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ders and said: "My words are exact and literal, yet the man cannot tell what I mean. I have disputed with Augustine and Jerome, with Gregory and him of the Golden Mouth, St. Chrysostom. And they comprehended me still less. Miserable men walk groping in the dark, and Error lifts over their head her monstrous canopy. Simple and sage alike are the plaything of eternal falsehood." And Satan said again to the holy man Giovanni: "Have you won happiness? If you have happiness, I shall not prevail against you. A man's thoughts are only stirred by sorrow, and their meditations by grief. Then, tortured by fears and desires, he turns anxiously in his bed and rends his pillow with lies. What use to tempt this man? He is happy." But Fra Giovanni sighed: "Sir! I am less happy since listening to you. Your words trouble my mind." On hearing this, Satan cast away his pastoral staff, his mitre and his cope; and stood there naked and unashamed. He was black and more beautiful than the loveliest of the Angels. He smiled gently, and said to the holy man: "Friend, be comforted. I am the Evil Spirit." VIII THE BURNING COAL Now Brother Giovanni was simple of heart and spirit, and his tongue was tied; he knew not the secret of speaking to his fellow-men. But one day when he was praying, as his habit was, at the foot of an ancient holm-oak, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and saluting him, said: "I salute you, because it is I who visit the simple-minded, and announce the mysteries to virgins." And the Angel held in his hand a burning coal. This he laid on the holy man's lips, and spoke again, and said: "By virtue of this fire shall your lips remain pure, and they shall glow with eloquence. I have burned them, and they shall be burned. Your tongue shall be loosed, and you shall speak to your fellows. For men must hear the word of life, and learn how they shall not be saved but by innocency of heart. For this cause the Lord has unloosed the tongue of the simple and innocent." Then the Angel went back again to Heaven. And the holy man was seized with terror, and he prayed, saying: "O God, my heart is so sore troubled I cannot find on my lips the sweet savour of the fire Thy Angel hath touched them with. "Thou wouldst chasten me, O Lord, seeing Thou dost send me to speak to the folk, who will not hearken to my words. I shall be hateful to all men, and Thy priests themselves will declare, 'He is a bl
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