3
One morning Padre Vincenzo had to pass through the Rotonda[1] on business of his community. A temptation of the throat[2] took him as he saw a pair of fine plump pigeons such as you, perhaps, cannot see anywhere out of the Rotonda hanging up for sale. Padre Vincenzo bought the pigeons, and took them home secretly under his cloak. In his cell he plucked the pigeons, and cooked them over a little fire. The unwonted smell of roast pigeon soon perfumed the corridor, and two or three brothers, having peeped through the keyhole and seen what was going on in Padre Vincenzo’s cell, ran off to say to the Father-General,
‘What do you think Padre Vincenzo, whom we all reckon such a saint, is doing now! He is cooking pigeons privately in his cell.’
‘It’s a calumny! I can’t believe it of him,’ answered the Father-General indignantly.
The spying brothers bid him come and see.
‘I am certain if I do, it will be to cover you with confusion in some way or other for telling tales!’ replied the Father-General as he went with them.
As they passed along the corridor there was the smell of roast pigeon most undeniably; but when the Father-General opened the cell door what did they see?
Padre Vincenzo was on his knees, praying for forgiveness in a tone of earnest contrition; round his throat were tied the two pigeons, burning hot, as he had taken them from the fire. A spirit of compunction had seized him as he was about to accomplish the unmortified act of eating in his cell in contravention of his rule, and he had adopted this penance for yielding in intention to the temptation.
[1] ‘Rotonda,’ the vulgar name of the Pantheon, gives its appellation to the market which is held in the ‘Salita de’ Cresconzi’ and other adjoining streets. [↑]
[2] ‘Gola,’ the throat; used for ‘gluttony.’ [↑]