Det er lenge siden sist nå, på tide med en liten historie:
Kong Ludvik IXs rettfedighet - et exempla

Ludvik IX (1214-1270) av Frankrike ble helgenkåret i 1297, 27 år etter sin død. Han var 1200-tallets mest sentrale figur innenfor kristendommen, kjent for sin fromme livsførsel, sine mange donasjoner til kiren og ikke minst for sine to korstog. På sitt siste korstog til Tunis i 1270 døde han av sykdom.

Den franske historikeren Jaques Le Goff har behandlet helgenkongens liv svært inngående i sin biografi, Saint Louis, som også finnes i engelsk oversettelse. Le Goff har i sitt tredelte verk en svært grundig gjennomgang av kongens liv, hvordan han ble oppfattet, framstilt og ikke minst hvordan han som person og konge ble"konstruert" i samtiden. Eksempler på slik konstruksjon er hvordan kongen ble brukt i flere exempla. Dette var kortere historier som prester og predikanter ofte brukte for å "krydre" sine prekner. Exempla-ene utga seg for å være sanne for å framstå som ekempler enten til etterfølgelse eller advarsel.

Den følgende teksten er en slik exempla, hentet fra et 1200-talls manuskript fra Tours. Teksten er lettere mordbid eller et eksempel på middelaldersk svart humor, om du vil. Jeg gjengir den på engelsk, slik den står å lese i Le Goffs bok:

The king Saint Louis had taken to reading the entire prayer book from beginning to end in the evening each year on Good Friday. One year, a certain person who belonged to a noble family was imprisoned in the Chatelet for the many offenses he had committed. When Good Friday came, the king withdrew to his chapel and became absorbed in his pious exercise.

However, accompanied by the king's own son and his brothers the princes, the family and friends of the prisoner came all the way into the sanctuary to pester him. When he saw them, he placed his finger on the verse where he had stopped reading so that he would be able to resume his interrupted reading in the same spot. One of the lords who had been nominated to speak for the group approached him and said, "Very illustrious sire, today is a day of mercy and thanks. It was on a day like this that our Lord redeemed us and pardoned the thief from high on the cross; he died while praying for his tormentors. So, all of us present here, we throw ourselves at your feet, most illustrious sire, and humbly beg you to follow Christ's example by having pity on the noble captive who is pining away in the dungeons of the Chatelet."

The pious king heard them with goodness; he was ready to exercise his clemency when, while lifting the finger that he held pressed in the prayer book, he read the verse that goes: "Happy are those who uphold justice and render their judgments each day of their lives." He thought for a moment and, then, his only response was to tell the supplicants to bring the provost of Paris and returned to his reading.

The group thought that they were going to get their pardon for the guilty party and rushed off to send for the provost. The magistrate soon arrived before his lord. Louis requested him to read off the crimes committed by the prisoner, if he knew about them. With this demand, the provost, not daring to hide the truth, obeyed the order and rattled off a long list of crimes horrendous enough to make one shudder. After hearing him, the king ordered him to let justice take its course and to lead the criminal to the gallows on that very day with no regard for the occasion they were celebrating.

Jaja, slik kan det gå. Selv om ikke sannhetsgehalten i denne lille fortellingen kan verifiseres, viser den hvordan helgenkongens samvittighet tidvis kunne bli fanget mellom å framstå som den milde, kristne kongen og som den rettferdige kongen.