Tauler took up his tale again. “Húska Loquis was no longer among the Příběnice outcasts—they were now led by the preacher Petr Kániš and his cronies Jan Bydlín, Mikuláš Slepý, Trsáček and Burján. They announced the abolishment of all family ties and invalidated marriage. They proclaimed brotherly equality and absolute sexual freedom. They claimed that they were pure, like Adam and Eve, and among the pure there was no room for sin. They cast off their robes and paraded naked, like Adam’s state before the fall, and soon acquired the popular nickname of ‘Adamites.’ They began to indulge enthusiastically in mass orgies. However, internal squabbles and differences soon emerged among their ringleader priests—it seems the conflict was less about religious questions and more about the division of their harems. Several ringleaders left, taking with them small gaggles of followers and flocks of young women. As a matter of fact, most of the women were happy in the Picardian communes, where the idea of complete sexual equality was promoted. It was presented, nota bene, in such a way that any woman could sleep with and fuck whoever she wanted to. That freedom was actually sham, for Kániš and the other priests played the role of cockerels in those henhouses. But the women were so captivated, so full of promiscuous mysticism, that they vied with each other to serve some ‘holy man,’ viewed spreading their legs as a privilege, a religious service, and literally regarded it as grace if in his goodness a ‘holy man’ deigned to sanctify their readily proffered arses—”

“Well,” Amadej Baťa interrupted philosophically, staring at the backside of one of the wenches serving the players, “such is woman, lust incarnate. And insatiable in her urges. Thus it has been ever since the world began, and will be in saecula saeculorum…”

“Talking about skirt as usual, are you?” said Scharley, sitting down, evidently bored with the game.

“I’m giving your companion a brief history lesson,” Berengar Tauler replied.

“Then I’ll gladly listen.”