wagon at the campsite in the wood ready to take the Father to safety even if we aren’t being pursued. May no one draw a sword.

         It is much easier passing through a tunnel with other people and lit torches.

         Now Gabe mentions he isn’t comfortable cutting prisoners free.

         “They could be demoniacs. And without Jesus around to drive out the demons, it might be best to keep them in chains.”

         “Is that what they do with demoniacs at Luxeuil?”  

         “We’ve never dealt with it that I know of” Gabe answers. “The most important thing in any kind of healing is to preserve the soul of the person. So I would suppose we would be more helpful offering prayer than cutting chains.”

         “Well, Gabe,” I answer, “as one who was assigned forever to be a physical metaphor for spiritual life, I don’t appreciate the simplicity of separating the soul from the physical body then only offering prayer. But I hear your concern.  Maybe I should be the one to release the prisoners and you go pray with the Father.”

         “Oh, thank you Papa. I’m so much better at prayers than I would be cutting wild prisoners loose.” He’s relieved and gladly passes the tool for opening chain-links onto me.  So, we’ve made a little revision in Gaillard’s plan.

         Now we come to that place with a space in the wall of the cave, and with a torch I can see this is just a dead end or a boarded up side tunnel. I’m glad I didn’t waste time exploring it in the dark.

         First it was Gabe, now Greg has concerns about his assignment too.

[Footnote] Geltner, G., The Medieval Prison: A Social History Princeton University Press, 2008 provides a resource confirming the significance of poverty as a cause for imprisonment in the Merovingean era.

(Continues tomorrow)

#50.8, Thurs., Nov. 16, 2023

Historical Setting, 610 C.E. Besançon Fortress

         It is the full light of day when I come up into the meadow.

         “Papa! You found the tunnel!  We’ve been waiting for you over in the trees there by the fire.”

         Greg and Gaillard are tending a campfire, waiting with the mule and wagon.

         I tell them all what I‘ve learned about the tunnels and the guards, the cage and the ladders, the basilica of the archbishop and the state of the other prisoners. I haven’t yet met with the Father to tell him our plan.

         Gaillard wants to hone the plan with these new details. He has so many questions, mostly about things I hadn’t realized were significant.

         “Does the cage door have a chain with a lock, or a keylock in the door? How many keys does the guard carry? Is there rust? What of the other prisoners — the ones in chains? Are those in need of rescue too?” Gaillard takes careful notes.

         “Yes. Everything is rusty and yet it is also sooty and greasy.”  Did I need to mention the stench?

         Gaillard is revising our plan to send all three of us as monks back in through the tunnel together, then we will split up when we are in the space under the cell, and Greg will go to the church via the tunnel, I will go up to the guard, and have him take me down one ladder and up  to the cage, and Gabe will stay hidden under the cell until the guard has come down and gone back up the other ladder to his post again on the main floor. Then Gabe can proceed to cut the chains of the other prisoners, as we had planned.

         Gabe asks me, “Why are they in chains?”

         That’s another answer I don’t have, “I don’t know. I didn’t ask their crimes.”

         “What danger are they if they are released?”

         “I don’t know. But clearly their own lives are endangered where they are. I would suppose the Father would want us to follow the pattern told of the freeing of the prisoners in the bible stories in Acts. And apparently, when God sends angels or an earthquake and releases a holy man, all of the prisoners are also set free.”

         “Does any of that make any sense to you?” Gaillard asks.

         “Do you mean as strategy, or as justice? It seems very reasonable as God’s justice, and when the bible stories guide us, chains are shattered by God regardless of human fears and sins.”

(Continues Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023)?,

#50.7, Weds., Nov. 15, 2023

Historical Setting, 610 C.E. Besançon Fortress

         Now I’m groping my way through the tunnel. The darknesses I prefer, like the dark of night, always seem to glow from something – the moon, the stars, the first rays of sun — but this dark is the nearly a suffocating intensity of death’s dark, even without the weight of earth on me. It is nothingness. I could be walking on the ceiling here for all I know. And I wonder if bats are on this ceiling?  I don’t really feel alone here – maybe it’s bats. Maybe it’s spirit. It is a silent presence. 

         My fingers walk the damp wall ahead of my steps, since I choose not to commit a full-handed touch to feel my way along.  May I reach the end of this while the sun still shines.

