He Was Provided With A Bell, And At A Certain
Hour In The Morning He Was Ordered To Ring It,
IF HE COULD; but if
no sound was heard at the appointed time, then knew his brethren
that he was
Either delirious or dead, and another martyr was sent
forth to take his place. In this way twenty-one of the monks were
carried off. One cannot well fail to admire the steadiness with
which the dismal scheme was carried through; but if there be any
truth in the notion that disease may be invited by a frightening
imagination, it is difficult to conceive a more dangerous plan than
that which was chosen by these poor fellows. The anxiety with
which they must have expected each day the sound of the bell, the
silence that reigned instead of it, and then the drawing of the
lots (the odds against death being one point lower than yesterday),
and the going forth of the newly doomed man - all this must have
widened the gulf that opens to the shades below. When his victim
had already suffered so much of mental torture, it was but easy
work for big bullying pestilence to follow a forlorn monk from the
beds of the dying, and wrench away his life from him as he lay all
alone in an outhouse.
In most, I believe in all, of the Holy Land convents there are two
personages so strangely raised above their brethren in all that
dignifies humanity, that their bearing the same habit, their
dwelling under the same roof, their worshipping the same God
(consistent as all this is with the spirit of their religion), yet
strikes the mind with a sense of wondrous incongruity; the men I
speak of are the "Padre Superiore," and the "Padre Missionario."
The former is the supreme and absolute governor of the
establishment over which he is appointed to rule, the latter is
entrusted with the more active of the spiritual duties attaching to
the Pilgrim Church.
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