Lion Hearted

The Dancing Men

“Holmes had been seated for some hours in silence with his long, thin back curved over a chemical vessel in which he was brewing a particularly malodorous product. His head was sunk upon his breast, and he looked from my point of view like a strange, lank bird, with dull gray plumage and a black top-knot.”

Something small for @bennyboy-tallmadge 🙂‍↕️🫶

This is Aldo's favourite picture of Goffredo:

They had spent the entire day following Pope Innocent around the small town, blessing people, listening to their worries, and making sure the tiniest parish felt important to the Vatican itself. Aldo had admired him, truly. But after planning the trip for more than a month, travelling by public transport for over 5 hours and then being a duckling for the rest of the day brought even the Secretary of State to his limits regarding patience. He just wanted to go to the house they had rented for the weekend, sit on one of the terrace chairs, and drink a nice glass of wine. Yet, there was no end in sight. Thomas was no help in shepherding the shepherd towards ending the day. Seeing his oldest and best friend looking at the leader of the Catholic church with as much devotion and love as a husband would, Aldo was torn. Torn between wanting to tell Thomas to turn it down a notch and actively rooting for him. People could excuse his behaviour as being a good Dean, a good Christian, a good friend. So Aldo let it slide. But since Thomas spent the good portion of the day encouraging Vincent to follow his whims, Aldo was left to follow them alone. Well, not truly alone. There were several members of the Curia present to complete the entourage of Pope Innocent. But he wasn't in the position to fraternize with any of them. The assistants were scared of his need to neurotically question their preparation. The nuns were off-limits to talk to. The two remaining men, Giulio and Ray, had been inseparable as well. That left only one person, Aldo could walk with. The Patriarch of Venice, whose presence was supposed to highlight the integrity and unity of the church behind the relatively new papacy and who naturally had agreed to accompany them himself to offer insights into what a rural town of poor working families could need from their church.

"If I have to walk one more step, I will commit papacide."

The voice next to him was gruff but quiet, so Aldo didn't jump out of his skin when it disturbed his thoughts.

"Papacide?"

"Sì, like homicide, but the Pope gets killed."

"Careful with your words, Goffredo, or the guards will tackle you."

"Mah. First, I know you would like to see that. Second, you didn't seem to be offended by what I was saying, so you must agree."

"Don't put words in my mouth," he smirked and saw Goffredo's features match his in his peripheric vision.

"Cazzo, we have been running around like children on a class trip for hours, and I am not even allowed to smoke."

"So, what? Any idea on how to end our Odyssey?"

"Sure. I say I push you down a flight of stairs, we blame it on your fragile health and be done with this."

"Haha. Got anything better to offer?" Aldo gave the other man a sideways glance as they continued walking and was surprised to see him actually deep in thought. Vincent was still listening to an old man, that guided them through the narrowest streets in order to make the pope trace the steps of one important ancestor or another. The worst part was that Vincent actually seemed to enjoy it and by proxy, so did Thomas. They were doomed.

"Seriously, let's get out of here. It's not like they will notice."

"Sure, we'll just ditch the fucking pope. No big deal." His voice drenched in sarcasm, Aldo didn't even try to hide how stupid he thought this plan to be. But that was apparently lost on Goffredo because he suddenly took hold of his hand and dragged him up an old and used flight of stone stairs. "What the-"

"Shh, they didn't notice," Goffredo whispered and kept on yanking on Aldo's hand. Suddenly, the dim shadows of the small streets lifted, and the world was painted in a bright orange and golden glow. They found themselves on the towns outer walls, looking into a beautiful sunset.

"Wow...," was all Aldo could say, as the golden rays seemed to find their way into the darkest places of his mind, pushing away the dark clouds of stress, anxiety, and fatigue. This view made it worth it.

"Ah, fresh air."

Aldo's brain caught up to him again, and he looked at his partner in crime as he took a deep hit of his vape.

"Oh, come on. Seriously?"

