musicians of old

Chapter 794 "Witch"

"Music desecrated by the devil is more terrible than the Black Death."

This is the general perception of people of this era.

Whether they are common people, royal nobles, or clergy, almost all of them have an in-built collective fear of "dirty art."

For example, they believed that listening to the music directly would cause the soul to rot, reading the music would burn demonic symbols into the eyeballs, and even touching the parchment would cause filth to seep into the blood.
So at the entrance to the dungeon in the special area, the monks first prayed on the altar, reciting the prayer in the Psalms, "You shall not fear the terror of the night", and then pierced their fingertips with silver tuning forks, mixed their blood with mineral powder, and drew spells on their foreheads. Finally, they arranged several people to chant the Creed at the entrance and placed an hourglass, fearing that the "purification ceremony" would fail due to a timeout.
Only Fan Ning watched them struggle quietly, and then he was still the first one to step in.

"Foolishness."

"Music reflects a person's divine conscience and moral standards. As long as one has faith in the Holy Spirit and can distinguish right from wrong, whether the notes written by others are brilliant or clumsy is just a matter of whether they sound pleasant to the ear. How can it affect the purity of one's own soul?"

It was quite ironic that among these people there was the senior clergyman who had just questioned Fanning in the secret meeting room.

Not only them. Even Bogre himself, last year, without knowing it in advance, "had close contact with heretical music without purification ceremony", and then he still nervously grabbed Fanning and repeatedly questioned him for two hours.
In short, since the "purification ritual" is so cumbersome and dangerous, if these monks were not assigned the task of inspection or patrol, they would absolutely avoid "heretical music" as much as possible.

Only Fanning has a closer working relationship with the police, so in most cases this becomes his one-man show.

Deep down, Fanning had always felt that this was ridiculous and disdainful, but he neither expressed it nor was too lazy to discuss or preach about it.

In the eerie corridor covered with layers of "Exorcism Talismans", he took half a step ahead without looking around, passing through iron rings, charcoal braziers and numerous torture instrument ledges.

Everyone stopped in front of a prison cell.

The ground was covered with rotten grass that covered the bloodstains. A man with disheveled hair was slumped in a chair and fell asleep, with a finger clamp and an iron virgin standing next to him.

"Master Scribe, please."

A certain monk, still reciting the Creed, opened the secret compartment outside the cell and carefully removed the sheepskin music score with silver pliers.

Fanning glanced at him and took the sheepskin music score with his bare hands.

The prisoner Barentello was a poet before his arrest, and his heretical work is the plainsong collection "The Young Magic Horn".
Under the terrified gaze of the crowd, he signaled the jailer to bring the torch closer, then picked up the quill and turned the page to sketch.

These "blasphemous scores" were naturally considered impossible to purify through ordinary burning, and had to be tortured in prison together with the heretics to "wear off the devil's strength" and "dismember the devil's minions".
The so-called "dismemberment" actually means that Fanning cuts out a certain augmented fourth interval, or blacks out a profane rhythmic pattern.
Finally, at the public trial, the fire was lit by praying to the gods with the help of a ritual, and then the fire was added under the stake for the execution of heretics.
“Click—”

Fanning threw the "dismembered" music score back into the secret compartment and closed the bolt with his bare hands.

Several monks around him made the sign of the cross on their chests.

Go to the next prison.

Patrol, torture, dismemberment, interrogation, and torture. Fanning accompanied the monks of the Inquisition and repeated one or several of the above tasks.

It's all the same and boring.

But now the scope of heresy investigation has been greatly expanded. By tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, won't all these empty cages and dungeons be filled up? Fanning sighed inwardly, and couldn't help feeling more uneasy and hesitant. Guido da Lezzo Monastery is the center of sacred music art. Over the years, devotees and pilgrims have come in an endless stream, and countless manuscripts of works that sparkle human spirituality are preserved here.

Right now, these music manuscripts are still there, temporarily detained here together with the "heretics". There are still a batch of them in his own scriptorium that have not been transferred in time, but more of them are previous years' works used by the church choir, and they will all be implicated.

And so on until Easter day.
Do we really have to burn them all?
Fan Ning moved his feet with a heavy heart and came to the innermost prison cell with everyone else.

The area here is slightly larger, and the hay on the ground is relatively clean. A large bunch of rusty chains hangs in the air, like a gallows or a swing.

The silhouette of a brown-haired girl came into Fanning's sight.

What is particularly eye-catching is her neck, where there are several areas of pink, translucent, crystal-like skin, which look like bruises left by pinching a violin, or some kind of birthmark.

"Nancy?" Fanning asked in astonishment.

The girl turned around after hearing this, and a flash of surprise flashed across her face as she met an old friend. She spoke in a weak and gentle voice:
"Mr. Fanning, nice to see you again. I heard from others that you have been promoted to chief scribe. I wish you peace and prosperity."

"."

If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, and the jailer had put a torch in to illuminate the unique birthmark on the man's neck,
It was really hard for Fanning to connect the girl in front of him with a sallow face, wearing moldy coarse cloth and eating from a feeding hole in the wall, with the famous "sacred music improvisation genius" Nancy from the Motlawn area!
The two had only met once at a Christmas celebration two years ago, but she had been submitting sacred music works to the monastery for many years in the form of family donations and private manuscript signatures.

And incredibly, there are so many revelatory masterpieces among them, which is why Fanning was chatting with them at the celebration that year.

"Nancy Esterhazy. Nancy Esterhazy." Now Fanning probably understands why she is behind bars.

The several big families in the Motraun area each have their own prominence, and the Esterhazy family is even richer. However, at the beginning of this new year, the cardinal repeatedly stated in public that "the wicked work for a false reward, but he who sows righteousness will reap a real reward."

Combined with the context of some of the speeches, it seems that the spearhead is subtly directed at the Esterhazy family.

After the signal was released for a while, the lord did not seem to show any attitude of protection. Sure enough, their family head was soon arrested on charges of "tithing tax collection, smuggling of holy objects, and lending for interest".

Of course, this later affected many members, but the reasons were different.

"Idol worshippers love lies. They bless with their mouths but curse in their hearts." The monk nearby reminded Nancy after hearing her response to Fanning.

"I will delete this person's records one day." Fan Ning made a serious frown.

This was not the place or time to talk, so he gestured for everyone to leave.

"You must not reduce the food provision for the time being, and do not impose unnecessary punishments, because the final decision of the matter will be made by the masters above. If you plan too much on your own, you may be tempted by the devil."

Everyone nodded like garlic.

When it comes to examining heretical art, Fanning's professional authority is unparalleled. Since he said so, it must mean that the situation of this female prisoner named Nancy is even more complicated and troublesome!
She is young and beautiful, has a soft and moving voice, and has pink bruises on her neck. What if she is a witch! ?

(End of this chapter)