The Heretic's Apprentice

by Ellis Peters

  ‘Now,’ said the abbot, with such quiet but formidable authority that even Gerbert made no further attempt to wrest the initiative from him, ‘let us leave questioning until you have told us yourself, without haste or fear, all you recall of what went on in that meeting. Speak freely, and I believe we shall hear truth.’

  She took heart and drew steady breath, and told it carefully, as best she remembered it. Once or twice she hesitated, sorely tempted to omit or explain, but Cadfael noticed now her left hand clasped and wrung the right hand that had been laid upon the open Gospel, as though it burned, and impelled her past the momentary silence.

  ‘With your leave, Father Abbot,’ said Gerbert grimly when she ended, ‘when you have put such questions as you see fit to this witness, I have three to put to her, and they encompass the heart of the matter. But first do you proceed.’

  ‘I have no questions,’ said Radulfus. ‘The lady has given us her full account on oath, and I accept it. Ask what you have to ask.’

  ‘First,’ said Gerbert, leaning forward in his stall with thick brown brows drawn down over his sharp, intimidating stare, ‘did you hear the accused say, when asked pointblank if he agreed with his master in denying that unbaptised children were doomed to reprobation, that yes, he did so agree?’

  She turned her head aside for an instant, and wrung at her hand for reminder, and in a very low voice she said: ‘Yes, I heard him say so.’

  ‘That is to repudiate the sacrament of baptism. Second, did you hear him deny that all the children of men are rotten with the sin of Adam? Did you hear him say that only a man’s own deeds will save or damn him?’

  With a flash of spirit she said, louder than before: ‘Yes, but he was not denying grace, the grace is in the gift of choice –’

  Gerbert cut her off there with uplifted hand and flashing eyes. ‘He said it. That is enough. It is the claim that grace is unneeded, that salvation is in a man’s own hands. Thirdly, did you hear him say, and repeat, that he did not believe what Saint Augustine wrote of the elect and the rejected?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said, this time slowly and carefully. ‘If the saint so wrote, he said, he did not believe him. No one has ever told me, and I cannot read or write, beyond my name and some small things. Did Saint Augustine say what the preacher reported of him?’

  ‘That is enough!’ snapped Gerbert. ‘This girl bears out all that has been charged against the accused. The proceedings are in your hands.’

  ‘It is my judgement,’ said Radulfus, ‘that we should adjourn, and deliberate in private. The witnesses are dismissed. Go home, daughter, and be assured you have told truth, and need trouble not at all what follows, for the truth cannot but be good. Go, all of you, but hold yourselves ready should you be needed again and recalled. And you, Elave…’ He sat studying the young man’s face, which was raised to him pale, resolute and irate, with set mouth and wide and brilliant eyes, still burning for Fortunata’s distress. ‘You are a guest in our house. I have seen no cause why any man of us should not take your word.’ He was aware of Gerbert stiffening with disapproval beside him, but swept on with raised voice, overriding protest. ‘If you promise not to leave here until this matter is resolved, then you are free in the meantime to go back and forth here as you will.’

  For a moment Elave’s attention wavered. Fortunata had turned in the doorway to look back, then she was gone. Conan and Aldwin had left hastily on their dismissal, and vanished before her, eager to escape while their case was surely safe in the hands of the visiting prelate, whose nose for unorthodoxy was shown to be so keen and his zeal so relentless. Accuser and witnesses were gone. Elave returned his obdurate but respectful gaze to the abbot, and said with deliberation: ‘My lord, I have no mind to leave my lodging here in your house until I can do so free and vindicated. I give you my word on that.’

  ‘Go, then, until I ask your attendance again. And now,’ said Radulfus, rising, ‘this session is adjourned. Go to your duties, every one, and bear in mind we are still in a day dedicated to the remembrance of Saint Winifred, and the saints also bear witness to all that we do, and will testify accordingly.’

