Finally,some of the people there (even though I think they were really afraid)went up to him and grabbed hold of his arms,while he was swinging wildly at everyone around him.Other people grabbed his legs,and they really had to hold him tight because he was kicking harder than a mule.They held him down for quite a while.There were more than fifteen men on top of him,and he was still trying to hit them;and if they weren't careful he would punch them in the nose.
All the time that master of mine was on his knees up in the pulpit with his hands and eyes fixed on heaven,caught up by the Holy Spirit.And all the noise in the church--the crying and shouting--couldn't bring him out of that mystical trance.
Those good men went up to him,and by shouting they aroused him and begged him to help that poor man who was dying.They told him to forget about the things that had happened before and the other man's awful words because he had been paid back for them.But if he could somehow do something that would take that man out of his misery and suffering,to do it--for God's sake--because it was obvious that the other man was guilty and that the pardoner was innocent and had been telling the truth,since the Lord had shown His punishment right there when he'd asked for revenge.
The pardoner,as if waking from a sweet dream,looked at them and looked at the guilty man and all the people there,and very slowly he said to them:"Good men,you do not need to pray for a man in whom God has given such a clear sign of Himself.But since He commands us not to return evil for evil and to forgive those who harm us,we may confidently ask Him to do what He commands us to do.We may ask His Majesty to forgive this man who offended Him by putting such an obstacle in the way of the holy faith.Let us all pray to Him."
And so he got down from the pulpit and urged them to pray very devoutly to Our Lord,asking Him to forgive that sinner and bring back his health and sanity and to cast the devil out of him if,because of his great sins,His Majesty had permitted one to go in.
They all got down on their knees in front of the altar,and with the clergy there they began to softly chant a litany.My master brought the cross and the holy water,and after he had chanted over him,he held his hands up to heaven and tilted his eyes upward so that the only thing you could see was a little of their whites.Then he began a prayer that was as long as it was pious.And it made all the people cry (just like the sermons at Holy Week,when the preacher and the audience are both fervent).And he prayed to God,saying that it was not the Lord's will to give that sinner death but to bring him back to life and make him repent.And since the man had been led astray by the devil but was now filled with the thought of death and his sins,he prayed to God to forgive him and give him back his life and his health so he could repent and confess his sins.
And when this was finished,he told them to bring over the indulgence,and he put it on the man's head.And right away that sinner of a constable got better,and little by little he began to come to.And when he was completely back in his senses,he threw himself down at the pardoner's feet and asked his forgiveness.He confessed that the devil had commanded him to say what he did and had put the very words in his mouth.First,to hurt him and get revenge.Secondly--and mainly--because the devil himself would really be hurt by all the good that could be done here if the pardons were bought up.
My master forgave him,and they shook hands.And there was such a rush to buy up the pardons that there was hardly a soul in the whole place that didn't get one:husbands and wives,sons and daughters,boys and girls.
The news of what had happened spread around to the neighboring towns,and when we got to them,he didn't have to give a sermon or even go to the church.People came right up to the inn to get them as if they were going out of style.So in the ten or twelve places we went to around there,my master sold a good thousand indulgences in each place without even preaching a sermon.
While the "miracle"was happening,I have to admit that I was astonished,too,and I got taken in just like the others.But when I saw the way my master and the constable laughed and joked about the business later,I realized that it had all been cooked up by my sharp and clever master.
And even though I was only a boy,it really amused me,and I said to myself:I'll bet these shysters do this all the time to innocent people.
Well,to be brief,I stayed with my fifth master about four months,and I had some hard times with him,too.
