The Legend of Il Separatio

The Legend of Il Separatio

Codex Lugubrum (manuscript issued in 1535) has still remained one of the anonymous medieval books banned by the Vatican, and it was only the anonymity that could provide protection to the author against the long hand of the Inquisition. In its pages, a character issues forth with such a strong symbolism that, once problematized, it could put down the entire scaffolding of our spiritual existence. This is Il Separatio, the Separator.
According to the legend, at the beginning of times, along with the separation of light from total darkness, a boundary was created. This boundary represents an entity whose real name cannot be uttered: Il Separatio, or Annonnimus.

Codex Lugubrum renders the story of a knight of noble origins by the name of Amantes, in fact an assassin (the action takes place in the XIIth century), paid by kings and aristocrats in order to do away with their enemies. He was renowned for being a professional in those times. Having never failed, he was capable to exterminate anyone, at any time, no matter how influent the victims could have been. He did not choose his victims, he would only choose the amount of money to charge for the job. Among his victims there were kings, princes, duchesses, even illustrious churchmen. He would charge money to Venetians, Genovese or whoever could afford it.

This mercenary has a revelation around the age of 50. He realizes that one of the kings he had murdered had been a good, decent man – his only guilt was to have defended his people, so he didn’t deserve to die. From that moment on, the mercenary changes his mentality completely. One by one, he starts to take vengeance on all those who had ordered the abominable crimes. In the process, he finds out that someone was the key-target of all those bloodthirsty desires: an old monk lying somewhere in an underground dungeon. His theories had created a dangerous atmosphere among the most influential people of the age. Amantes has only little time to implement his plan of saving the monk, as the monk was about to be executed the morning after, by breaking on the wheel. Amantes breaks off at night, and takes the old, ill man out of the dungeon. Beside carrying him on his back, he needs to put up a fight against some guarding soldiers. Amantes is seriously injured. His wounds are not mortal, but losing blood on the way to the next village may cause him death. Finding no nearby village, the two of them make a stop in a forest. The old man tells him “God bless you”, but Amantes answers back that he doesn’t believe at all in heaven or in hell, and that he had taken action according to his own decision. He bides farewell to the monk, asking him to let him die alone, in peace; then he thrusts his sword into the ground, waiting for all the blood to drip from his body. Meanwhile, the monk disappears.

A hole opens then into the ground and a powerful demon comes out to claim for Amantes. The demon tells him he was sent to take him to hell with full honors, as a reward for the considerable number of murders he had perpetrated. Amantes, his hand on the sword, with an unimaginable courage, answers: “Don’t you dare think that you will have an easy life with me, down there! I swear I will raise a palace from the bones of your demons!”
In this moment the angel of light appears and speaks to the angel of darkness: “He isn’t yours! This soul has made in the last years so much good that it exceeded the evil done in the rest of his life, and God forgave all his sins. He will come along with us in heaven.” But the angel of darkness withstands, and both angels put out their swords.

Much to the angels’ fright, exactly at that moment someone makes his appearance, someone the angels knew about, but whom they had never seen before. According to the writings of Codex Lugubrum, only two entities had seen him before – God and Lucifer – and only once. This is Il Separatio, wearing a cloak with hood, underneath which neither the face, nor the hands or feet could be seen, and his waist was tied up with a rope. Il Separatio makes a sign and the two angels tremble in fear. He tells them: “You are both wrong. This man has done as many good deeds as evil. So everything is now balanced – you won’t have him, neither of you.”
The absolute power of Il Separatio makes the angels disappear instantaneously. Thus speaking, his last words are for the knight: “Get up, as you have no more wounds now. You will live as long as you wish. If you will do evil deeds, it doesn’t matter. The balance will compensate for it, as other people will be born to do good deeds. If you decide to do good deeds, it still won’t matter, as other people will be born to do evil deeds. You no longer exist for this universe. Live on earth as long as you want, until this species goes extinct. You can move everywhere you wish with the power of your mind, even in places that do not exist on this earth. After you’ve had enough of everything, even a billion years from now on, call me and I will explain what our meaning is.”

Il Separatio has vanished instantaneously and, according to the legend, the knight is still living among us now, trying to understand further on what is good, what is bad, and why. This is the big question of the story: why.