"Your aim is evil!" exclaimed the Jesuit in stern tones, "and it is that of the devil, for you have worked for your own glory, and not for that of the holy Church, as you have sworn. Therefore, I command you to destroy, with your own hands, the idol of your life—your great fame with posterity—by perverting history and writing it, not as it is, but as it ought to be. I order you to cast away fame, to serve the cause of the Roman Church in the North. You shall write the history of Gustaf I. and Carl IX. in such a manner that all they have done for the Reformation may redound as a ruin and curse both to them and their kingdom. And I will that you base this new history on such reliable documents, that in the eyes of the people they will be above suspicion ... documents which do not exist, but which you shall manufacture ... documents of which the falsity may possibly be discovered in a future generation, but which will at present produce the desired effect."
"And thus," said Messenius, in a voice trembling with the most varied emotions—fear, anger, and humiliation—"I shall stand before posterity as a base falsifier, an infamous perverter of historical truth."
"Yes, and what then?" continued the Jesuit with a sardonic smile; "what matters it, if you, miserable tool, sacrifice your name, provided the Church gains its great victory? Of what advantage is the praise of men, if your soul burns in the eternal fires of hell; and what matters humanity's contempt, if you, through this sacrifice, gain the martyr's crown in Heaven?"
"But the cause of truth ... the inflexible judgment of posterity."
"Bah! what is historical truth? Well, is it the obedient slave who follows at the heels of human errors ... the parrot which thoughtlessly repeats all their folly? Or is it not rather truth, such as it ought to be, purified from error, freed from crime and folly ... God's kingdom on earth, as wise as it is almighty, as good as it is holy and wise?"
"But is it then we who dictate to God what is good and right? Has He not Himself told us that truth, such as it is?"
"Ha! vacillating apostate, you still dare to argue with your superior about right and wrong. Choose, obey or disobey! Choose on one side temporal and eternal death, and on the other the joys of Paradise and the glory of the saints. Yet a word, and upon this depends your weal or woe. Will you obey my commands?"
"Yes, I will obey," answered the crushed and terrified prisoner. And the Jesuit went away silent and cold, with a ruler's nod that the slave had his good grace.