Revelation ms-4

by C. J. Sansom

  'And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image. A noisome and grievous sore. Gib said "a great sore". Poor Wilf Tupholme was murdered in the manner of the victims of the first vial. And he was a believer who had lapsed into fornication. Many would say that meant he had the mark of the beast on him.'

  Barak frowned. 'Aren't you making what happened to the cottar fit what's in here:' he asked dubiously. 'Like the hot-gospellers try to fit everything that happened into these prophecies: He didn't have any mark on him, of the beast or anything else. What is the mark anyway:'

  'The number 666. But it's not clear from Revelation whether that is an actual mark on the body.'

  'And if all apostate hot-gospellers were to be killed there'd be men dead of grievous sores all over London.'

  'The one death may be symbolic. Barak, if it was only this one reference I would agree with you. But listen to this:

  'And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it turned as it were into the blood of a dead man: and every living thing died in the sea. If Wilf Tupholme was the first to die, that means Dr Gurney was the second. He died in salt water, a tidal pool, turned to blood.'

  Barak frowned, read the passage for himself. I had given even his sceptical mind food for thought. 'And it continues,' I went on quietly. 'And the third angel shed out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they turned to blood. Roger Elliard died in a fountain turned to blood.' Suddenly overcome with emotion, I gripped the sides of the lectern. 'Poor Roger. This is a blasphemy.'

  'Dr Gurney and Master Elliard were said to be good people, though,' Barak said.

  'Yes, they were. It looks as if they did something sinful; or the brute that killed them thought they had.' I took a long deep breath. 'And Roger, like Tupholme, had once been a radical but abandoned that path. I wonder if Dr Gurney did too.' I looked at Barak. 'Well, do you agree with me: Someone is killing people in accordance with the prophecy of the vials of wrath:'

  'To fulfil the prophecy,' Barak said slowly.

  'Yes. Symbolically.'

  'Jesus.' He looked truly shocked. He was silent for a moment, then said, 'That means four more murders.'

  'Yes.'

  'What happens next?'

  I looked at Revelation again. 'And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to burn men with heat of fire.'

  'Shit,' Barak said. 'People left to rot, dead in water; and burned with fire next.'

  'I do not think this is to do with Catherine Parr,' I said. 'This is not politics after all, Barak; it is religion. Mad, debased religion.'

  Barak looked at the pages, turned them over. 'What happens after the seven vials have been spilled? Where does it end?'

  I laughed, heard the half-hysterical sound echo round the old church. 'What do you think? This is the Book of Revelation, Barak. It ends with the destruction of the whole world.'

  Chapter Fourteen

  WE WENT AT ONCE to Lambeth Palace, riding fast along the Thames-side path, sending up spatters of mud and attracting stares from passers-by. When we arrived at the palace I asked at once for Cranmer's secretary. Morice quickly appeared, a little pale-faced man in a black robe who looked at us dubiously. I told him who I was and that I had urgent news, and he scuttled away, leaving us standing in the Great Hall. He returned a few minutes later and told us in hushed tones that the Archbishop had sent across to Whitehall for the others involved in the matter. He showed us into a comfortable little room to await their arrival.

  'One thing,' I asked him. 'Could you please fetch me a copy of the New Testament in English?'

  'I will have one brought.' He looked at us in puzzlement, then smiled before bowing himself out.

  'Are you sure about this notion?' Barak asked when the door was closed. 'It seems fantastic. I don't know what Cranmer and the others will make of it.'

  'You saw the chapter. It speaks for itself, surely.'

  'But it talked of thousands being killed by each vial of wrath, not just one man each time.'

  'I think this is some sort of devilish, perverted symbolism—' I broke off as a servant appeared bearing a copy of the Testament. I laid it on the table and again I pored over the text of Revelation, Barak peering over my shoulder. I was only too well aware that if I had misread, or misunderstood something, my reception from the great men now being gathered from Whitehall was likely to be unpleasant.

  'This book makes no sense,' Barak said at length. 'It tells the same story in different ways, different versions of how the world will end, angels and wars and vials. There is no . . .'