         Now my fingers touch a dark ending to this wall. Is it another tunnel, or just a random corner?

         It’s a juncture in the tunnel. Maybe it is two tunnels that meet and one will lead to the place beyond the walls where the others wait. I’ve lost my sense of direction. This seems to be a smaller path off in another direction. Exploring these edges, I find no arch or supporting beam, at least nothing that can be found with touch. So, I choose only to follow the wider tunnel forward.

         The darkness goes on, for how long? I’m moving so slowly I have no idea of distance. And I fear I’m losing my belief in light. Is light simply a belief shared by those who see? What is light that darkness isn’t? Maybe it is an idea, or a hope, or something imagined. It is a mystical reality. As one who has seen it, I know that it exists at least for those who see.

         But now there is a shadow, a shine on the wall ahead. And now the full light of day is an oddly shaped exit overhead with the fresh scent of air pouring in. All around, under this opening are burnt branches once use as torches. Did the young soldiers not need torches to return back through the tunnel? Or are they still at the alehouse? Maybe they came alone, and went back in groups. I would leave my torch here, had I a torch. Here is a stone for a step to make an easy climb out through the hole.

 (Continues tomorrow)

#50.6, Tues., Nov. 14, 2023

Historical Setting, 610 C.E. Besançon Fortress  

Here are some stones laid as steps down into the darkness. I let the door down above me in the basilica, with the rug staying nearly in place, and I descend into the darkness seeing only as far as the puddle of candlelight.

         The smell of oily smoke mingled in the stench of unkempt prisoners tells me more of the end to this tunnel than does my own candle. This is not the tunnel to the outside as I had hoped. I find I am now in that little make-shift space under the Father’s cell, where old stone supports were reinforced with an arch to strengthen the rotting Roman floors under the cage currently elevated from the dungeon onto the main level.  

         Just now the bishop is coming down the ladder and as the guard locks the cell behind the bishop he is telling him a monk is waiting in the church to see the Father next. But I can guess he won’t find this monk there.

         Here I am just where I first waited by the ladders on the dungeon level, under the cage. I’m avoiding the guard and the bishop just now, as I don’t want to alert anyone’s curiosity. I extinguish the candle so no one will notice me here in the shadows – here at the end of the church tunnel holding a candle with a still smoking wick. The guard is following the bishop down the ladder from the cell, so I slip back behind the wood laid against the back wall of this space under the cage.

         Oh, this isn’t a wall! These boards are hiding an opening into another tunnel. Of course! This is the tunnel I intended to find! I have no flame now and barely a leak of light seeping through the boards.  But surely this must be the way those young soldiers go when they make their clandestine pilgrimage to the alehouse. The wall sconce holds no torch but there are rags and tallow aplenty here, if I only had a flame. I feel my way through the darkness of this tunnel hopefully, to end up beyond the wall where I will find the others are waiting. Of course, it could be a maze of tunnels. But how can I know without risking that search? Dear God, stay close.

(Continues tomorrow)

#50.5, Thurs., Nov. 9, 2023

Historical Setting, 610 C.E. Besançon Fortress

I’m waiting on the lower level of the prison area, between the two ladders in this ancient place near prisoners in deplorable conditions. I hear the preaching voice of the Bishop above so I know he and the Father are only beginning the prayers and I will have the time it takes for a bishop’s pastoral prayer to figure out where the exit under the outer wall might be. I’m guessing that opening to a tunnel must be in the church.

         Dressed as I am, as a monk, it won’t be suspicious for me to prefer to wait in the church.  I go back up and let the guard know I will be in the church and will return when the Bishop comes back to the church. The stench below would drive any free man to find an excuse to wait elsewhere. The guard tells me that when the Bishop is not at the basilica the doors are locked so he will have to go along with me and unlock the church for me. He has two keys on the large metal ring. I can assume the other key opens the Father’s cell. As the guard leaves me alone in the church; he says he will tell the Bishop I am waiting there.

