by Ellis Peters
‘I would not for the world trespass upon the ground of Bishop de Clinton,’ said Gerbert, hastily jealous for his own good repute, but not sounding at all pleased about it. ‘Certainly he must be informed if this matter proves to be true substance. But it is we who are faced with the need to probe the facts, while memories are fresh, and put on record what we discover. No time should be lost. Father Abbot, in my view we should hold a hearing now, at once.’
‘I am inclined to the same opinion,’ said the abbot drily. ‘In the event of the charge turning out to be malicious or trivial, or untrue, or simply mistaken, it need then go no further, and the bishop will be spared a grief and an aggravation, no less than the waste of his time. I think we are competent to probe out the difference between harmless speculation and wilful perversion.’
It seemed to Cadfael that that indicated pretty clearly the abbot’s view of the whole unfortunate affair, and though Canon Gerbert had opened his mouth, most probably to proclaim that even speculation among the laity was itself harm enough, he thought better of it, and clenched his teeth again grimly on the undoubted reserve he felt about the abbot’s attitude, character and fitness for his office. Men of the cloth are as liable to instant antipathies as are ordinary folk, and these two were as far apart as east from west.
‘Very well,’ said Radulfus, running a long, commanding glance round the assembly, ‘let us proceed. This chapter is suspended. We will summon it again when time permits. Brother Richard and Brother Anselm, will you see all the juniors set to useful service, and then seek out those three people named? The young woman Fortunata, the shepherd Conan, and the accused man. Bring them here, and say nothing as to the cause until they come before us. The accuser, I take it,’ he said, turning upon Jerome, ‘is already here without.’
Jerome had lingered in the shadow of the prior’s skirts all this time, sure of his righteousness but not quite sure of the abbot’s recognition of it. This was the first encouragement he had received, or so he read it, and visibly brightened.
‘He is, Father. Shall I bring him in?’
‘No,’ said the abbot, ‘not until the accused is here to confront him. Let him say what he has to say face to face with the man he denounces.’
*
Elave and Fortunata entered the chaper-house together, open of face, puzzled and curious at being summoned thus, but plainly innocent of all foreboding. Whatever had been said unwisely at last night’s gathering, whatever she was expected to confirm against the speaker, it was perfectly clear to Cadfael that the girl had no reservations about her companion, indeed the very fact that they came in together, and had obviously been found together when the summons was delivered, spoke for itself. The expectancy in their faces was wondering but unthreatened, and Aldwin’s accusation, when it was uttered, would come as a shattering blow not to the young man only, but to the girl as well. Gerbert would certainly have one reluctant witness, if not a hostile one, Cadfael reflected, conscious of his own heart’s alerted and partisan sympathy. Conscious, too, that Abbot Radulfus had noted, as he had, the significance of their trusting entrance, and the wondering look they exchanged, smiling, before they made their reverence to the array of prelates and monastics before them, and waited to be enlightened.
‘You sent for us, Father Abbot,’ said Elave, since no one else broke the silence. ‘We are here.’
The ‘we’ says it all, thought Cadfael. If she had any doubts of him last night, she has forgotten them this morning, or thought them over and rejected them. And that is valid evidence, too, whatever she may be forced to say later.
‘I sent for you, Elave,’ said the abbot with deliberation, ‘to help us in a certain matter which has arisen here this morning. Wait but a moment, there is one more has been summoned to attend.’
He came in at that moment, circumspectly and in some awe of the tribunal before him, but not, Cadfael thought, ignorant of its purpose. There was no open-eyed but unintimidated wonder in Conan’s weathered, wary, rosily comely face, and noticeably he kept his eyes respectfully upon the abbot, and never cast a glance aside at Elave. He knew what was in the wind, he came prepared for it. And this one, if he discreetly showed no eagerness displayed no reluctance, either.
‘My lord, they told me Conan is wanted here. That’s my name.’
‘Are we now ready to proceed?’ demanded Canon Gerbert impatiently, stirring irritably in his stall.
