Against the Inquisition by Marcos Aguinis

Author:Marcos Aguinis [Aguinis, Marcos]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781503949263
Publisher: Marcos Aguinis
Published: 2018-06-30T23:00:00+00:00

72

At the monastery in Lima, the sepulchral atmosphere grew. Prior Lucas Albarracín’s maladies had changed all routines and activities. Doctor Alfonso Cuevas, after another florid preamble, had spoken the terrible word “gangrene.” The moment was approaching for those heroic measures that he had referenced in earlier visits. The monks increased the honors, litanies, masses, and flagellations so that heaven might restore their leader’s health.

Brother Martín looked haggard and thinner than before. He took personal responsibility for the prior’s suffering. He visited his room frequently, changing water that had just been changed, and refreshing herbs that had only just begun to boil in their aromatic pots. He came and went in hopes that his exhaustion might be looked on kindly by the Lord, that he might then concede the awaited miracle. He fasted. He then attended to each patient and locked himself into his cell to flog himself with the intensity of a torture device. He placed rough cloth over his wounds and ran back to Prior Lucas’s bedside.

Doctor Cuevas asked for the order to call a meeting, as an urgent decision had to be made. The leg had to be amputated before the gangrene spread to the thigh and ended the man’s life. The monks sobbed and beat their chests with heartfelt mea culpas. The doctor brought another colleague, who examined the patient and agreed that the surgical procedure was absolutely urgent. He promised to arrange for skilled surgeons to come and perform the amputation.

Brother Martín offered his services throughout and was on the alert for the slightest request to send him off like a lightning bolt. The superior’s cell—where the treatment would be performed—was supplied with washbasins, wide braziers, bandages, salves, oil, mallow leaves, ground garlic, and pitchers full of liquor. Francisco helped Martín, eager to be present for the procedure.

On a small table covered in white cloth they arranged the instruments: scalpel, saw, chisel, hammer, tongs, and needles. To one side, they placed half a dozen cauterizers, which were long steel spatulas with wooden handles.

Doctor Cuevas excused himself from attending the operation because as a doctor he did not wish to interfere with the skilled surgeon, who ordered that, from the evening before, the patient should be made to drink a glass of liquor every half hour. Several monks offered to keep vigil beside the prior through the night, and they faithfully administered the drink with the help of an hourglass.

Never had the priest had so much to drink. At first, it made his throat burn and he protested weakly. Then he began to realize that he liked it, and he smiled. The monks recognized, in this smile, a sign from the Lord, and they gave thanks for the imminent miracle. Father Lucas asked for more liquor before the allotted half hour had passed. They reminded him of the surgeon’s instructions. The superior said, “I shit on the surgeon,” and demanded to be satisfied. The monks feared this ominous choice between committing a sin of disobedience or a sin of negligence.

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