  *

  ‘I understand you very well,’ said Canon Gerbert, when he was alone with Radulfus in the abbot’s parlour. Closeted thus in private with his peer, he sat relaxed, even weary, all his censorious zeal shed, a fallible man and anxious for his faith. ‘Here retired from the world, or at the worst concerned largely with the region and the people close about you, you have not seen the danger of false belief. And I grant you it has not yet cast a shadow in this land, and I pray our people may be sturdy enough to resist all such devious temptations. But it comes, Father Abbot, it comes! From the east the serpents of undoing are working their way westward, and of all travellers from the east I go in dread that they may bring back with them bad seed, perhaps even unwittingly, to take root and grow even here. There are malignant wandering preachers active even now in Flanders, in France, on the Rhine, in Lombardy, who cry out against Holy Church and her priesthood, that we are corrupt and greedy, that the Apostles lived simply, in holy poverty. In Antwerp a certain Tachelm has drawn deluded thousands after him to raid churches and tear down their ornaments. In France, in Rouen itself, yet another such goes about preaching poverty and humility and demanding reform. I have travelled in the south on my archbishop’s errands, and seen how error grows and spreads like a heath fire. These are not a few sick in mind and harmless. In Provence, in Languedoc, there are regions where a fashion of Manichean heresy has grown so strong it is become almost a rival church. Do you wonder that I dread even the first weak spark that may start such a blaze?’

  ‘No,’ said Radulfus, ‘I do not wonder. We should never relax our guard. But also we must see every man clearly, with his words and his deeds upon him, and not hasten to cover him from sight with this universal cloak of heresy. Once the word is spoken, the man himself may become invisible. And therefore expendable! Here is certainly no wandering preacher, no inflamer of crowds, no ambitious madman whipping up a following for his own gain. The boy spoke of a master he had valued and served, and therefore tended to speak in praise of him, in defence of his bold doubts, the more loyally and fiercely if his companions raised their voices against him. He had probably drunk enough to loosen his tongue, besides. He may well have said, and repeated to us, more than he truly means, to the aggravation of his cause. Shall we do the same?’

  ‘No,’ said Gerbert heavily, ‘I would not wish that. And I do see him clearly. You say rightly, here is no wild man bent on mischief, but a sound, hardworking fellow, profitable to his master and I doubt not honest and well-meaning with his neighbours. Do you not see how much more dangerous that makes him? To hear false doctrine from one himself plainly false and vile is no temptation at all, to hear it from one fair of countenance and reputation, speaking it with his heart’s conviction, that can be deadly seduction. It is why I fear him.’

  ‘It is why one century’s saint is the next century’s heretic,’ the abbot replied drily, ‘and one century’s heretic the next century’s saint. It is as well to think long and calmly before affixing either name to any man.’

  ‘That is to neglect a duty we cannot evade,’ said Gerbert, again bristling. ‘The peril which is here and now must be dealt with here and now, or the battle is lost, for the seed will have fallen and rooted.’

  ‘Then at least we may know the wheat from the tares. And bear in mind,’ said Radulfus gravely, ‘that where error is sincere and bred out of misguided goodness, the blemish may be healed by reason and persuasion.’

  ‘Or failing that,’ said Gerbert with inflexible resolution, ‘by lopping off the diseased member.’

  Chapter 6

  ELAVE PASSED THROUGH the gates unchallenged, and turned towards the town. Evidently the porter had not yet got word of the alarm raised against this one ordinary mortal among the abbey guests, or else he had already received the abbot’s fiat that the accused’s parole was given and accepted, and he
was free to go and come as he pleased, provided he did not collect his belongings and take to his heels altogether, for no attempt was made to bar his way. The brother on the gate even gave him a cheerful good-day as he passed.