‘We are,’ said Radulfus. ‘Well, Jerome, bring in the man Aldwin. And Elave, stand forward in the centre. This man has somewhat to say of you that should be said only in your presence.’
The name alone had jolted both Fortunata and Elave, even before Aldwin showed his face in the doorway, and came in with a resolution and belligerence that were not native to him, and probably cost him an effort to maintain. His long face was set in lines of arduous determination, a man naturally resigned and timorous bent on going through with an enterprise that called for courage. He took his stand almost within arm’s length of Elave, and jutted an aggressive jaw at the young man’s shocked stare, but there were drops of sweat on his own balding forehead. He spread his feet to take firm grip on the stones of the floor, and stared back at Elave without blinking. Elave had already begun to understand. By her bewildered face Fortunata had not. She drew back a pace or two, looking searchingly from one man’s face to the other, her lips parted on quickened breath.
‘This man,’ said the abbot evenly, ‘has made certain charges against you, Elave. He says that last night, in his master’s house, you gave voice to views on matters of religion that run counter to the teachings of the Church, and bring you into grave danger of heresy. He cites these witnesses present in support of what he urges against you. How do you say, was there indeed such talk between you? You were there to speak, and they to hear?’
‘Father,’ said Elave, grown very pale and quiet, ‘I was there in the house. I did have speech with them. The talk did turn on matters of faith. We had only yesterday buried a good master, it was natural we should give thought to his soul and our own.’
‘And do you yourself, in good conscience, believe that you said nothing that could run counter to true belief?’ asked Radufus mildly.
‘To the best that I know and understand, Father, I never did.’
‘You, fellow, Aldwin,’ ordered Canon Gerbert, leaning forward in his stall, ‘repeat those things of which you complained to Brother Jerome. Let us hear them all, and in the words you heard spoken, so far as you can recall them. Change nothing!’
‘My lords, as we sat together, we were speaking of William who was newly buried, and Conan asked if he had ever taken Elave with him down the same road that got him into straits with the priest, those years ago. And Elave said William never made any secret of what he thought, and on his travels no one ever found fault with him for thinking about such matters. What are wits for, he said, unless a man uses them. And we said that it was presumption in us simple folk, that we should listen and say Amen to what the Church tells us, for in that field the priests have authority over us.’
‘A very proper saying,’ said Gerbert roundly. ‘And how did he reply?’
‘Sir, he said how could a man say Amen to damning a child unchristened to hell? The worst of men, he said, could not cast an infant into the fire, so how could God, being goodness itself, do so? It would be against God’s very nature, he said.’
‘That is to argue,’ said Gerbert, ‘that infant baptism is unneeded, and of no virtue. There can be no other logical end of such reasoning. If they are in no need of redemption by baptism, to be spared inevitable reprobation, then the sacrament is brought into contempt.’
‘Did you say the words Aldwin reports of you?’ asked Radulfus quietly, his eyes on Elave’s roused and indignant face.
‘Father, I did. I do not believe such innocent children, just because baptism does not reach them in time before they die, can possibly fall through God’s hands. Surely his hold is more secure than that.’
‘You persist in a deadly error,’ insisted Gerbert. ‘It is as I have said, such a belief casts out and debases the sacrament of baptism, which is the only deliverance from mortal sin. If one sacrament is brought into derision, then all are denied. On this count alone you stand in danger of judgement.’
‘Sir,’ Aldwin took him up eagerly, ‘he said also that he did not believe in the need because he did not believe that children are born into the world rotten with sin. How could that be, he said, of a little thing newly come into being, helpless to do anything of itself, good or evil. Is not that indeed to make an empty mockery of baptism? And we said that we are taught and must believe that even the babes yet unborn are rotten with the sin of Adam, and fallen with him. But he said no, it is only his own deeds, bad and good, that a man must answer for in the judgement, and his own deeds will save or damn him.’
‘To deny original sin is to degrade every sacrament,’ Gerbert repeated forcibly.
‘No, I never thought of it so,’ protested Elave hotly. ‘I did say a helpless newborn child cannot be a sinner. But surely baptism is to welcome him into the world and into the Church, and help him to keep his innocence. I never said it was useless or a light thing.’
