Carl Ellis Journal March 1929

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Friday, 1 March 1929 -- London -

One year ago today we were in the snow somewhere in Turkey. On the surface it seems we have come a long way since then, but how much has really changed?

A great deal, inside. In the heart.

Tony and I had a long talk yesterday. He feels that Pierre was probably a bad priest, and Isilie a good one, but he was measuring by the rather byzantine standards of the 14th-century Church. The issue was left unresolved, after I pointed out that there was a difference between a 'good' man and an efficient one.

Actually, his thesis was that Pierre was too close to his people, that a proper priest must be loved but also distant. We are all judging by the stories of recent years; how can we know what he was like in his youth? And I think of that fragment of vision, the eager young man's passionate desire to KNOW, to be swept away by the revelation of learning and the sheer joy of finding God's order in all things, and I think maybe Tony was right, but for the wrong reasons.

Zigfried told me that story, did he not? Then why does it feel now so vivid, as though the revelation was my own? I had to search for a while to convince myself that the vision did not come from some private source or inward searching.

This morning I awakened with a new thought. What if the Henry Kramer in Marklin's letters is the same man that wrote the Malleus? According to Tony's papers from Rome, Heinrich Kramer and Jakob Sprenger were sent as inquisitors in 1243 to root out the monastery in Trujillo -- what if they were co-opted? True, the monastery was brought down ... but several of the leaders (Isilie included) escaped.

1243 - that is not right, is it? Must check some dates! Even if Tony is right, and the name is merely pseudonymous or coincidental, it is still another label for which we may search.

So here we are in London. I have called her** home, we spoke briefly. She was very guarded, and did not sound well. Even allowing for the unexpectedness of my call, it feels wrong somehow. Perhaps there are others with her. Perhaps they wait for us. We shall have to be prepared.

In any event, if the tide is right, we shall sail this evening.

Later -- Early evening now, after a long day. Very tired; but also running hot, very ready. I do not want to spend much time on this, but the book stays with Julian if anything should happen.

I was right about one thing: the Malleus was not written until the 1480s! So, either its authors have a rather odd notion of honoring their spiritual forebears, or else Sprenger (Spengler? Spencer?) and Kramer were already two hundred-odd years of age at that time! So it is circumstantially likely that the witch hunts were used, if not actually devised, by the Black Man and his ilk precisely to bring down neutrals and opposition, and to sew so much superstition and fear that they were left a virtual monopoly on spiritual investigation in Europe, except for the weak, the flawed, mercenaries and would-be Satanists; a very ripe field for the plucking! Thank heaven for Pierre.

On the Families: There are two of them inside, Miriam (I hope) and another. And a third, watching, outside. This is getting more complicated than I had hoped. I pray, I pray -- I do not want confrontation, or violence -- but what else may there be? Are they alert? Will they fight?

I will not. That I know.

So we are going in soon. We sail on the 3AM tide. One way or another.

**Presumed to be a reference to Miriam Roth.