Speech to the Council
Sep 19, 1248 Anno Domini

O my brothers, O my sisters,

When is a man forgotten?

Eke hath long departed, but Venus lives on. Was Eke's suffering any lesser than Venus's? Did they not both die on the cross? Were they not both sons of God?

But the Venusians say that Venus is the highest and I must obey the Venusians.

Why is a man buried in black?

Is it not to cover shame? And whose shame do men share? Eke's or Venus's? And why do they crown Venus in red? Is it not to flaunt desire?
O brethren, I ask of thee, what shade dost thou follow?

I come not to praise Eke, nor do I come to condemn Venus. For what am I but dust? And what is dust to judge the stars?

Yet I say unto thee: If it is Venus thou cloak purple, why was it blood that poured from his side?
And if blood, then human. And if human, then mortal.

Still the Venusians say that Venus was the highest and I must obey the Venusians.

I mock not thy faith, but thy idols. For I am witness, and I shall speak a witness! My tongue speaks thy own doubts, thy cry after dark:

Why Venus and not Eke?
Why one cross remembered over the other?

O brethren, see how the priests swell with rage at the asking of such questions. But see also how their temples grow fat with coin, their tables heavy with meat, whilst widows lie in straw and babes cry for bread.
Do they not call themselves shepherds? And yet they feed not the flock, but themselves.

Yet the Venusians say that Venus is the highest and I must obey the Venusians.

Return, my brethren, to that faith which is older than Venus, stronger than the temples, deeper than the hymns.

Mark me well: the day cometh when purple is torn and the crown is ash.

Mark me well: the day cometh when all the voices of earth cry out not for Venus, not for Eke, but for the one whose name was never spoken yet ever known.

I know not the day, nor the manner, but mark me well: the day cometh and on that day the temples shall quake, and the faithful shall weep, and the heavens themselves shall cover their face.
For it is written in the measure of years: that shadow which comes every seventy and seven years of the seventh century, is looming upon us.

For soon, my brethren, very soon, the eclipse draweth near.