“Your sharp eyes have surely also discovered by now that this convent differs a little from other convents. But it is by no means—know you—the only convent of its kind. It’s not just you Utraquists who discern the need to reform the Church, not just you strive for that. And though it sometimes appears to you that you are radical in your strivings, it is not the truth. There are those who desire further-reaching changes. Much further-reaching.

“You are familiar, I presume,” she continued, “with the thesis of the brethren of the Franciscan Order, which drew from the wellspring of great and secret wisdom, the same one fathomed by Joachim of Fiore, under the influence of the sacred will and sacred thought? Let me remind you: our world is divided into three Ages and three Orders. The Age and Order of the Father, which lasted from Adam to Christ, was a rule of harsh justice and violence. The Second, the Age and Order of the Son, began with the Saviour and was a rule of wisdom and mercy. The Third Age dawned when the great Saint of Assisi took up his work and is the age of the Holy Spirit, a time infused by love and mercy. And the Holy Spirit will rule until the end of the world.

“The power of the Holy Spirit, says the inspired Meister Eckhart,” said the abbess, placing her hand on the open book, “awakens that which is purest, most subtle, most noble, awakens the spark of the soul and raises it up to the very mountaintops in love and glory. It is as a tree: the power of the sun draws what is purest and most subtle in the tree’s root and carries it up to the branches where the blossom burgeons forth. In the same way, the spark of the soul is carried out to the light, aroused to its first beginning, and achieves absolute unity with God.

“See wherefore, young man, that the coming of the Age of the Spirit makes the intercession of the Church and the clergy vain and unnecessary, for the entire community of the faithful is enveloped by the direct light of the Spirit. Through the Spirit, it unites and is one with God. Without intermediaries. Intermediaries are unnecessary. Particularly sinful and false intermediaries.”

“Indeed.” Reynevan cleared his throat and gathered the courage to speak. “We have, it seems to me, similar outlooks and designs. For Jan Huss and Hieronim said quite the same, and before them Wycliffe—”