Rohan pointed out that Charles I had permitted foreign embassies from Catholic countries to maintain chapels in London. Traill's view was that simply because one Protestant monarch had followed grossly erroneous policies, it did not follow that others should make the same mistake. Indeed, he complained, that Grand Duke Bernhard was not only permitting his wife's private worship, as Charles I had done for Henrietta Maria, but was generally tolerating Catholicism in Burgundy—though, he said, he must admit, being a fair-minded man himself, that it did not appear that Bernhard was doing so with any great degree of enthusiasm.
At this point, Hamilton disagreed sharply with his tutor and made his own pro-royalist, even pro-Cork administration, position crystal-clear, saying that when it came to matters of political principle, he was quite as willing to quarrel with his tutor as with everyone else.
"The principle," Shae said behind her hand, "being ‘what's in it for me?' I presume."
Marguerite shushed her.
Traill reiterated his imprudent statements in regard to Grand Duke Bernhard's allowing Claudia de' Medici to have an in-house chapel and confessor. Rohan advised him very strongly that if he said such things where Bernhard's men could hear him, he would be expelled from the Rohan household expeditiously.
Traill countered with indignation, being of the opinion that Rohan was in no position to consider himself immune to criticism, considering that he had not only permitted Shae to remain at the archbishop's palace for several days following her accident, but had also permitted the other women in his household, including his own daughter, to call upon her there.
Somehow, Traill was by no means mollified when Rohan pointed out that Grand Duke Bernhard was also tolerating Calvinism, as demonstrated by his own presence on the grand duke's staff and Traill and Hamilton's own freedom to worship with the Scots soldiers on the Grand Duke's staff who had founded a church in the Quartier Battant.
"Papa," Marguerite asked in pursuit of a less controversial topic, "how is your treatise on Les Futuriens coming? What will it have to say about the views of the up-timers concerning religion?"
"As far as Dr. Seuss is concerned, it will have very little to say about religion in the up-time world. I may have to reserve a more detailed study of that topic until I have other sources. Only one of Seuss' books deals with religion and it displays minimal concern with doctrine, indeed manages to discuss Christmas without a single mention of our Savior, and gives general approval of gift exchanges and feasting, with maximal concern for other people. Madame Calagna assures me, however, that the costume created by the Grinch is a veiled reference to the custom in the Low Countries of seeing Saint Nicholas of Myra as the patron of gift-giving."
At this point, Shae and Dominique chanted in unison several rhymed sentiments about the noncommercial nature of the holiday when properly observed, and the proper size of charitable hearts, including those of fabled creatures such as this "Grinch."
Rohan stared at them, once more confirmed in his growing conviction of the incredible significance of Seuss for comprehending the up-timers, as the two girls, backing up to the beginning, managed, without the slightest review, to render most of How The Grinch Stole Christmas with far fewer errors than most down-time adolescents made when called upon to recite their catechisms, whether said catechisms were of the Calvinist, Lutheran, or Catholic persuasion. Followed by an a capella vocal rendition, in which Madame Calagna joined, of You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch, which necessitated an explanation of the TV movie and when it had come into existence.
"Oh, heck, I don't know," Carey said. "Before I was born, I think."
There was one point on which the Grinch and James Traill were in utter concord. No matter what they did, the disgusting holiday known as Christmas, or rather, here in Burgundy, Noël, came every blasted year and there didn't seem to be any way to get rid of it.
Traill was rather more prepared than the Grinch to dispute the undesirability of this recurring phenomenon. In place of a dog named Max, he had a degree in theology from the University of Leiden in the Northern Low Countries, as they were now called.
"Calvin himself," he proclaimed, "in his own day, disapproved of the celebration of Christmas because its observation had been corrupted by Roman Catholicism."
"He did not, however, forbid it as a violation of the second commandment," Rohan countered. "Geneva in Calvin's day originally observed the four great feast days, or festivals of Christ, that did not always fall on a Sunday, including Christmas. He accepted this practice."
