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The question put by Monseigneur Fournier: What payment did you exact for these entertainments?

Only a few sous, my lord, no more. Less than the mimes take for their performance.

The question put by Monseigneur Fournier: But do not the mimes also solicit the permission of the bishop? And do they not share their earnings with Mother Church?

I do not know this.

At this point in the proceedings, Brother Arnaud de Beaune requested that he be permitted to speak at length so that he might report what he had learned in his capacity as a covert informant after secretly attending several performances of Lizier's device and in this manner observing with his own eyes the harm inflicted upon the vulgar folk. For, said Brother Arnaud de Beaune, the untutored people who came to watch what transpired in Lizier's ostel spoke of the spectacle they witnessed there as being more pleasing and more instructive than lessons read from Holy Scripture, and that they found it difficult to remove their eyes from the performance, this being the case because the delightful play of light and shadow upon their eyes brought with it a sort of excitement, as if they were seeing into another world through the peephole. Pray tell, Brother Arnaud de Beaune asked, what man has not the sense to see this as tantamount to witchcraft? And the attraction of these moving pictures was all the more enthralling when salacious images and carnal acts were shown, such as depictions of our parents Adam and Eve disporting themselves lasciviously in the garden of Eden, and of the temptress Salome dancing before King Herod, and of Queen Bathsheba making her toilet, and of the harlot Mary Magdalene offering her favors to Our Lord and His apostles.

The question put by Monseigneur Ladurie: Is this true? Does Lizier show such unseemly matters?

To which Brother Arnaud de Beaune replied:
He does, and with women as well as men in attendance.

(At the bidding of Monseigneur Fournier and the other worships, it was ordered that these lewd depictions be placed in evidence so that they might better be examined by the court. Brother Arnaud resumed.)

In addition, does it not smack of a kind of idolatry that Holy Persons should be delineated in so lurid and deceiving a way that an image crafted by human hands should appear more real than that which it represents? Indeed, by my own ear I heard Lizier boast that animating these painted images made him like God the creator.

The question put by Monseigneur Ladurie: And did you, sirrah, compare yourself to God?

Only as if far off, my lord. I spoke of myself being, as it were, a creator in small, for there is something in this art that gives a taste of bringing the dead dust to life.

To all this Brother Arnaud de Beaune added the following admonition:

My lords, these are troubled days for Mother Church. False doctrines have been spread throughout Langue d'Oc and especially the perverted teachings of the Cathari which threaten the very survival of our faith. Wherefore it is my opinion that the moving picture mechanism created by Raymond Lizier is a fiendish invention capable of seducing all who come to watch its deceitful figments, even as the serpent seduced our Mother Eve. Accordingly I appeal to you as my fellow inquisitors to seek out and destroy all such engines of delusion and punish their makers as corrupters of souls. Further, a warning should be issued throughout the district of Comte de Foix that those who have witnessed such presentations are infected with poisonous heresy and stand in danger of damnation, for which reason they must report to their confessor to be shriven at the earliest moment.

Following Brother Arnaud de Beaune's denunciation and upon due deliberation, the above-named Raymond was admonished, begged, and ordered by our said lords bishop and inquisitor once, twice, and three times for charity to leave and abandon the said errors and heresies of the Cathari and to denounce all his companions, accomplices, and fellow believers, imploring them to return to the faith and unity of the Roman Church.

To this the accused replied that he knew not what his heresy was, and that he was a poor, unlettered man who believed only that in which he had been instructed from his childhood, which teachings he could not truly foreswear for he did indeed believe that the world is torn between the light and the darkness and no man can tell which of the two gods shall prove victorious.

It was accordingly decided by the lords bishop and inquisitor that Raymond Lizier should be returned to the château of Allemans and there racked until he gave the names of any who aided him in devising his infernal engine, which is, in truth, the devil's plaything. Following which he and all those who participated in the making of the said devices should, in penalty and for penance for their offense, remain in strict confinement of the highest degree until the sentence of the court be determined. And further that Lizier's property should be forthwith confiscated to Mother Church, and that all other persons discovered to be in possession of moving picture machinery should be summoned for close examination.