  Out in the Foregate he paused to look both ways along the highroad, but all the witnesses against him had vanished from sight. He set off in haste towards the bridge and the town, certain that Fortunata in her distress would make straight for home. She had left the chapter-house before he had given his word he had no intention of departing unvindicated, she might well think him already a prisoner, might even blame herself for his plight. He had seen how reluctantly she had borne true witness against him, and at this moment it grieved him more that she should grieve than that his own liberty and life should be in danger. In that danger he found it hard to believe, therefore it was easy to bear. Her evident agitation he believed in utterly, and it caused him deep and compelling pain. He had to speak to her, to reassure her she had done him no wrong in the world, that this commotion would pass, that the abbot was a reasonable man, and the other one, the one who wanted blood, would soon be gone and leave the judgement to saner judges. And more beyond that, that he had understood how valiantly she had striven to defend him, that he was grateful for it, perhaps even hoping in his heart to find in it a deeper meaning than sympathy, and more intimate than concern for justice. Though he must guard his tongue from saying too much, as long as even the shadow of reprobation hung over him.

  He had reached the end of the enclave wall, where the ground on his left opened out over the silvery oval of the mill pool, and on the right of the road the houses of the Foregate gave way to a grove of trees that stretched as far as the approaches to the bridge over the Severn. And there she was before him, unmistakeable in her bearing and gait, hastening along the dusty highway with an impetuosity that suggested angry resolution rather than consternation and dismay. He broke into a run, and overtook her in the shadow of the trees. At the sound of his racing feet she had swung round to face him, and at sight of him, without a word said beyond his breathless ‘Mistress…!’ she caught him hastily by the hand and drew him well aside into the grove, out of sight from the road.

  ‘What is this? Have they freed you? Is it over?’ She raised to him a face glowing and intent with unmistakeable joy, but still holding it in check for fear of a fall as sudden as her elation.

  ‘No, not yet. No, there’ll be more debate yet before I’m quit of all this. But I had to speak to you, to thank you for what you did for me –’

  ‘‘Thank me!’ she said in a soft, incredulous cry. ‘For digging the pit a little deeper under you? I burn with shame that I had not even the courage to lie!’

  ‘No, no, you mustn’t think so! You did me no wrong at all, you did everything you could to help me. Why should you be forced to lie? In any case, you could not do it, it is not in you. Nor will I lie,’ said Elave fiercely, ‘nor give back from what I believe. What I came to say is that you must not fret for me, nor ever for a moment think that I have anything but gratitude and reverence for you. You stood my friend the only way I would have you stand my friend.’

  He had not even realised that he was holding both her hands, clasped close against his breast, so that they stood heart to heart, the rhythm of matched heartbeats and quickened breathing shaking them both. Her face, raised to his, was intent and fierce, her hazel eyes dazzlingly wide and bright.

  ‘If they have not freed you, how are you here? Do they know you are gone? Will they not be hunting for you if you’re missed?’

  ‘Why should they? I’m free to go and come, as long as I remain a guest in the abbey until there’s a judgement. The abbot took my word I would not run.’

  ‘But you must,’ she said urgently. ‘I thank God that you ran after me like this, while there’s time. You must go, get away from here as far as you can. Into Wales would be best. Come with me now, quickly, I’ll get you to Jevan’s workshop beyond Frankwell, and hide you there until I can get you a horse.’

  Elave was shaking his head vigorously before she had ended her plea. ‘No, I will not run! I gave the abbot my word, but even if he had never asked it or I given it, I would not run. I will not bow to such superstitious foolishness, it would be to encourage the madmen, and put other souls in worse danger than mine. This I don’t believe can come to anything perilous, if I stand my ground. We have not yet come to that extreme of folly, that a man can be hounded for thinking about holy things. You’ll see, the storm will all pass over.’

  ‘No,’ she insisted, ‘not so easily. Things are changing, did you not smell the smoke of it even there in the chapter-house? I foresee it, if you do not. I was hurrying back now to talk to Jevan, to see what more can be brought to bear, to deliver you away out of danger. You brought me something of my own, it must have value. I want to use it to have you away and safe. What better use could I make of it?’

  ‘No!’ he said in sharp protest. ‘I will not have it! I am not going to run, I refuse to run. And that, whatever it may be, is for you, for your marriage.’

  ‘My marriage!’ she said in a wondering voice, very low, and opened wide at him the greenish fire of her eyes, as though the thought was new to her and very strange.

