Ser Cepperello
Intro
- Storyteller: Panfilo
- Panfilo starts out like a good boy by reminding his friends that they should begin in God's name. So he's going to tell a story about a saint. Well, sort of.
- Panfilo gives us a paradox: sometimes really bad people can become "holy" if the person calling on his name believes the scoundrel is holy.
- The question: are those prayers answered even if the saint was a truly horrible person? Panfilo says that God's generosity is so great that even prayers to a fraud would be answered.
Story
- The scoundrel in question is called Master Cepperello/Ciappelletto.
- To give you an idea how bad this character is, "Cepperello" has a dual meaning in Italian ("Little Prick").
- He's so bad that a wealthy merchant named Franzesi hires him to do some money-collecting among the Burgundians.
- FYI, the Burgundians here are considered villains. Franzesi therefore knew he needed a villain to deal with them.
- As a notary, Ciappelletto would draw up as many false documents as you liked—for free.
- He'd give false testimony just for fun, was a gambler and card sharp, hated going to church, and cussed as often as possible.
- Basically, he's not the guy you want your sister to marry (if you like your sister).
- So off goes Ciappelletto to Burgundy to work his magic.
- But he gets sick while staying in the house of two Florentine money-lenders. Really sick.
- As Ciappelletto gets sicker, the two Florentines find themselves in a sticky situation: it would be really awkward if a man who won't take the last rites died in their house (the church would refuse burial and they'd be stuck with the body).
- But they can't throw him out into the street, either. It isn't nice.
- Ciappelletto hears this discussion and is one step ahead of them. He makes them call a friar so he can give a "confession." He doesn't want his friends to suffer because of him.
- Ciappelletto tells serious some serious whoppers during the confession, making the holy man think that he's led a saintly life.
- Ciappelletto's having a good time with his lies, even though he misses something important: the friar reminds him that no sin is too big to be forgiven, if you are truly sorry for it. Our scoundrel doesn't really care about this.
- The friar's so impressed by Ciappelletto's holiness that he offers to bury the man in his own convent if he should, in fact, die. Problem solved.
- Ciappelletto dies that same day. The friar and his fellows bury him with honors, believing that miracles will happen through the saintly man's intercession.
- The friar preaches about Ciappelleto's amazing life of piety and good deeds. People are so worked up that they grab pieces of Ciappelletto's clothes as a relic.
- Pretty soon, people make pilgrimages to the church to pray and make offerings to Ciappelletto.
- His convincing lies to the friar made the people believe so strongly in his saintliness that people claimed miracles worked in Ciappelleto's name.
- Panfilo ends his story by praising God in his generosity, since He clearly rewards the faith of his people, despite their ignorance.