‘But you do deny original sin?’ Gerbert pressed him hard.
‘Yes,’ said Elave after a long pause. ‘I do deny it.’ His face had sharpened into icy whiteness, but his jaw was set and his eyes had begun to burn with a deep, still anger.
Abbot Radulfus eyed him steadily and asked in a mild and reasonable voice: ‘What, then, do you believe to be the state of the child on entering this world? A child the son of Adam, as are we all.’
Elave looked back at him as gravely, arrested by the serenity of the voice that questioned him. ‘His state is the same,’ he said slowly, ‘as the state of Adam before his fall. For even Adam had his innocence once.’
‘So others before you have argued,’ said Radulfus, ‘and have not inevitably been called heretical. Much has been written on the subject, in good faith and in deep concern for the good of the Church. Is this the worst you have to urge, Aldwin, against this man?’
‘No, Father,’ Aldwin said in haste, ‘there is more. He said it is a man’s own acts that will save or damn him, but that he had not often met a man so bad as to make him believe in eternal damnation. And then he said that there was a father of the Church once, in Alexandria, who held that in the end everyone would find salvation, even the fallen angels, even the devil himself.’
In the shudder of unease that passed along the ranks of the brothers the abbot remarked simply: ‘So there was. His name was Origen. It was his theme that all things came from God, and will return to God. As I recall, it was an enemy of his who brought the devil into it, though I grant the implication is there. I gather that Elave merely cited what Origen is said to have written and believed. He did not say that he himself believed it? Well, Aldwin?’
Aldwίn drew in his chin cautiously at that, and gave some thought to the possibility that he himself was edging his way through quicksands. ‘No, Father, that is true. He said only that there was a father of the Church who spoke so. But we said that was blasphemy, for the teaching of the Church is that salvation comes by the grace of God, and no other way, and a man’s works can avail him not at all. But then he said outright: I do not believe that!’
‘Did you so?’ asked Radulfus.
‘I did,’ Elave’s blood was up, the pallor of his face had burned into a sharp-edged brightness that was almost dazzling. Cadfael at once despaired of him and exulted in him. The abbot had done his best to temper all this fermenting doubt and malice and fear that had gathered in the chapter-house like a bitter cloud, making it hard to breathe, and here was this stubborn creature accepting all challenges, and digging in his heels to resist even his friends. Now that he was embattled he would do battle. He would not give back one pace out of regard for his skin. ‘I did say so. I say it again. I said that we have the power in ourselves to make our own way towards salvation. I said we have free will to choose between right and wrong, to labour upwards or to dive down and wallow in the muck, and at the last we must every one answer for our own acts in the judgement. I said if we are men, and not beasts, we ought to make our own way towards grace, not sit on our hams and wait for it to lift us up, unworthy.’
‘By such arrogance,’ trumpeted Canon Gerbert, offended as much by the flashing eyes and obdurate voice as by what was said, ‘by such pride as yours the rebel angels fell. So you would do without God, and repudiate his divine grace, the only means to salve your insolent soul –’
‘You wrong me,’ flashed back Elave. ‘I do not deny divine grace. The grace is in the gifts he has given us, free will to choose good and refuse evil, and mount towards our own salvation, yes, and the strength to choose rightly. If we do our part, God will do the rest.’
Abbot Radulfus tapped sharply with his ring on the arm of his stall, and called the assembly to order with unshaken authority. ‘For my part,’ he said as they quieted, ‘I find no fault with a man for holding that he can and should aspire to grace by right use of grace. But we are straying from what we are here to do. Let us by all means listen scrupulously to all that Elave is alleged to have said, and let him admit what he admits and deny what he denies of it, and let these witnesses confirm or refute. Have you yet more to add, Aldwin?’
By this time Aldwin had learned to be careful how he trod with the abbot, and add nothing to the bare words he had memorised overnight.
