Read Inquisition for Free Online Page B

Rinaldo da Concorezzo, wanted. The accusations against the templars were too serious and their power too great for the Church to run the risk of absolving them. The order must be destroyed, and its leaders burned at the stake. The job of every good Inquisitor was to help the Church reach that objective, even if it meant making difficult decisions.
    Uberto da Rimini sat down at the foot of a tomb to think, while the friar went on working without stopping or raising his head.
    The evildoers did not concern themselves with obeying the law when they committed their crimes. Why should those who fought against them have to be hampered by a series of useless regulations? If he wanted to find the corpse of a templar showing signs of the Devil’s work, as indicated in the informer’s letter, Uberto could not follow legal channels. He had sent for a trusted man, a former priest who lived at the edge of the law. However, what he meant to ask of him would not receive the Archbishop’s approval, so he had to be very careful.
    The youth who had escaped arrest the night before was one of Mondino de Liuzzi’s students. And the fact that the physician had denied Uberto entry to the school of medicine still seemed highly suspicious to him. He would have to investigate, but in secret. Then, once he had found proof, Uberto would be able to work out how to do things according to the law. There was no doubt that this case could reveal itself as crucial in speeding up the fall of the templars. If he were successful, many high-placed prelates, and perhaps the Pope himself, would approve of what he had done.
    On the other hand, if he failed he would cover it all up. In that way he would risk nothing.
    A friar came walking swiftly towards him and told him that a certain Guido Arlotti wished to speak to him on an important matter.
    Guido Arlotti was the former priest whom Uberto had been waiting for. He was anxious to see Arlotti but didn’t want to be seen dirty and sweaty as he carried out his penance like a peasant.
    He cut short the friar’s explanations with an abrupt wave of his hand and told him that he would receive the visitor in his study. Then he set off towards a gate that led to the orchards, rapidly refreshed himself at the well, cleaning his hands of the stains of the weeds, and entered the monastery by a back door, while thunder sounded in the distance.
    Guido stood waiting for him in the study. He was thickset with short reddish-brown hair. His knee-length sleeveless tunic showed off his muscular arms and thick calves clad in woollen stockings. On his feet he wore flat laced sandals, not elegant but made of good leather. Looking at him, no one would have said that he had once been a priest. Now he earned his living by exercising the questionable art of procurer of women, but he was still a Christian in his way. He had a genuine fear of hell and helped the Church in its job of singling out people suspected of heresy in return for money and indulgences for his sins.
    Uberto greeted him and offered him a glass of water from the jug on the table, which Arlotti refused. Thus they immediately came to the point of the visit, both remaining on their feet. This was a way of underlining that Guido should not really be there and that the meeting would be as short as possible. Uberto was pleased to see that the discomfort was not only his own. The de-frocked priest also felt out of place in the house of God, and this made it easier to lend the right tone to their relationship.
    ‘I came as soon as I received your message, father,’ said Guido. ‘How can I be of service?’
    Uberto took a step away from him. Guido didn’t exactly smell bad, but his body and clothes still bore the cloyingly sweet odours of the perfumes burned in brothels.
    ‘I must entrust you with a most delicate task,’ he said.
    ‘I’m listening.’
    ‘I have reason to believe that a physician of the Studium has given refuge to a fugitive from justice, probably a