The Voyage of the Short Serpent Quotes

“Shortly upon their departure, while I was at prayer in an attempt thus to replenish our supplies, since for lack of wafers (which had been stolen and consumed) I was not able to celebrate the Mass, one of the men cut off his own hand, to eat it. Weeping, he told us that since it was frozen, it was no good for aught else. For the cold did intensify our suffering so; the harshness of our own winters and the dangers of our glaciers are, in comparison, but the mildness of the gardens of Italica. The torments of hunger and cold were now augmented by the stench of putrefying flesh from the frozen limbs, too foul to bear description here on parchment. In my weakened state, I found the strength, as per Your Grace's instructions, to exercise my extremities, and thus did I avoid having to lose any myself. Alas, several of the men did not have such fortitude, and I was obliged to amputate more than one limb with the axe, sewing up the wounds with twine. Their groans tore from my heart what little feeling the cold had left there. I forbad them to do as their comrade had done by eating the rotting flesh from which I had severed them. One of them replied that the season was not Lent, and proceeded to devour his own toes. Compassion stayed me from punishing such blasphemy.”
― Bernard du Boucheron, The Voyage of the Short Serpent

“Above all, you will ascertain the state of the Christian population, in number and in spiritual fervor as well as the correctness of its religious practice, from the Rogations to All-Saints' Day and Christmas; the state of their morals will require your particular attention. You will investigate if wives are faithful to their husbands, and whether the husbands stay within the bounds of acceptable debauchery; or if, instead of limiting themselves to fornicating with their neighbors' wives and maidens, they do it with their own daughters or mothers, or even go so far as to engage in sodomy in the winter months.”
― Bernard du Boucheron, The Voyage of the Short Serpent