‘Father, but one more thing. I said I had heard a preacher tell how Saint Augustine wrote that the number of the elect is already fixed and cannot be changed, and all the rest are doomed to reprobation. And he said that he did not believe it. And I could not keep from asking again, did he not believe even Saint Augustine? And he said again, no, he did not.’
‘I said,’ cried Elave hotly, ‘that I could not believe the roll was already made up, for why then should we even try to deal justly or pay God worship, or give any heed to the priests who urge us to keep from sin, and demand of us confession and penance if we trespass? To what end, if we are damned whatever we do? And when he asked again, did I not believe even Saint Augustine, I said that if he wrote that, no, I did not believe him. For I have no knowledge else that he ever did write such a thing.’
‘Is that truth?’ demanded Radulfus, before Gerbert could speak. ‘Aldwin, do you bear out those were the actual words spoken?’
‘It may be so,’ agreed Aldwin cautiously. ‘Yes, I think he did say if the saint had so written. I saw no difference there, but your lordships will better judge than I.’
‘And that is all? You have nothing more to add?’
‘No, Father, that’s all. After that we let him lie, we wanted no more of him.’
‘You were wise,’ said Canon Gerbert grimly. ‘Well, Father Abbot, can we now hear if the witnesses confirm all that has been said? It seems to me there is substance enough in what we have heard, if these two persons also can verify it.’
*
Conan gave his own account of the evening’s talk so fluently and willingly that Cadfael could not resist the feeling that he had learned his speech by heart, and the impression of a small conspiracy emerged, for Cadfael at least, so clearly that he wondered it was not obvious to all. To the abbot, he thought, studying the controlled, ascetic face, it almost certainly was, and yet even if these two had connived for their own ends, yet the fact remained that these things had been said, and Elave, even if he corrected or enlarged here and there, did not deny them. How had they contrived to get him to talk so openly? And more important still, how had they ensured that the girl should also be present? For it became increasingly plain that on her evidence everything depended. The more Abbot Radulfus might suspect Aldwin and Conan of malice against Elave, the more important was what Fortunata might have to say about it.
She had listened intently to all that passed. Belated understanding had paled her oval face and dilated her eyes into glittering gr
een anxiety, flashing from face to face as question and answer flew and the tension in the chapter-house mounted. When the abbot turned to look at her she stiffened, and the set of her lips tightened nervously.
‘And you, child? You also were present and heard what passed?’
She said carefully: ‘I was not present throughout. I was helping my mother in the kitchen when these three were left together.’
‘But you joined them later,’ said Gerbert. ‘At what stage? Did you hear him say that infant baptism was needless and useless?’
At that she spoke up boldly: ‘No, sir, for he never did say that.’
‘Oh, if you stick upon the wording… Did you hear him say, then, that he did not believe unbaptised children suffered damnation? For that leads to the same end.’
‘No,’ said Fortunata. ‘He never did say what his own belief was in that matter. He was speaking of his master, who is dead. He said that William used to say not even the worst of men could throw a child into the fire, so how could God do so? When he said this,’ said Fortunata firmly, ‘he was telling us what William had said, not what he himself thought.’
‘That is true, but only half the truth,’ cried Aldwin, ‘for the next moment I asked him plainly: Do you also hold that belief? And he said: Yes, I do say so.’
‘Is that true, girl?’ demanded Gerbert, turning upon Fortunata a black and threatening scowl. And when she faced him with eyes flashing but lips tight shut: ‘It seems to me that this witness has no devout wish to help us. We should have done better to take all testimony under oath, it seems. Let us at least make sure in this woman’s case.’ He turned his forbidding gaze hard and long upon the obdurately silent girl. ‘Woman, do you know in what suspicion you place yourself if you do not speak truth? Father Prior, bring her a Bible. Let her swear upon the Gospels and imperil her soul if she lies.’
Fortunata laid her hand upon the proffered book which Prior Robert solemnly opened before her, and took the oath in a voice so low as to be barely audible. Elave had opened his mouth and taken a step towards her in helpless anger at the aspersion cast upon her, but stopped himself as quickly and stood mute, his teeth clenched upon his rage, and his face soured with the bitter taste of it.