Submitted to the diocesan court at Pamiers this twenty-second day of September in the year of Our Lord 1324 by master Guillaume Peyre-Barthe, notary of the diocesan court, who wrote and received all of the above by order of my lords bishop and inquisitor.

Addendum:
On Wednesday, the 30th of November 1324,1, master Guillaume Peyre-Barthe, notary of my lord the bishop of Pamiers, came in person to the château of Alle-mans and presented myself by the order of my lords the bishop and the inquisitor to the said Raymond Lizier to ask that he appear in person the following day to hear the
sentence passed on his above confessions. The said Raymond accepted this summons purely and simply.

The sentence having been given, it is inscribed in the Book of Sentences of the Inquisition. Upon being transferred to the hands of the secular authority, Raymond and his sons were burned and his wife placed in strict confinement for the remainder of her life. His youngest child Esclarmonde was spared and placed in the convent of the Poor Clares at Limoux.

[The following document is perhaps the most puzzling to be found in Jonathan Gates's possession. It was among Father Rosenzweig's tattered papers and urine-soaked clothing as they were sent to him by the French authorities after the priest's death in the asylum at Lyons. Jonathan preserved the papers, even though they seemed to be sheer gibberish, page after page of Roman numerals in no sensible order. What could it possibly mean? Some years later he found out from a surprising source. “It's a cipher,” Professor Faustus Carstad said at once when Jonathan showed him the papers. “The most secure cipher ever invented—used to record the top secret proceedings of the Holy Curia, the real inside dope. Absolutely impenetrable. The Mafia was once willing to pay millions to learn the code, but no deal. There are no more than a dozen men in the world who can read what you have here. Perhaps your Father Rosenzweig was one of them.” Turning to Jonathan with a wink, he added, “And I'm one of the others.” Carstad had learned the cipher while he was working in the Vatican archives on issues related to late medieval heresies. His teacher was a Polish Jesuit who was in charge of classified documents. “I pretended learning the cipher was just a lark, a sort of game. I taught him a few medieval military codes in return. Even so, it cost me over four hundred dollars' worth of pornographic books to get him to play ball. As unbreakable as the code may be, notice what you see scribbled here at the bottom probably by the Holy Father himself.
Hoc delenda est.
‘This must be destroyed.' That's ordinarily what happens to documents like this. They shouldn't even exist. Father Rosenzweig was either an insider or a thief.” Was Carstad willing to decode the papers, Jonathan asked. “Willing? You couldn't keep me from it at gunpoint. Drop by my house this evening—and bring some decent Scotch. No, make that gourmet coffee. This is going to be an all-nighter, my boy.” That night, as Carstad worked his way through page after page of the cipher, Jonathan took rapid notes. Of all the documents, the following struck both men as the most important.]

Minutes of the Synod for the Preservation of the Faith summoned at the order of His Holiness Innocent XI, March 23, 1679, for the purpose of granting audience to Father
Athanasius Kircher S.J. at his request.

Father A. brought to the attention of the Holy Curia certain facts in connection with his recent examination of the device known as the magic lantern. He explained how he was drawn to the study of this mechanism by his interest in optical phenomena, and especially the behavior of lenses. The which study had revealed to him ways in which this cunning device might be employed for the corrupting of souls. The results of his research have since been published in his treatise
Magna Ars de Lucis et Umbris,
with the exception of the material presented to the Holy Father at this synod.

Father A. recounted the principles of his research, namely the capacity of a wellcrafted, illuminated lens to cast an image upon a surface and in what way a lens might be used to enhance this image, whether making it larger or more impressive to the eye. He reminded the synod that he had demonstrated the fruits of his research on several previous occasions, including public audiences. And while his use of the magic lantern, it seemed to him, was harmless and diverting, he discovered that there lay a more pernicious purpose to which this phenomenon might be put. Namely, it was possible to animate a succession of images and so to give them a kind of fabulous life. And this accomplished, the image then becomes a kind of sorcery, capturing the observer's attention with so ruthless a tenacity that observers subjected to these enlivened images fall under an irresistible attraction as if their very soul had been ensnared.

