These thoughts were in my mind as I gazed on the legendary figure of Ubertino. My master introduced me, and the old man stroked my cheek, with a warm, almost burning hand. At the touch of his hand I understood many of the things I had heard about that holy man and others I had read in the pages of his Arbor vitae crucifixae; I understood the mystic fire that had consumed him from his youth, when, though studying in Paris, he had withdrawn from theological speculation and had imagined himself transformed into the penitent Magdalen; and then his intense association with Saint Angela of Foligno, who had initiated him into the riches of the mystic life and the adoration of the cross; and why his superiors, one day, alarmed by the ardor of his preaching, had sent him in retreat to La Verna.
I studied that face, its features sweet as those of the sainted woman with whom he had fraternally exchanged profound spiritual thoughts. I sensed he must have been able to assume a far harsher expression when, in 1311, the Council of Vienne, with the decretal Exivi de paradiso, had deposed Franciscan superiors hostile to the Spirituals, but had charged the latter to live in peace within the order; and this champion of renunciation had not accepted that shrewd compromise and had fought for the institution of a separate order, based on principles of maximum strictness. This great warrior then lost his battle, for in those years John XXII was advocating a crusade against the followers of Pierre Olieu (among whom Ubertino himself was numbered), and he condemned the monks of Narbonne and Beziers. But Ubertino had not hesitated to defend his friend’s memory against the Pope, and, outdone by his sanctity, John had not dared condemn him (though he then condemned the others). On that occasion, indeed, he offered Ubertino a way of saving himself, first advising him and then commanding him to enter the Cluniac order. Ubertino, apparently so disarmed and fragile, must have been equally skillful in gaining protectors and allies in the papal courts, and, in fact, he agreed to enter the monastery of Gemblach in Flanders, but I believe he never even went there, and he remained in Avignon, under the banner of Cardinal Orsini, to defend the Franciscans’ cause.
Only in recent times (and the rumors I had heard were vague) his star at court had waned, he had had to leave Avignon, and the Pope had this indomitable man pursued as a heretic who per mundum discurrit vagabundus. Then, it was said, all trace of him was lost. That afternoon I had learned, from the dialogue between William and the abbot, that he was hidden here in this abbey. And now I saw him before me.
“William,” he was saying, “they were on the point of killing me, you know. I had to flee in the dead of night.”
“Who wanted to kill you? John?”
“No. John has never been fond of me, but he has never ceased to respect me. After all, he was the one who offered me a way of avoiding a trial ten years ago, commanding me to enter the Benedictines, and so silencing my enemies. They muttered for a long time, they waxed ironical on the fact that a champion of poverty should enter such a rich order and live at the court of Cardinal Orsini… William, you know my contempt for the things of this earth! But it was the way to remain in Avignon and defend my brothers. The Pope is afraid of Orsini, he would never have harmed a hair of my head. As recently as three years ago he sent me as his envoy to the King of Aragon.”
“Then who wished you ill?”
“All of them. The curia. They tried to assassinate me twice. They tried to silence me. You know what happened five years ago. The Beghards of Narbonne had been condemned two years before, and Berengar Talloni, though he was one of the judges, had appealed to the Pope. Those were difficult moments. John had already issued two bulls against the Spirituals, and even Michael of Cesena had given up — by the way, when does he arrive?”
“He will be here in two days’ time.”
“Michael … I have not seen him for so long. Now he has come around, he understands what we wanted, the Perugia chapter asserted that we were right. But then, still in 1318, he gave in to the Pope and turned over to him five Spirituals of Provence who were resisting submission. Burned, William … Oh, it is horrible!” He hid his face in his hands.
“But what exactly happened after Talloni’s appeal?” William asked.
“John had to reopen the debate, you understand? He has to do it, because in the curia, too, there were men seized with doubt, even the Franciscans in the curia — pharisees, whited sepulchers, ready to sell themselves for a prebend, but they were seized with doubt. It was then that John asked me to draw up a memorial on poverty. It was a fine work, William, may God forgive my pride…”
“I have read it. Michael showed it to me.”
“There were the hesitant, even among our own men, the Provincial of Aquitaine, the Cardinal of San Vitale, the Bishop of Kaffa…”
“An idiot,” William said.
“Rest in peace. He was gathered to God two years ago.”
“God was not so compassionate. That was a false report that arrived from Constantinople. He is still in our midst, and I am told he will be a member of the legation. God protect us!”
But he is favorable to the chapter of Perugia,” Ubertino said.
“Exactly. He belongs to that race of men who are always their adversary’s best champions.”
“To tell the truth,” Ubertino said, “even then he was no great help to the cause. And it all came to nothing, but at least the idea was not declared heretical, and this was important. And so the others have never forgiven me. They have tried to harm me in every way, they have said that I was at Sachsenhausen three years ago, when Louis proclaimed John a heretic. And yet they all knew I was in Avignon that July with Orsini… They found that parts of the Emperor’s declaration reflected my ideas. What madness.”
“Not all that mad,” William said. “I had given him the ideas, taking them from your Declaration of Avignon, and from some pages of Olieu.”
“You?” Ubertino exclaimed, between amazement and joy. “But then you agree with me!”
William seemed embarrassed. “They were the right ideas for the Emperor, at that moment,” he said evasively.
Ubertino looked at him suspiciously. “Ah, but you don’t really believe them, do you?”
“Tell me,” William said, “tell me how you saved yourself from those dogs.”
“Ah, dogs indeed, William. Rabid dogs. I found myself even in conflict with Bonagratia, you know?”
“But Bonagratia is on our side!”
“Now he is, after I spoke at length with him. Then he was convinced, and he protested against the Ad conditorem canonum. And the Pope imprisoned him for a year.”
“I have heard he is now close to a friend of mine in the curia, William of Occam.”
“I knew him only slightly. I don’t like him. A man without fervor, all head, no heart.”
“But the head is beautiful.”
“Perhaps, and it will take him to hell.”
“Then I will see him again down there, and we will argue logic.”
“Hush, William,” Ubertino said, smiling with deep affection, “you are better than your philosophers. If only you had wanted …”
“What?”
“When we saw each other the last time in Umbria — remember? — I had just been cured of my ailments through the intercession of that marvelous woman … Clare of Montefalco …” he murmured, his face radiant. “Clare … When female nature, naturally so perverse, becomes sublime through holiness, then it can be the noblest vehicle of grace. You know how my life has been inspired by the purest chastity, William” — he grasped my master’s arm, convulsively — “you know with what … fierce — yes, that’s the word — with what fierce thirst for penance I have tried to mortify in myself the throbbing of the flesh, and make myself wholly transparent to the love of Jesus Crucified… And yet, three women in my life have been three celestial messengers for me. Angela of Foligno, Margaret of Citta di Castello (who revealed the end of my book to me when I had written only a third of it), and finally Clare of Montefalco. It was a reward from heaven that I, yes, I, should investigate her miracles and proclaim her sainthood to the crowds, before Holy Mother Church moved. And you were there, William, and you could have helped me in that holy endeavor, and you would not — ”