to let her stop.
Her son,
John,
did not wonder
at her request
and,
one night,
Ana de Peñalosa
gathered the dust
of Müntzer’s body.
Place 13 —
I do not know, at this moment, why he would be called the Eudes Star; but, always thinking about Müntzer and the place his head left behind, I began to see him behind the page (I myself writing and burdened by the power of writing) with a star on top of his shoulders, or rather, with a source of divergent light atop the continuation of his neck. Now he walks with us always and the place where he can be found changes with the hours of the night, in the procession; strangely, he shines the most during the day, oscillating his profuse brightness. He leans over the bear’s shoulders and the star’s radiance is cast onto his claws, which hold Müntzer. Ana de Jesus worries because she still doesn’t know how he, with this featureless light, will eat and arrive at a precise point of exile.
(Where, writing the text, he landed, murmured to himself, “ora pro nobis.”)
He put the Living Flame on the Dark Night and the Dark Night on the Spiritual Canticle; he wrote Müntzer’s open letter, Müntzer who the bear, in front of him, carried in his paws; he wrote a new book, The Book of Communities, unknown in his Complete Works.
Müntzer praised the bear’s hands:
“hand of stone, meditative, you could belong to Saint John of the Cross”
he praised the night:
“it is at night that he makes contact with the light, when sleeping (deeply), he is dead to himself. But, awake and alive, he is in reach of that which dies, when he sleeps deeply. In wakefulness, he makes contact with that which is sleeping.”
Ana de Jesus, Ana de Peñalosa, Saint John of the Cross followed the bear; forced to walk upright because of Müntzer who, dead and sleeping, he carried in his paws, he looked at the trees laden with ice, at his height, and did not eat their bright fruit
abandoned text, he often picked it up.
Heart of the Bear now had hands
John of the Cross counted the crystal leaves.
They say this text
They say the bear
They say this text suffers for having been abandoned.
They say this text was not made,
they say this written text is abandoned.
They say it must be seen, it must be seen.
The text was not made, Saint John of the Cross’s face came to an end. Saint John of the Cross lifted his other face, sat down where there was room; he began to embroider words with his finger on Müntzer’s incomplete body.
Ana de Peñalosa looked at her two sons, read the writing that covered the back of the headless one. Rapid, astonished sounds came from his breathing, the wind that had accompanied them since the desert could be heard.
Ana de Peñalosa lay back, Müntzer’s head was born from her legs, adult, the eyes scarcely unclosed. Having been found, the body stood up and said goodbye to the bear who, like a bear, had moved far away. Ana de Peñalosa began to say in a melodic, enamored voice
—They cut off Thomas Müntzer’s head. My son, Thomas de Peñalosa. He may have been born in 1488 but I don’t remember how he was born. He was the founder of this socio-religious reform. His intellectual training was excellent. He studied the German mystics of the fourteenth century.
He followed Luther and abandoned him.
In Zwickau, where he was a minister, he met enlightened people, who did not acknowledge any differences between inspirations, prophecies, revelations, and the Scripture.
My son was very impressed. He became a good preacher. Peasants and artisans listened to him because the economic conditions had created a deep discontent. When he attacked the opulence of the Church and the rich, they cast him from his parish. He fled to Bohemia, where he published a Manifesto in which he considered himself an instrument to purify the earth and the Church.
But they were quick to cast him out of Prague as well. He wandered through central Germany for almost two years.
Then, for several months, he was the parish priest of Allstedt. At that time, he made several liturgical reforms. He wed.
In the winter of 1523-1524, he founded the League of the Elect, to carry out the program of the Prague Manifesto.
His preaching in the presence of Princes John and Frederick of Saxony provoked a tension so unbearable that, feeling himself in danger, he abandoned Allstedt. He returned to wandering for several months. He stopped in Mülhausen in February 1525. My son Thomas then devoted himself, with all his prestige, to the peasant revolt that spread through Thuringia. He drafted the Letter stating their demands.
During the battle of Frankenhausen, on May 15, 1525, the peasants were finally defeated by the Lords. My captured, imprisoned, and tortured son had to declare that he recognized the errors of which they accused him and he was beheaded on May 27, 1525.
The night of the desert ended (but had it really ended?), a long time passed (and even years) before the night of exile began. A period of calm interspersed with unexpectedly painful moments, which were like harbingers and messengers from the future night of the spirit.
Ana de Peñalosa returned to the house with only one room and only one window. Saint John of the Cross and Thomas Müntzer went into the shadows and abandoned her.
Place 14 —
But sometimes, brought by the river, they moored at the small harbor near the courtyard and she came to speak to them from inside the house, which had no interior, nor exterior.
what news of exile?
what atrocious marvels of the journey?
how had his preaching gone in the presence of Princes John and Frederick of Saxony?
how had he been captured, imprisoned, and tortured?
how had he escaped from the prisons of Toledo?
how goes the book?
how goes the battle?
had they staunched the blood of Pegasus the horse?
would Heart of the Bear return?
who will not be sad to have survived?
She laid her head on her arms, John and Thomas Müntzer put the same hand on her shoulder and their voices could be heard entering the house amidst the noise of the water oscillating around the boat.
The window of Ana de Peñalosa’s room was still illuminated; they raised their heads; they looked at the lamplight which could be seen, even though the sun was out; as was his habit, John of the Cross meditated that he was going describe it; that stopping, keeping his hand in exile, would be impossible.
He touched the nape of his neck fearfully. Ana de Peñalosa was certain that he, in the nape of his neck, had already guessed a word. He turned his body slightly, put his fingers flat on the page
John’s eyes filled ; where he saw the words: “Good morning, author of the battle,” for Müntzer was written: “Good morning, mother.”
She wanted to tell them how they had been born, but the afternoon had ended, time stopped on the boat.
Thomas Müntzer lowered his head
John of the Cross unmoored the boat
and she said how did his preaching go in the presence of Lords John and Frederick