  'Narrative? I know. It is the only book in the New Testament that is so obscure.'

  'It's powerful stuff though. Fixes itself inside your head somehow.' He read. 'The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever, and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image. The beast being the devil?'

  'Yes, though some say it is the Church of Rome. There are as many interpretations of Revelation as there are interpreters, each one saying his understanding is the true one. And most are Uneducated fanatics. This book is causing much trouble in the world.'

  'You know your Bible well.' Barak eyed me curiously.

  'Not Revelation especially, but the Bible, yes.' I smiled sadly. 'From my teens to my thirties I was an earnest seeker after reform.'

  'You said Erasmus and Luther doubted Revelation was authentic? Why was that?'

  'In ancient times there were many gospels, far more than the four we have in the Bible now, and countless Apocalypses, foretellings of how the world will end. But the ancient scholars who decided which were the authentic Christian texts inspired directly by God, rejected all the Apocalypses save the one we have, mainly because they believed the author was St John. But Erasmus and Luther cast doubt on that, because it was so different from the rest of the New Testament. In its violence and cruelty, its representation of Jesus as God's harsh judge, who holds the keys of hell and death.'

  'Someone else holds them now,' Barak said. He blew out his cheeks, shook his head. He had never come across anything like this horror, and it had shaken him to the core. As it had me; but I had to act now, to tell Cranmer and the others, focus on that.

  We both started as the door opened to reveal Cranmer's secretary.

  He bowed. 'His grace will see you now, Master Shardlake,' he said. 'Only you, your man is to stay here.'

  CRANMER SAT behind his desk. Lord Hertford, Thomas Seymour and coroner Harsnet stood round him. Thomas Seymour was in a red silk doublet today, the sleeves slashed to show a vivid yellow lining; his brother in dull brown. All looked at me seriously, expectantly.

  'What have you found, Matthew?' the Archbishop asked quietly.

  I took a deep breath. 'My lord, I believe I know why Dr Gurney and my friend were killed. And a third who was killed in December.'

  Cranmer leaned forward. 'A third?' His voice was horrified.

  'Yes. And if I am right, there are four more deaths to come.'

  Lord Hertford frowned, his eyes boring into mine.

  Sir Thomas spoke. 'Come on then, man, spit out your tale.'

  I told as concisely as I could how I had learned of Tupholme's death, how the manner of it had led me to the connection with Revelation. My auditors heard me in silence. I glanced at Cranmer's bookshelf. 'If you will check Chapter 16 of Revelation, my lord—'

  'I know the New Testament by heart, Matthew.' He frowned, thinking hard.

  Thomas Seymour laughed. A rich, booming sound that made Cranmer wince. 'I have never heard such a tale. The crookback lawyer's mind is addled by too much reading.'

  Lord Hertford gave his brother a stern look. 'Remember where you are, Thomas, and watch your language.'

  Cranmer seemed to have retreated into a brown study, his fingers toying with the big silver cross at his neck. When he sat up
his expressive eyes were full of sorrow.

  'I think Matthew could be right. These deaths do fit exactly with Revelation 16, even to their sequence. And in these times when every apprentice believes himself an authority on scripture — yes, a man who was mad and vicious enough could believe he was inspired to fulfil the prophecy - for Revelation is, above all, a prophecy of what must come to pass.' He gave a sigh that was almost a groan.

  I looked at him. Was he talking of possession again, a man's soul taken over by the devil?

  Hertford had pulled a Testament from Cranmer's shelf and was reading it. He nodded slowly. 'He is right, my lord. These murders fit the pattern of the vials of wrath too closely to be any coincidence. But we may take a little comfort.'

  'Comfort? How:' Cranmer asked incredulously.

  'If the killer's purpose is to fulfil these prophecies, the fact that the second victim was Lord Latimer's doctor surely has no significance.' He looked at Cranmer. 'This is not aimed at the proposed marriage.'

  Cranmer nodded slowly. 'Yes, that follows. But the King would still be horrified beyond measure if he knew.' He glanced at Harsnet. 'I think he too might see the killer as inspired by the devil, and turn away from any possible involvement with the lady Catherine.' He smiled sadly. 'He is so superstitious; I have tried for years to persuade him out of such false thinking, but without success.'