And further, in answer to an inquiry from His Holiness, Father A. recounted how he had learned of this practice from a visitor from Toledo, one Don Pedro Molina y Perez who had served for eight years as Spanish ambassador at the court of the Sultan Al-Rashid of Morocco. During this period of service, Don Pedro was on two occasions invited to attend the sultan's court where certain entertainers styling themselves the Theatre of Miracles performed. These entertainers, who claimed to make their home in Turkish Anatolia, had invented a means of projecting images of inordinate size upon an illuminated screen, and then of tricking the eye in such a way that these images might simulate movement, as for example a match between wrestlers, the slaying of a lion, or the dance of a woman, the latter a shamefully indecent display. In this fashion the Theatre of Miracles was able to present something in the nature of a drama made up of animated images. Upon inquiring further into this remarkable phenomenon, Don Pedro was troubled to learn that some in the visiting troupe regarded this amusement more seriously, taking it to be a device for spiritual instruction. In this way Don Pedro learned that the perfecters of this mechanism spoke of themselves as Manichees, that is, believers in the two gods, though in what way the faith of the Manichees was contained in this entertainment, he was not able to discover.

Recognizing this to be heresy, Don Pedro reported what he had learned to certain officers of the Sultan's court, for he believed that those who believe so adamantly in the oneness of God as do the Musselmen would perceive the danger lurking in this seemingly innocent contrivance. But so slack was the sultan's spiritual authority that little was done to censor or impede the Theatre.

Don Pedro then offered the same warning to Father A., who, upon making further researches, was able to reproduce the illusion of movement and accordingly submitted
his designs for an animated magic lantern to the Holy Curia, with the further admonition that a body be formed to monitor and guard against such machines and keep careful watch for any group attempting to present entertainments based upon the illusion of movement. Upon further deliberation, the Holy Curia, with the firm endorsement of His Holiness, commissioned such a body under Father A.'s direction and designated that its name should be Oculus Dei…

[The following packet was also found among Father Rosenzweig's papers. The engraved invitation was addressed to Dr. Augustus LePlongeon, the French physician, photographer, and Mayan archaeologist who was then residing in San Francisco.]

October 5, 1885

Governor Leland Stanford requests the honor of your presence at a significant scientific event to be hosted at his home on the evening of October 18 at 7 P.M. Eadweard Muybridge, the distinguished photographer and the world's leading authority on animal locomotion, will demonstrate his Zoopraxiscope. This remarkable device captures and then projects photographic images on an illuminated screen in a manner that faithfully reproduces the perception of motion. This will be Mr. Muybridge's first presentation of his invention in the western United States since returning from his lecture tour to the capitals of Europe.

RSVP

[Attached to the invitation was the following clipping from the
San Francisco Call-Bulletin
for June 15, 1878.]

At the Palo Alto racetrack near the campus of Stanford University on June 15, 1878, the noted English photographer Eadweard Muybridge, currently resident in San Francisco, succeeded in photographing the movement of a horse running at full speed. The glass-plate negatives on which the successive images of the horse had been captured were developed immediately after the event and made available to the press for inspection. The event was sponsored by Governor Leland Stanford, who invited Mr. Muybridge to undertake this experiment and financed the equipment required. This consisted of twelve box cameras which were carefully located at fixed intervals along the track. The cameras were outfitted with electrical-operated shutters timed to open and close faster than in any previous photographic device. Scientists in
attendance predicted that a similar mechanism might one day be able to reproduce the illusion of movement as perfectly as the human eye itself. Adding to the excitement of the day's events was the report that, on the evening before, a would-be assassin had made an attempt on Mr. Muybridge's life. Armed with a Colt Army pistol, the man found his way on to Governor Stanford's estate, where Mr. Muybridge was staying. He attacked his victim in the garden just before nightfall. After getting off three shots in Mr. Muybridge's direction, the intruder was wrestled to the ground by several servants and a groundskeeper who succeeded in disarming him and turning him over to the local police. Though he spoke no English, the culprit was branded on his chest with a symbol that might be that of a religious order. Why he should bear Mr. Muybridge a grudge remains a mystery. The man, whose name remains unknown, is being held for trial.