Traill countered with a discourse on the regulative principle of worship, with a relatively brief digression into the acceptability of special days of thanksgiving as modeled upon the Old Testament festival of Purim.
"For various values of relatively brief," Shae whispered to Marguerite.
Rohan retaliated with the prescriptions of the Confessio Belgica of 1561 that had been produced to regulate Reformed practice in the Low Countries, the Heidelberg Catechism that came out of the Palatinate in 1563, commissioned by Elector Frederick III and written primarily by Zacharias Ursinus and Caspar Olevianus, and Bullinger's Second Helvetic Confession, which expressed the position of the Swiss Reformed.
Rohan pointed out with some satisfaction that while the Heidelberg Catechism explained the second command as requiring that a Christian should, "especially on the sabbath diligently frequent the church of God," it did not prescribe that such a Christian was to attend church "exclusively on the sabbath." Nodding his head decisively, Rohan concluded, "For, as Bullinger said in the Second Helvetic Confession of 1566, how can we, if we profess the Christian faith, not take note of Christ's passion as well as of his resurrection? How can a Christian ignore his ascension?"
Traill objected that the church does not have liberty to introduce into worship any element of worship besides those commanded by Scripture, which gave no place to the four great feasts as a part of congregational worship. Referring to the Heidelberg Catechism in his own turn, he insisted that God requires in the second commandment that believers should not worship Him "in any other way than He has commanded in His Word." He reiterated the Scots interpretation that anything not specifically commanded was excluded.
"The Scots may choose to take exception to Bullinger's formulation," Rohan replied, "but no Reformed tradition on the continent does so. As long as Christmas is celebrated without superstition, that is, which Bullinger specified: ‘Moreover, if in Christian liberty the churches religiously celebrate the memory of the Lord's nativity, circumcision, passion, resurrection, and the ascension into heaven, and the sending of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples, we approve of it highly.' The crucial words are ‘religiously celebrate.'
"I will grant you that many of the English midwinter traditions to which you object appear to be of pagan origin, but they certainly have little to do with the observation of Noël in our French temples. Moreover," Rohan drew in a deep breath, "when we come to the Church Order of the Synod of Dordt, adopted less than twenty years ago, it not only permits, but rather requires that the Reformed churches ‘shall observe in addition to the Sunday also Christmas....' and it specifies precisely that such observance ‘shall be a public worship service on December 25 during which the minister shall preach on some aspect of the birth of Christ, usually and preferably the history as told in the Gospels, and the congregation shall praise God with appropriate psalms in congregational singing.' Which you," he pointed at Traill, "may do for us or we will find a Reformed minister who will."
"I believe," Rohan commented to Carey the morning after this marathon disputation, "that Mr. James Traill may have a famous future as a controversialist. If I had my preferences, however, I would prefer that he develop his reputation in some location other than my residence."
She smiled. "Overall, Your Grace, I would say that you held your own."
To Dominique and Shae, she commanded, "Forget the holly, the mistletoe, the stockings, Rudolph, and the Little Drummer Boy for this year, kids. Wipe t
hem flat out of your minds. We're celebrating Christmas the Huguenot way, yay, hooray, which means exactly that we get to listen to one more sermon by Mr. Traill, who will probably stuff it with a lot of Bible verses that he thinks prove that he shouldn't be giving the sermon at all. That's it. After the sermon, the duke will go over to his office, just like any other day.
"For that matter, forget the Christmas tree, at least here—Kamala can get a tree from one of the Lutherans who are sledging them into town. We'll put it up at the apartment, cut out some paper snowflakes to hang on it, plink out a few carols on the Fisher-Price xylophone, and exchange our presents there."
****
"Marguerite, my dear," the duke said at breakfast.
"Yes, Papa."
"You have complained upon occasion that nobody really listens to you."
She looked down at her plate. "I may have. Upon occasion." Then she grinned. "Rare occasions."
