The story of how a conflict over the Godwalkerhood of The Magus led to the foundation of the Order of St Cecil.

“Once, for example, an alternately raging and sullen figure was questioned in French about the Black Prince’s massacre at Limoges in 1370, as if there were some hidden reason which he ought to know. Curwen asked the prisoner – if prisoner he were – whether the order to slay was given because of the Sign of the Goat found on the altar in the ancient Roman crypt beneath the Cathedral, or whether the Dark Man of the Haute Vienne had spoken the Three Words.”
H.P. Lovecraft, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

The Canon’s Tale, or, the tale of St Cecil and the Moor; a summary

Prologue: The Canon rebukes his yeoman for his contempt of the Art , and promises to tell a tale of two men who were truly great alchemists.

The first tale:
Cecil, an English Canon, is in Avignon in the service of a Papal legate . The legate is concerned that the plague, which has come from the east, is an act of Moorish sorcery intended to destroy Christendom and prevent any future Crusades. He tells Cecil to investigate.

Cecil visits a man renowned both for piety and knowledge, the hermit Ludvigius of Limoges, last survivor of the last crusade. He claims that his longevity is due to having drunk from Christ’s cup. Ludvigius tells Cecil that the plague is due to an evil Moorish sorcerer who resides in Granada, in an enchanted cave. Ludvigius has the silver key to the cave, but his old age has prevented him from confronting the sorcerer. Cecil agrees to accompany Ludvigius to the cave.

Cecil and Ludvigius journey south across the Pyrenees and through the Christian kingdoms of Spain, following the pilgrim way of St James. Cecil sees that the armies of Alphonso X are on the point of severing Granada’s contact with Muslim Africa by conquering Gibraltar, following which Granada will surely fall to Christendom, and rejoices . They enter Moorish Granada and make their way to the cave-site.

Cecil uses the key to open the cave, but is then struck with a paralysing enchantment, and is helpless as the Moorish sorcerer emerges. To his horrified eyes, Ludvigius then reveals himself to also be a sorcerer, who aims not to stop the Moor but to surpass him in evil. He charges that the Moor has squandered his power as the demon Yogge-Sothothe’s avatar on earth chasing carnal pleasures, instead of opening the Gate. As the challenged, the Moor may name the terms. .

The Moor perceives Cecil’s hope that the armies of Alphonso X will destroy Moorish Spain and him, and so sets the terms as: “what wyzard can, through mastery of the art, bring death to those with Christ within their heart” . He works a spell, concluding with the Three Words, “plague take them”, which brings the plague down on Alphonso’s army, killing Alphonso and 2,000 others. Cecil is sent under a geas to verify that this is indeed what has happened.

Challenged to match this, Ludvigius replies that he is not such a fool as to attempt his own magic on the Moor’s ground; furthermore, the Moor has had 600 years to prepare , and in any case has just limited the number of victims available. He tells the Moor and Cecil to meet him in Limoges in 20 years time. Ludvigius vanishes and Cecil flees.

Interlude: Cecil returns and tells the Legate of all he has witnessed. The Legate and Cecil lay plans; in 20 years, the Cardinal must be pope, and a man of great power and Christian virtue must be in command of Limoges to prevent Ludvigius’ sorcery. As the rulers of France are corrupt, perhaps there is a candidate in England? Subsequently Cecil returns to England and becomes tutor to Edward, the Black Prince. He encourages him to invade France.

The second tale: Edward is laying siege to Limoges <1370>. Cecil infiltrates the town and discovers the signs of devil worship in the cathedral, concluding that the whole town is in league with Ludvigius. Cecil reports to Edward, who tells his army to take the town at whatever cost and slaughter all those within it. In the aftermath, Cecil grieves at the loss of life but rejoices that Ludvigius’ sorcery has been stopped. Suddenly, Ludvigius appears and tells Cecil that he has completed Ludvigius’ spell; driven by fear of Ludvigius, Edward has killed in excess of 3,000 innocent Christians. The Moor appears and charges that this was not true sorcery but mere fear, lies and trickery. Ludvigius replies that this is the nature of sorcery today and calls upon The Black Man to adjudicate. The Black Man appears and orders the Moor to give his book of spells to Ludvigius. The Moor complies, and then departs to “Tartary” to seek revenge on those who gave Ludvigius his key. Cecil curses Ludvigius in the name of Jesus, to which Ludvigius replies that if Cecil is so confident that Jesus is on his side, he can ask him in person. He casts a spell which calls upon Yogge-Sothothe, and Cecil disappears in a flash of lightning.

The third tale: The legate, now Pope , has heard nothing from Cecil. He asks another priest about Cecil, who asks if the Pope means St Cecil of Spain, the companion of St James. The Pope has never heard of this saint, and tells the priest to seek out records of him. The priest returns from the Vatican archives in great fear and wonder, for he has found a sealed box, many hundreds of years old, with an inscription signed by Cecil commanding that it not be opened save by the Bishop of Rome in the year of the fall of Limoges.

The Pope opens the box and reads the scrolls within, which are described only as “heaping blasphemy upon blasphemy”. They also say that Cecil has hidden more books near the cave of the Moor, after he journeyed to Spain with St James .

After reading the scrolls, the Pope loses all enthusiasm and will to live, rapidly sickening and dying. On his deathbed he orders several of his most faithful followers to form a new monastic order, the Order of St Cecil, to combat the practice of sorcery and the Devil’s wiles. In order to keep the story of Cecil secret, he also tells them to proclaim adherence to St Jerome when outside their cloisters, and to search Spain diligently for Cecil’s hidden books.

The tales concludes with a warning:
The lesson, aye, I now draw near it
And you, my yeoman, would do well to hear it
Unless your faith exceeds the Pope in Rome
Cross not the men YOGGE-SOTHOTHE calls his own.

PCs doing some historical digging will find that a series of books consisting of text stamped onto lead foil, allegedly by St Cecil, companion of St James, were indeed uncovered in a Roman-era cave in Sacramonte, Granada between 1596 and 1605. They were written in a “Solomonic” cipher. In 1642 the Vatican seized the books as “heretical forgeries” and has denied all access to them ever since.