Ghino di Tacco and the Abbot of Cluny

Ghino di Tacco and the Abbot of Cluny turns a roadside capture into an unexpected exchange of generosity: the outlaw who first holds a powerful churchman by force ends by restoring his freedom and much of his property, while the captive secures his captor’s pardon and a place in a religious order. Told by Elisa as an example of magnanimity, the story makes both the abbot’s response and Ghino’s change of fortune depend on a recognition of character that outlasts the violence of the encounter.

Causes and Background

Ghino di Tacco is introduced as a man famous for cruelty and robbery. Expelled from Siena and at feud with the Counts of Santa Fiore, he raises Radicofani against the Church of Rome and makes the surrounding roads unsafe: his men strip passing travelers of their goods. His outlawry is presented alongside his dispossession. He later explains that he had been driven from his home, left poor, and surrounded by powerful enemies; these circumstances, he says, rather than a wicked disposition, led him to robbery as a means of defending his life and nobility.

The Abbot of Cluny, by contrast, travels with the resources of one of the wealthiest prelates in the world. After falling ill at Rome, he is advised by physicians to seek the baths of Siena. With the pope’s permission, he sets out in great pomp, accompanied by his household, servants, horses, and baggage. Unconcerned by Ghino’s reputation, he enters the territory where the outlaw has laid his trap. The disparity between the abbot’s well-provisioned train and Ghino’s precarious existence gives their encounter its stakes: Ghino can take the prelate’s property, but the captive’s rank and wealth also offer a way to judge what kind of man the outlaw will be.

Capture and Confinement

Ghino’s men surround the abbot and his entire household in a narrow place, allowing not even a footboy to escape. A messenger politely invites the abbot to stay at Ghino’s castle. The abbot angrily refuses, insisting that he will continue his journey and see who dares prevent him. The messenger answers that, in those parts, neither excommunication nor interdict can protect him. By then, armed men have encircled the travelers; the abbot has little choice but to go to the castle with his household and possessions.

Ghino keeps the abbot apart from the others. He lodges him alone in a small, dark, mean chamber in one of the pavilions, while the rest of the household is accommodated according to rank and the horses and baggage are kept safe. Ghino does not immediately demand a ransom or plunder the train. Instead, he asks where the abbot was going and why. The abbot has set aside his pride by this point and answers plainly. Ghino then devises a way to treat the stomach complaint without sending him to the baths.

A Cure in the Castle

Ghino keeps a great fire burning in the abbot’s chamber and has the place carefully guarded. The next morning, he brings two slices of toasted bread on a very white napkin and a large beaker of his own Corniglia vernage. He presents the meal as the beginning of a remedy he learned while studying medicine as a young man. The abbot eats and drinks, though unwillingly at first; his hunger soon matters more than his desire to argue.

Ghino repeats the plain meals over several days, bringing toasted bread and malmsey and secretly leaving dried beans for the abbot to eat. He waits until the prelate has taken some of the beans before asking how his stomach feels. The abbot says he would be well if only he were out of Ghino’s hands, but admits that his appetite has returned and the remedies have cured him. Ghino responds not with a further demand but with a change in his treatment of the captive: he has the abbot’s own people prepare a fine chamber with his belongings and arranges a magnificent banquet for the prelate’s household and many people from the town.

The abbot and his companions discover that their experiences have differed. The abbot recounts the confinement and the simple diet; his attendants report that Ghino has treated them exceedingly well. They are served fine food and wine, though Ghino still does not reveal himself to the abbot. Only after the abbot has spent several days in these improved circumstances does Ghino bring him to a room where his baggage and train have been gathered. From its window, the abbot can see his horses, even the least valuable mount.

Release and Reconciliation

There Ghino identifies himself and explains the circumstances that led him to become a highway robber and enemy of Rome’s court. He acknowledges that he could take a portion of the abbot’s possessions, as he would from another captive, but instead asks the abbot to decide what Ghino should receive in recognition of his need. The property and horses are all present; the abbot may give some, give all, or leave as he chooses. Ghino’s offer turns the scene from an exercise of force into a test of generosity, giving the captive a choice that the armed capture had denied him.

The abbot marvels at receiving such generous words from a robber. His anger gives way to goodwill: he embraces Ghino and says that he would have endured a greater affront to gain the friendship of a man he now judges worthy. He regrets that fortune has driven Ghino into a criminal trade. Taking only a few necessary possessions and horses, the abbot leaves the rest with his captor and returns to Rome. Ghino’s refusal to seize everything is answered by the abbot’s decision to take only what he needs.

Pardon and Narrative Significance

Pope Boniface VIII has heard of the abbot’s capture and asks, when he sees him, how the baths helped. Smiling, the abbot says that a worthy physician nearer at hand cured him, and tells the pope what happened. He then asks for a favor: that the pope restore his favor to Ghino, whom he considers one of the most deserving men he has known. The abbot argues that fortune, rather than Ghino’s nature, is responsible for his wrongdoing, and asks that the pope give him a means of living according to his condition.

The pope agrees to receive Ghino in safety. At the abbot’s request, Ghino comes to court; the pope soon judges him a man of worth, makes him a knight of the Knights Hospitaller, and bestows on him a grand priory. Ghino holds the office for the rest of his life, proving himself a loyal friend and servant of the Church and of the Abbot of Cluny. The conclusion completes the story’s reversal: the abbot’s magnanimity answers Ghino’s restraint, and the outlaw’s capture of a churchman ultimately leads not to greater plunder but to pardon, status, and service. Elisa frames the episode as a striking instance of generosity from a churchman, contrasting the abbot’s conduct with the niggardliness she attributes to clergy more generally.