"It may ameliorate your distress to learn that in one matter, I have listened to what you say during our morning sessions, heeded it, and taken action."
"How? What?"
"Today, I will send a letter to your Tante Anne and Uncle Soubise. They are still in Paris, although things are very disrupted. It authorizes Anne to begin the process of searching for a suitable bride for your uncle, thus, should they find one and she prove fertile, removing some of the burden of Rohan from your shoulders."
She jumped out of her chair and curtsied.
"This will take time," he admonished.
"Mom?" Dominique asked as the rest of them were standing up.
"What?"
"Why do we even celebrate Christmas—us, I mean. Kamala and Shae and Shaun are Disciples of Christ, but why do we? You, and Daddy before he went to jail, and us kids? None of us belongs to a church. None of us ever even went to church before you and I got trapped here in—um, I mean assigned to—the duke's household."
"I'm with the Whos down in Whoville, kid. When it comes to Christmas, bring on the tinsel and the roast beast."
She looked at Rohan, who had an appalled expression on his face. "Apologies, Your Grace, but that's the way it is."
"From what I've heard," Shae said after breakfast, "Your aunt oughtn't take too much time looking for a bride for Soubise. Your uncle isn't exactly a spring chicken."
"Is Colonel Raudegen still with him?" Bismarck asked.
Marguerite nodded. "The grand duke has given permission for him to stay with Uncle Soubise indefinitely. Or, at least, until things calm down a lot."
Dominique bit her lip. "The newspapers don't seem to be hyping calm lately, when it comes to France."
Ruvigny leaned back. "Have you…?"
"What?"
"Well, have you heard any news in regard to what your mother and M. de Candale are doing?"
Marguerite shook her head.
"I can ask Marc if he's heard anything," Susanna offered. "The next time I write. My letters have to go through Geneva, so it isn't fast, but I think…" She paused. "Well, I don't know for sure, but I think, just from a reference he made in the last letter that came, that Marc is somewhere in France right now."
"How?" Ruvigny was suddenly on the alert.
"He said something about talking to M. d'Espinay de Saint-Luc. Of course, I don't know where he is either, but I would think it's likely that he's in France."
"And he would probably know what Maman is doing," Marguerite said. "If I remember all the gossip right, he was the lover she left for M. de Candale, the first time around, before we went to Venice and Tancrède was born."
****
"This letter is completely fascinating," Rohan said that evening.
"Which letter?"
"From the Grantville researcher. He spoke to one of the older librarians in regard to Marvin K. Mooney. She provided him with a handwritten copy of a newspaper column. The author was named Art Buchwald and it was published in a newspaper called The Washington Post. There is quite a bit of similar material, according to the librarian, in "a bunch of stuff from a folder that Tom Riddle kept in his filing cabinet." He paused. "Who is Tom Riddle?"
Carey thought for a minute. "Chuck Riddle's father. Chuck is the chief justice of the SoTF Supreme Court now. Tom's a retired lawyer."
Rohan nodded. "Ah, noblesse de robe." Happy to have a mental category that worked for him, however irrelevant it might be to the actuality of up-time West Virginia, he went back to the letter. "In this newspaper column, this Mr. Buchwald took Seuss' book and in every case substituted the name ‘Richard M. Nixon' for ‘Marvin K. Mooney.' This was, the librarian said, ‘less than a month before Nixon really did resign.' The rest of this material pertains to something called the Watergate Crisis and the resignation of a president in the up-time United States. What do you remember about this?"
Carey just looked at him, her face blank. "The answer is ‘really, nothing' because, for heaven's sake, I was only six years old when Nixon resigned as president, and Kamala Dunn won't be able to help you either, because she was just barely five."
Startled, Rohan did some mental calculations. When Madame Calagna was six, if they had been in the same universe, he would have been… hmmn… 25 or 26. Thus Madame Calagna was actually… three or four years younger than his wife. But so different.