  'Would His Majesty necessarily be wrong to think this was inspired by the devil:' Harsnet's keen eyes darted round the room. 'Consider the blasphemous pattern the killer is following, how cunningly he planned these three terrible displays, his uncanny ability to carry the bodies over great distances.'

  'The cottar's murder was also intended for display,' I said. 'But it was blamed on a woman he had thrown out.'

  'Does that not speak to you of a man possessed:' Harsnet asked.

  'Why are you gospel men always so ready to cry possession:' Thomas Seymour snapped irritably. 'We should be catching this man, not wasting time on these speculations. We cannot know what he is until then.'

  For once I agreed with Seymour. 'Sir Thomas speaks true, my lord,' I said. 'Catching him remains our priority.'

  Cranmer looked to me. 'Well, Matthew, where would you go from here?'

  'We must find out if this Tupholme had any acquaintances in common with Roger and the doctor—'

  'Fie, man,' Sir Thomas said impatiently. 'He was a cottar, a nobody, and the others were gentlemen.'

  'Tupholme and Roger had both held radical reformist views, though in different ways both had abandoned them. Was that also true of Dr Gurney?'

  'Yes,' Cranmer said. 'He - he had once been very radical, but recently he had become — disillusioned.' He frowned for a long moment, then looked at me. 'You think the killer may be seeking men who were once religious radicals but abandoned that position for one reason or another?'

  'I fear so. And there is one place where radicals of all classes meet. In church.'

  'The three dead men did not live near each other,' Cranmer said. 'They cannot have attended the same parish churches.'

  'Sometimes radicals go to church outside their parishes,' Hertford said. 'Run private Bible-reading and prayer groups. And why should they not?' he added with sudden fierceness. 'When they are persecuted and driven underground for their beliefs.'

  'Are you suggesting it was one of the godly people who did this?' Harsnet asked me, looking me straight in the eye.

  'Not necessarily. But certainly someone who knew the reformers.'

  Archbishop Cranmer buried his face in his hands. Everyone fell silent; Hertford glanced uneasily at Harsnet. I realized the Archbishop was caught in the middle, between his own reforming beliefs and the dangers the radicals presented to the very existence of reform. Lord Hertford, I thought, saw this, but Harsnet for the moment was too caught up in his own outrage. Sir Thomas did not care one way or the other.

  Cranmer lowered his hands again and sat up straight in his tall chair, his face set hard. He looked at me.

  'Matthew, the danger to me, to everyone in this room, grows by the hour. Some of my staff are still being questioned for heresy, though they will find nothing, for they are not heretics. More butchers are being arrested. Now there is a talk of a purge of booksellers. The Earl of Surrey is in the Fleet prison for Lent-breaking. And you will have seen that plays and interludes with a reformist slant are being made targets, their posters pulled down.'

  'Yes, my lord.'

  Hertford nodded in agreement. 'We are hanging on by our finger- tips.'

  'Can you imagine what a gift to Bonner and Gardiner this would be, someone murdering radicals who have backslid in London: This horrid blasphemy would be meat and drink for his cause.'

  'I found one clue at the scene of Tupholme's murder,' I said. I produced the badge from my pocket and laid it on Cranmer's table.

  Lord Hertford bent to study it closely. 'A pilgrim badge. The wearer went to St Edward the Confessor's shrine in Westminster Abbey. I saw enough of these badges on people's coats before the shrines were done away with.'

  'It can't have come from Tupholme, if he was a reformer,' Harsnet said.

  'Nor from his woman,' Thomas Seymour added. ‘I never heard of a Southwark whore that wore one of those.'

  Cranmer took the badge, turned it between his thick fingers. 'So the killer dropped it. Perhaps it was torn from his coat as he struggled to tie that poor wretched cottar—'

  'Hold fast,' Harsnet said. 'People don't wear pilgrim badges now. It marks you out as a Papist sympathizer.'

  'Yes, it would be a defiant gesture,' I said.

