The Inquisitor's Diary by Jeffrey Lewis

Author:Jeffrey Lewis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Inquisition, New Mexico, Marrano, 17th Century
ISBN: 9781908323323
Publisher: Haus Publishing

7 March

Because of my involvement in discovering and arresting the Dumb One, the Inquisitor General has informed me, as I fully expected, that my further involvement in the case, in the formal sense, will be confined to being a witness. As such, today I gave my deposition. Having refreshed my memory with these journal pages, I was able to testify with great accuracy as to dates, chronologies, et cetera. I was also able to admit into testimony several highly favorable reflections on the Dumb One’s character, his courage in the face of savage attack, his care for the sick, his mildness of manner. At the same time, I omitted any reference to the Dumb One’s ‘voice’. This is my private insight. It would of course be inadmissible at trial. It might even serve to impeach me: Fray Luis might use it to suggest that I was quite mad!

The prosecution of the matter has been assigned to Fray Sebastian de San Martin, the very colleague who gifted me with this journal, and whose reputation as a fair and relentless promotor fiscal is unimpeachable.

8 March

But what if I am quite mad? What if it is neither God nor Satan who brings the Dumb One’s words into my head, what if ‘his’ words begin and end in the chambers of my mind? To hear voices. Isn’t this where madness begins?

I remind myself, with greatest urgency, how often and how unfailingly the Dumb One has confirmed the meanings conveyed in his ‘voice.’ There, on the delicate strands of those confirmations, lies the proof of my sobriety. There lies my proof of You.

13 March

Fray Sebastian has indeed shown he means business. Today, less than one week after my deposition, he issued his clamosa. The charge against the Dumb One: judaizing. Fray Sebastian has apparently decided to treat the various philosophical affirmations made by the Dumb One in answer to my inquiries as merely the opinions of an untutored simpleton. The lighting of sabbath candles is another matter entirely. This is the sole allegation he must prove for a conviction.

I must say I admire Fray Sebastian’s prosecutorial cleverness in thus framing the indictment. Everything that might be excused by insanity, or shaded into mootness and ambiguity by advocacy, he has eliminated. All he needs show are a few simple facts. And in my deposition he plainly believes he has them.

Indeed, we spoke briefly after the clamosa was issued. We had not seen one another, outside the formal setting of the deposition room, since my departure. He inquired quite graciously of my welfare and my various adventures. I went so far as to put in, so to say, a ‘good word’ for the Dumb One on a personal basis, while emphasizing to Fray Sebastian my profound hopes for reconciling him to the Church’s bosom. As any good promotor fiscal should be regarding a case he is now prosecuting, Fray Sebastian was noncommittal as regards my personal musings.

17 March

I have decided, due to the nice coincidence of it

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