He picked up the researcher's letter again, experiencing a sense of deep satisfaction at having ferreted out that the Seuss books really did have a far deeper political meaning than they appeared to on the surface. What should be put in the outline for Les Futuriens here? The phenomenon of public shaming? Possible connection to practices such as "shunning" employed by some religious groups such as the Mennonites? He shut out the rest of the world as his mind focused on the one thing of interest to him at the moment.
Carey leaned back in her chair and picked up a clipboard containing a list of fifteen things about up-time administrative practices that General von Erlach wanted to know right away. She'd have to send him a memo pointing out that "right away" was once more going to involve a letter to the researcher at the SoTF state library. Not Rohan's researcher. Grand Duke Bernhard had his own researcher and Carey had become quite protective about the Rohan budget.
By the time they had another session with Dr. Seuss, the duke was hip-deep in political theory. "I can cross-reference The King's Stilts to my own Treatise on War, with reflections on the Spanish Armada, since the island in this fable would appear to stand for England. Up-time, quite a mythos appears to have developed around the Armada. Then I can draw parallels with the up-time Battle of Britain as depicted by Prime Minister Churchill…."
Carey, who had never even heard of The King's Stilts before, just left him to it.
She enjoyed his interpretation of Thidwick, the Big-Hearted Moose considerably more, as he pronounced that "although this work may give rise to extensive discussion and many variant exegeses, my personal opinion is that for the foreseeable future, we should derive from it the thought that it would be unwise to push the up-timers too far, no matter how good-hearted and, sometimes, even naive they may appear to be."
She nodded.
"This is particularly the case if one juxtaposes Thidwick with and compares it to I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sallew, which focuses so firmly on the presupposition that each person must face his troubles, whether they come from ahead or behind, rather than running away from them. It is particularly necessary to focus upon the lines regarding the bringing of a big bat and the narrator's conclusion that he is now prepared and that in the future he will cause troubles for his troubles."
"That does tend to be the way most of us look at things," Carey said.
"The crucial aspect, never forget it," Rohan said, "goes back to the original hypothesis of the treatise I am writing. ‘Most of you' not only look at things that way, but you teach your children, very intensively, to look at things that way, so your perspective will continue into the next generation."
****
"Up," Bismarck said. "Out of bed. You we
re supposed to meet us in the Quartier Battant this morning for swordfighting practice. You didn't show up. Again! We've had to walk all the way up here to get you."
James Hamilton rolled over and groaned. "Up? Lord of Hosts! I am NOT going to get up today. Well, definitely not this early."
"It is NOT early. There are only two more hours until breakfast," Ruvigny said. "You just drank too much beer last night. Again. If you would cut down on it, you could get rid of some of that extra weight that slows you down."
Bismarck raised his eyebrows. "Up and at ‘em?"
Ruvigny nodded. Bismarck grabbed Hamilton's shoulders, Ruvigny grabbed his feet, and they swung him onto the uncarpeted floor with a thunk.
"Arrrgh! I'll complain to my tutor. He'll complain to my father."
"No he won't," Traill said. "I'm standing right here in the doorway. After your third sequential refusal to attend your fencing lessons, combined with your sixth sequential refusal to rise for morning devotions, I'm the person who asked them to start hauling you off to the barracks in the morning. May I remind you about taking the Lord's name in vain?"
"You may not," Hamilton grumped. "At least not with my permission, as if that's going to stop you." He sat up on the floor and glowered at his tutor. "I'm too old to have a bear-leader supervising everything I do."
"If you acted your age, your father would be less apt to think you need one," Bismarck countered. "At least until you get back to Scotland, you have him and can't get rid of him. He's authorized to exercise discipline over you, so you might as well stop complaining and…" he took a mighty heave at the back of Hamilton's shoulders, "get up, get dressed, get yourself out of this house and out of the hair of everybody else in it, and head for the Quartier Battant with us."
Grantville Gazette, Volume 66 Page 14
