David Morrell: The Covenant Of The Flame

Spain, 1391.

Archdeacon Ferran Martinez, driven to excess by his fervent Catholicism, preached increasingly inflammatory sermons against all heretics. On 15 March, Ash Wednesday, his charismatic hate-filled oratory aroused his parishioners to such a frenzy that they stormed from his church toward the Jewish quarter of Seville. If not for the orderly minded civil authorities, a massacre might have ensued. Instead two leaders of the mob were seized and scourged. But their punishment, far from being a discouragement to fellow bigots, made the leaders martyrs and fueled the fires of their followers' hate. Anti-heretical fury spread from Seville to neighboring cities and finally throughout Spain with the terrible consequence that during the summer of 1391 an estimated 10,000 disbelievers were executed, most by beatings and stonings.

Several, though, were put to the torch.

France.

The religious mania in Spain was not unique. Since the start of the Middle Ages, a heresy derived from ancient Mideastern theology had attracted so many followers that the Church felt threatened. The heresy, known as Albigensianism, maintained that good and evil were balanced forces, that two Gods – not one -controlled the universe, that Satan was equal to, in combat with, and as cunning as the Lord. The body – flesh – was Satan's domain. The mind – the spirit - was the path to salvation.

The thought of two Gods horrified the Church. Christ, the physical incarnation of the Blessed Father, could not have been evil. A version of God in the flesh, He could not have been part of the Devil's work when, crucified, He sacrificed Himself to redeem His decadent children. The heresy had to be crushed.

The resultant crusade against the Albigensians was merciless. Tens of thousands died. But the heresy persisted. Thousands more died until at last in 1244 at the mountain fortress of Montségur in the Pyrenees of southwestern France, the last stronghold of the Albigensians was surrounded, assaulted, and set on fire.

But there were rumors that the heresy – despite the crusade's brutality – had not been eradicated, that a small group of heretics had used ropes to descend from the mountain the night before the massacre, taking with them a mysterious treasure, and that this core of heretics had impossibly survived to disperse, to burrow deeply, their repulsive errors festering.

Spain, 1478.

The massacres at Seville and Montségur were but two examples of religious hysteria in the Middle Ages. Jews, Moors, Albigen-sians, and Protestants became the common target of a papally authorized purification of the Faith, its official title the Inquisition. The northern countries of Europe rejected the Inquisition's influence. But Italy, England, and France committed atrocities in its name.

Nowhere else, however, was religious intolerance as extreme as in Spain. There the Inquisition, initially conducted by the sunken-eyed Dominican priest Tomas de Torquemada, resulted in tens of thousands of tortures and executions. The intent was to educate heretics and to guide them toward the true belief.

Victims had their hands tied behind their back, from which a rope was raised, the pressure on their shoulders excruciating.

'Confess!' they were ordered.

' Confess ? the victims moaned.

'Your heresy!'

' Heresy ?' the victims wailed.

'Raise the rope!' the Inquisitors commanded.

Arms were strained. Shoulders popped.

If the victims survived, they were stretched on the rack, and if they still survived but persisted in denying their theological error, the Inquisitors thrust a tube of cloth down their throat. Water was poured. When the victims came near to drowning, the tube forcibly extracted – brought with it not only water but blood.

These victims had lost both their property and the right to question their accusers. Helpless, they had only two choices: to confess and beg for mercy but, more important, to implicate fellow heretics; or else to insist that they were innocent, that jealous neighbors had lied when informing against them. To confess, even if the victim was not a heretic, brought the chance for freedom. To insist that there'd been a mistake, to refuse to implicate others, caused the harshest penalty.

At the quemadero , the place of burning, the accused were dragged from prison for their auto-da-fé or act of faith. All wore yellow robes and peaked caps. Those who'd been sentenced to death had black flames – pointing downward – on their garment. The others could still not be sure that they would survive. Only when they climbed to the scaffold would they be certain of the Inquisitors' judgment. Some, a few, were set free. Their confessions had been believed, although penance would have to be suffered. Others were sentenced to prison, a reprieve of a lingering death.

Still others were strangled.

But the worst offenders were burned alive at the stake. Their ashes were scattered, along with those of suspected heretics who'd died before the Inquisitors could question them. Even after death, those suspected heretics were not immune, their bodies exhumed and purified by flames.

This zealous protection of the Faith persisted for a longer period of time than is generally realized. For centuries, from the close of the Middle Ages into the Renaissance and then to the so-called Age of Enlightenment, the Inquisition enforced its beliefs. Only in 1834 was the institution finally disbanded.

Officially, at any rate. But there were rumors.

SENATE CLEAN-AIR BATTLE LOOMS WASHINGTON, DC, 10 June (AP) – In this year's most tense confrontation between Democrats and Republicans, the Senate today begins its debate on the controversial Barker-Hudson clean-air bill, which advocates that the nation not only adopt but exceed the stringent atmosphere-control policies recently adopted in California .

'Our air's as foul as the smoke from a field of burning tires,' Senator Barker (Dem, New York) announced in a smoggy press conference on the steps of the Capitol Building yesterday. 'Take a deep breath. That is, if you're brave enough. Try not to gag. We ought to be wearing gas masks.'

' And stay indoors,' the bill's co-sponsor, Senator Hudson (Dem, New Hampshire), added. 'My wife and I went out for a stroll last night. Five minutes was all we could bear. We rushed back home and made sure all the windows were closed . Igave up smoking a dozen years ago. Might as well not have bothered. According to my statistics, the atmosphere's so filthy we inhale the equivalent of two packs of cigarettes every day. If you don't care about yourselves, then at least protect your children. We've got to stop destroying their and your lungs .'

The Barker-Hudson bill advocates a complete ban on smoking in all public places, an exorbitant fine for car and truck manufacturers if they fail to reduce emissions within two years, an equally exorbitant fine for industries that fail to reduce