  ‘Never trouble for me, in the end it will all be well. I am going back now,’ said Elave firmly, too dazzled to be observant. ‘Never fear, I’ll take good care how I speak, how I carry myself, but I will not deny what I believe, or say ay to what I do not believe. And I will not run. From what? I have no guilt from which to run.’

  He loosed her hand with a gesture almost rough, because at the end it seemed such a hard thing to do. He was turning away through the trees when he looked back, and she had not moved. Her eyes were on him, fixed thoughtfully, almost severely, and her lower lip was caught between even teeth.

  ‘There is another reason,’ he said, ‘why I will not go. Alone it would be enough to hold me. To run now would be to leave you.’

  ‘And do you think,’ said Fortunata, ‘that I would not follow and find you?’

  *

  She heard the several voices before she entered the hall, voices raised not so much in anger or argument as in bewilderment and consternation. Either Conan or Aldwin had thought it wise to acquaint the household with the morning’s sensational turn of events at once on arrival home, no doubt to put the best aspect on what they had done. She had no doubt that they were in collusion in the matter, but whatever their motives, they would not want to appear simply as squalid informers. A gloss of genuine religious revulsion and sense of duty would have to gloze over the malice entailed.

  They were all there, Margaret, Jevan, Conan and Aldwin, gathered in an agitated group, baffled question and oblique answer flying at the same time, Conan standing back to be the innocent bystander caught up in someone else’s quarrel, Aldwin bleating aloud as Fortunata entered: ‘How could I know? I was worried that such things should be said, I feared for my own soul if I hid them. All I did was tell Brother Jerome what was troubling me –’

  ‘And he told Prior Robert,’ cried Fortunata from the doorway, ‘and Prior Robert told everyone, especially that great man from Canterbury, as you knew very well he would. How can you pretend you never meant Elave harm? Once you launched it, you knew where it would end.’

  They had all swung about to face her, startled by her anger rather than by the suddenness of her entry.

  ‘No!’ protested Aldwin, recovering his breath. ‘No, I swear I only thought the prior might speak to him, warn him, turn him to better counsel…’

  ‘And therefore,’ she said sharply, ‘you told him who had been present to hear. Why do that unless you meant it to go further? Why force me into your plans? That I shall never forgive you!’

  ‘Wait, wait, wait!’ cried Jevan, throwing up his hands. ‘Are you telling me, chick, that you were called to witness? In God’s name, man, what possessed you? How dared you bring our girl into such a business?’

  ‘It was not I who wanted th
at,’ protested Aldwin. ‘Brother Jerome got it out of me who was there, I never meant to bring her into the tangle. But I am a son of the Church, I needed to slough the load from my conscience, but then it got out of hand.’

  ‘I never knew you all that constant in observance,’ said Jevan ruefully. ‘You could as well have refused to name any names but your own. Well, what’s done is done. Is it over even now? Need we expect her to be called to more enquiries, more interrogations? Is it to drag on to exhaustion, now it’s begun?’

  ‘It isn’t over,’ said Fortunata. ‘They have not pronounced any judgement, but they won’t let go so easily. Elave is pledged not to go away until he’s freed of the charge. I know it because I have just left him, among the trees close by the bridge, and he’s on his way back now to the abbey to stand his ground. I wanted him to run, I begged him to run, but he refuses. See what you’ve done, Aldwin, to a poor young man who never did you any harm, who has no family or patron now, no safe home and secure living, as you have. Here are you provided for life, without a care for your old age, and he has to find work again wherever he can, and now you have put a shadow upon him that will cling round him whatever the judgement, and turn men away from employing him for fear of being thought suspect by contagion. Why did you do it? Why?’

  Aldwin had been gradually recovering his composure since the shock of her entrance had upset it, but now it seemed he had lost it altogether, and his wits with it. He stood gaping at her mutely, and from her to Jevan. Twice he swallowed hard before he could find a word to say, and even then he brought out the words with infinite caution, disbelieving.

  ‘Provided for life?’