Part 16 (1/2)
”Good brother Loysik,” said Ronan, ”this charter guarantees our rights; thanks to you for having obtained it; but did we not have our swords to defend ourselves?”
”Oh, always that old leaven of Vagrery! The swords, always the swords!
Thus the best of things turn to evil through abuse and hot-headedness!
Yes, the sword, resistance, revolt carried to the point of martyrdom whenever your rights are violated by force! But why shed blood, why fight when one's right is recognized and guaranteed? Moreover, who tells you that you would again prevail if again put to it? Who tells you that the Bishop of Chalon, or his successor, would not, in case you refused to recognize his spiritual jurisdiction, call some Burgundian seigneur to his aid? You would know how to die, but why die if one can live free and peaceful? This charter binds the bishop and his successors to respect the rights of the monks of the monastery and of the inhabitants of this valley. It is an additional guaranty. Should it ever be trampled under foot, then the hour will have sounded for heroic measures. Until then, my friends, spend your days in the tranquility that this charter insures to you.”
”You are right, Loysik,” replied Ronan, ”that old leaven of Vagrery is ever fermenting in our heads. But is not this submission to the spiritual jurisdiction of the bishop, a submission that the charter consecrates, is it not a humiliation?”
”Did he not before now exercise more or less spiritual authority over us? Formally to recognize his spiritual authority is a matter of but slight importance; to deny it would be to expose ourselves to interminable troubles. And all to what purpose? Is not the inviolability of our goods and our property acknowledged?”
”That is so, brother.”
”This charter, that, thanks to the firmness with which you resisted his iniquitous claims, instead of cowardly resigning yourselves to usurpations--this charter bears in itself the germ of the progressive enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of Gaul.”
”How it that, Loysik?”
”Sooner or later, what we have done in the Valley of Charolles will be repeated in other provinces; the old Gallic blood will not forever remain torpid; some day, waking up at last to their own numbers and power, our sons will in their turn say to the seigneurs and bishops: 'Recognize our rights and we will recognize the powers that you have arrogated to yourselves; if not, war--war to the bitter end--war to the death--war to the point of extermination!”
”And yet, Loysik,” cried Ronan, ”what a shame, what an iniquity to recognize that accursed power, born of a b.l.o.o.d.y and confiscatory conquest! To recognize the right of theft, of brigandage and of murder!