TE17 Mysterious Montenegro

Dominik

Abbey of Sergius and Bacchus held his tongue and blushed at the same time.

It seemed to me that we reached the coast of Dioclea before we had even properly put out to sea and, praise be to God, we eluded pirates and storms. It was onlywhen I was alone again inmy cell, I remember, that I realized howcourageous every one of Dominik’s words had been. In the silence, as I lit the oil lamp, the face of Brother Elia appeared in my mind, with his cunning eyes. Archbishop Gregory presently received the pallium from Pope Alexander, who thus revoked his earlier bull and rectified the injustice to the Dioclean Church. And we gathered at the archbishop’s residence to celebrate that great day.

XV

The Holy Land is overrun by the infidels. Saladin routed the Christians and entered Jerusalem. A new Bernard of Clairvaux emerged to incite to holy war, and crusaders were on the march once more. A Teutonic Order was born, setting itself the goal, like the Hospitallers and Templars, of protecting the grave of Jesus. Emperor Frederick the German 12 and his host drew near the Byzantine Empire the same summer as we were defending the last foot of Voislavić Dioclea.

12 . Frederick I “Barbarossa,” Holy Roman Emperor.

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