"What? I had to breathe in the dust of this shithole for a day without any relief. Let me have this."

"You're incorrigible."

"You love it."

Aldo smiled and laboriously took out his phone with his right hand from his left pocket, not contemplating why he didn't let go of Goffredo's hand instead.

"Maybe I do," he whispered as he opened the camera. This sunset was worth having a tacky picture taken of. Suddenly, a voice cut through the air.

"Cardinale Bellini? Cardinale Tedesco? Dove siete voi due?"

"Cazzo, we've been caught!"

While everyone’s eyes were focused on the Ineffable Con and the Good Omens Graphic Novel over these past few weeks, our favourite Good Omens concept artist, Louis Ralph, has updated his portfolio with some yet unseen S2 photobashing work.

This piece, called ‘Burning’, depicts the surroundings of St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh skillfully transformed into Renaissance Vatican. The crowd gathered around the stake — including a very interesting instance of the long-haired bishop Crowley, in full black regalia with a mitra negra and a crosier, swapping sides with an earlier, slightly subdued version of the Globe Aziraphale — consists almost exclusively of members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard and the clergy, with the Pope himself overseeing the scene from a balcony in his traditional ermine-trimmed winter cape and camauro. All of them are witnessing a small miracle of unknown provenance: the blessing of rain falling exactly on the supposed witch and effectively stopping her trial by fire.

For those of you who have overlooked or forgotten the topic of the Good Omens minisodes cut out from S2 due to Covid restrictions, here’s the relevant quote from an official source pinpointing in time the full context of this particular artwork:

“Ones that we had planned as possible for Season 2 (that either didn't get written or didn't get filmed) included a Wild West one, a 15th century Papal one, an Arabian Nights one, and a 1960s American one with Crowley and Aziraphale female presenting. And we have the whole of human history as a canvas. But for now the ones you've got are all.”

For what it’s worth, the second half of the fifteenth century indeed saw a significant increase in the number of individuals, mostly poor and older women, who were hunted, charged, tried, and often executed as witches. The rise in condemnations was propelled by a series of papal bulls on the matter, the first from 1473, which attacked and condemned sorcery, thought to be practiced by witches. Popes of the first half of the fifteenth century issued bulls condemning witchcraft and magic as well, but not quite in the sense we think of today. And there’s one person we might consider as the source of the problem.

In 1484, a Dominican clergyman Heinrich Krämer (wider known under his Latin pen name Institoris) made one of the first attempts at prosecuting alleged witches in the Austrian Tyrol region. It was not a success: a professional barrister got involved, and Krämer expelled from the city of Innsbruck and dismissed by the local bishop as “senile and crazy”. So he did what senile and crazy men do best, even nowadays — he sat down and wrote a book in a desperate act of self-justification and revenge.

Not wanting to repeat the painful history from Tyrol, Krämer requested explicit authorisation from the Pope to prosecute witchcraft, together with another Dominican Friar Jacob Sprenger (believed by researchers to have had a personal feud with Krämer and trying to thwart his attempts locally). A papal bull Summis desiderantes affectibus was issued in 1484 in response to Krämer’s request, and two years later, his magnum opus was published.

Malleus Maleficarum (1486) made use of both falsified academic credentials and a new technology in the form of Gutenberg’s printing press to become an instant bestseller, second only to the Bible in terms of sales for almost 200 years. It appeared in 28 editions between 1486 and 1600 and was accepted by Roman Catholics and Protestants alike as an authoritative — albeit highly controversial among theologians — source of information concerning Satanism, and the preferable Christian response to this threat. The publication did much to spur on and sustain some two centuries of witch-hunting hysteria in Europe, promoting the implementation of Exodus 22:18: “You shall not permit a sorceress to live.”

from a bellesco fic i liked a lot HAAHHAA

yeah im doomed i liked the movie a lot earlier this year but why i am just getting obsessed now after months from when i first saw it,,,, idk HAHAH