         This basilica is a massive open space, a holy wilderness of nothing. There is an apse and an altar at the farthest end. Mostly, it is a gaping space for armies of worshippers to stand for the Gospels and the mass. But on the north wall, behind the columns is a small table on a little square of a weave of a rug. On the table are candles and one is lit. Of course, this must be the entrance to the tunnel, unless the secret opening would be in the vestry. But I can imagine the opening wouldn’t be in a place where young soldiers aren’t allowed to go. So most likely it is here and not hidden in the vestry. And here are the candles that would be needed for lighting tallow torches. I search under the candle table. Yes, here it is. The little rug hardly is large enough to cover the door in the floor. So I light a candle to take along with me, as I lift the rug and the hidden door under it together.

(Continues Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023)

#50.4, Weds., Nov. 8, 2023

Historical Setting, 610 C.E. Besançon Fortress

My assigned part in Gaillard’s plan is simply to learn the layout of this prison and inform the Father. The plan was designed knowing this was an old Roman construction and we imagined the Father imprisoned more as described in the Acts account of Paul and Silas, chained in manacles. [Acts 16:16-40]. As mere mortals, without the power of earthquakes or angels to break the chains, we’ve brought a tool for that.

         The prison guard is posted on the main level by the descending ladder. He sent me down here to the lower level to wait, because the Bishop of Besançon is praying with the Father at this time. When the Bishop says the ‘amens’ and calls the guard to open the cell, he will come down the first ladder, and I can follow him up the other ladder to the cell so I can go in to visit with the Father.

         With the guard on the main level he can see the cage and the far wall of this dungeon where other prisoners are chained, as Paul was in the biblical account. But the guard can’t see me from his post, waiting here unless I stand near the prisoner’s wall.  There is a stench here, of human filth mixed with the suffocating oily smoke of tallow burning.

         These five in chains are a very dour lot. But since I’m waiting here as a monk I offer them prayers. One answers for them all with a groaning sound that clearly means ‘no prayers.’

         “Okay then, only my own needs shall be elevated in prayer.” And I pray aloud, “Dear God, may my moment waiting here give me a new understanding. Amen.”

         Now I ask if they have no one guarding them down here.

         The one who groans for the lot of them answers, “What do we need with a guard?  We have chains.”

         “Of course, I see that. But does a guard come and release you once in a while? Do they bring you food here?”

         “Why?”

         “Even the Celtic Rule allows a break from fasting. Are you given no food?”

         There is no answer, even from the grunting fellow. And it is obvious from the stench that they aren’t released for their personal needs. No wonder the guard waits above on the main level. And I’m glad to find the Father is not chained in this predicament also.

(Continues tomorrow)

#50.3, Tues., Nov. 7, 2023

Historical Setting, 610 C.E. Besançon Fortress

One of the guards stationed at the bridge gate of Besançon is guiding me through this walled city to the place where prisoners are chained.

         Inside, besides the church of the archdiocese, is also an old Roman amphitheater made of quarried stone which still remains. The wood floors have long since rotted away, which were once the ceiling of the dungeon area where maybe gladiators waited and lions were caged. So, with the floors gone that now, dungeon area is exposed to the main level. Only some of the old Roman things are disintegrating from rot. We still have these guardsmen and young soldiers in training coming to this main arena where gladiators once made sport of death. Here they practice lining up and moving in unison as one body, where order is the order.

         Today the unison they practice is drawing wooden sword facsimiles. In this more advanced age, the Seventh century, C.E., maybe humanity has finally outgrown the lust of audience applauding the spectacle of violence as entertainment.

And here the practice swords are made of wood.  I suppose Greg and Galliard will be at an advantage with their smelted swords if weapons would be needed. Of course, all the weapons I see here are not made of wood. The fortress guards have actual spears – polearms — with sharpened metal tips. And I still have bad memories of these things.

         The guard leads me across the practice area to the northeast wall of the amphitheater where we enter a dark hallway that would have been the place for the gates and cages used in the spectator sport. A cage, probably for a lion, is here on the main level and I can see that two men are inside this cage – one a bishop and the other is Father Columbanus.

         With the rotting of the floors, this cage is now supported from below on old arches, and a makeshift structure of beams setting it high up on the main level above the earthen dungeon area. But to get to the cage we must first descend one ladder to the earthen level, then, use a second ladder placed from the dungeon level up to the door of the cage where the Father is captive. Now on this lower level I see the wall is set with chains and manacles and here are five prisoners chained to binding stones.

         This is how we expected to find the Father. We didn’t plan on finding a main floor cage with a lock.

(Continues tomorrow)