  'It could have been dropped deliberately,' Lord Hertford said.

  'Yes, my lord,' I agreed. 'That is possible. But there may be another connection to the old religion.' I took a deep breath. 'Dwale was used to subdue at least two victims. And according to my friend Dr Malton, the only certain place dwale has been used in recent years is in the infirmaries of Benedictine monasteries. I wanted to ask you, my lord, whether I might make search among the Court of Augmentations records, to see what became of London's Benedictine infirmarians.'

  Cranmer leaned forward. 'Could that be the explanation?' he asked eagerly. 'An ex-monk? A crazed, embittered papist making an example of men who were radicals once—'

  'But is it not the radical godly men, not papists, who claim they understand the secrets of Revelation?' Again Sir Thomas surprised me with his perceptiveness.

  'And perhaps these killings are to make an evil mockery of those very views,' Cranmer said. 'The papist church had its own students of Revelation, like Jonathan of Fiore.' His face lightened at the thought that the killer's religious motives might be conservative, not radical. He sat up, looked at us in turn. 'Master Harsnet, I want you to investigate whether the cottar had any links with the first two victims, especially through their religious affiliations. Matthew, look into the Court of Augmentations records. Edward.' He turned to Hertford. 'You are close to the King these days, I leave it to you to ensure no word of this comes near him.'

  Hertford nodded. 'So long as no one here talks, I can do that.'

  'And me?' Thomas Seymour asked.

  'You, Thomas, keep your mouth shut,' his brother said.

  Seymour reddened. Hertford turned to Cranmer. 'Well, so we investigate what has been done. But what of the future? If the lawyer here is right, and I believe he may well be, there will soon be a fourth killing.' He opened his Testament and read aloud: 'And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to burn men with heat of fire. And the men raged in great heat, and spoke evil of the name of God, which hath power over these plagues, and repented not.'

  'What will he do?' Cranmer said quietly. 'Where, and when?'

  'Anyone could be the victim,' I said. 'Anywhere in London, a pious man like Roger or a man relapsed into sin like the cottar. We cannot know when he will strike, or where.'

  'Then we cannot stop him?'

  'Only if we catch him first,' I answered
. 'And I think he will strike again before long.'

  'Why so?' Harsnet asked.

  'It seems Tupholme was found in January. Dr Gurney died in February, a month later. Roger died three weeks after that. A week ago. It would seem sensible to expect the fourth killing within the next fortnight.'

  'What of the final three vials of wrath?' Thomas Seymour asked. 'What happens?'

  Cranmer took a deep breath. 'The pouring of the fifth vial brings death to the sinful by darkness and great pain. That could mean death by any one of a hundred means. The sixth vial dries up the waters of the Euphrates, and I do not know what someone could do to simulate that. And when the seventh angel pours out his vial there are thunders and lightnings and a great earthquake.'

  'My lord,' I said. 'There is one more thing I would ask, if I may. It could assist us.'

  'Yes?'

  'Dr Malton. He told me some of the old monastic infirmarians used dwale. He may know of them, even if he did not know them himself. I would like to take him into my confidence. He helped us over the dwale.'

  'He's an ex-monk, isn't he?' Hertford asked sharply.

  'Yes, but if Matthew says he will keep his confidence—' Cranmer gave me a long considering look – ‘I will accept that. You may tell him, Matthew.'

  Hertford gave me a dubious look, and Harsnet another. But Cran- mer nodded.

  There was silence for a moment, as we considered the horrors that might lie before us. Then Sir Thomas laughed. 'By Jesu, this killer would need devilish powers indeed to bring about an earthquake.'

  'I am sick of your mockery, Thomas!' Cranmer turned on him with sudden fierceness. "We all know, or should know, that the devil may indeed be moving in this, with all his powers. But we must investigate this matter with reason.'

  'You forget your presence here is only allowed because you are my brother,' Lord Hertford said. 'And the connection to Catherine Parr, about whose welfare you were so chivalrously anxious, seems to be gone. You are not needed. It was a mistake for me to involve you in the first place.' He shook his head. 'Foolish.'