Reflections

 

 

How he hates heretics.

Holding his arms out so his servant can place the heavy velvet robes over them, he laments the waste of time and manpower needed to wring confessions from their traitorous tongues.  The whippings, the floggings, other more tedious tortures when they don’t repent quickly enough.

The servant fastens up the front of the red robe, the colour of blood.  This is one of the things that makes it all worth it, the feeling of rich fabrics across his skin, the imperial figure he cuts when he walks into the audience chamber.  But sometimes he wonders if it’s the costume they’re bowing to and not the man.

But that doesn’t matter.  He is the one who has to root out the heretics; he is the one who has to assign their penance, whether it be through banishment or being burned by God’s cleansing fire.  He is the one who holds the ultimate power of life and death throughout the civilized world.

He lifts his chin as the stiff collar is fastened around his throat.  It’s the only part of the costume he hates.  It reminds him of the collar one would put on a slave and reminds him that ultimately, he is only God’s tool.  No, he tells himself, you are as close to God as a mortal can ever be.

He wonders how the cardinal is doing with their latest guest with the servant makes sure the robes are draped properly.   His son and heir isn’t squeamish about getting his hands dirty, he’s just as likely to be wielding the whip himself as he is to let others do it for him.  He knows the cardinal will be on his knees afterwards to do his penance for the pain he must inflict to mete out the Church’s proper punishment, but that will never stop him from doing his duty.

The heavy gold chain of his office is placed reverently over his head and the servant fusses with its position until he waves him off.  Just another symbol that he is chained to the church and the people it watches over, along with the ornate gold crosier he carries that says that he is God’s shepard to His people.  That is why he hunts down the heretics and brings to them penance or punishment and that is why he wears the symbols of servitude, because he is God’s living representative on this earth and that is a calling he takes very seriously.

He turns, inspecting his appearance in the mirror before gesturing to his servant that he will use the zucchetto as his headwear.  He isn’t going to a formal audience, just meetings with other high-ranking servants of the Church, so the heavy mitre can remain behind.

He gazes again into the mirror.  It is finally complete.  He has been transformed by silk and velvet, by collar and chains, from Rodrigo Borgia to Pope Alexander VI, Sovereign of the State of Vatican City, Bishop of Rome, Servant of the servants of God, Vicar of Christ. It is his duty to mete out penance and forgiveness; in his hands rest the souls of ordinary mortals, to guide them into God’s light and protect them from heresy that could cause them to stray from the true path and if this ceremonial attire that makes him look truly like a king assists in that role, then it is to the benefit of mankind.