Colgú intervened. ‘We have only to witness some of the emotions that this story has provoked here to realise that such an anger is not beyond possibility,’ he pointed out.
‘Exactly so,’ replied Fidelma, nodding. ‘Who in this abbey is so fanatical in their belief that they would do anything to stop a scholar of Brother Donnchad’s reputation from proclaiming his views that might harm the Faith? Many of our people have
not yet entirely accepted the Faith. It is only two centuries since the Five Kingdoms began to hear and accept the Word of Christ. What, then, if Brother Donnchad, recently back from the Holy Land, began to tell this story?’
There was an unhappy murmur and many of the brethren looked at one another awkwardly.
Abbot Iarnla’s face was pale. He said slowly, ‘Everyone in this abbey is of the Faith and to proclaim a disbelief in the Faith is a great sin.’
‘But we are a tolerant people for we are but newly come to this new understanding with God,’ Brehon Aillín declared. ‘We tolerate and seek to persuade others to the Faith, especially those who are reluctant to make the leap into a new world that has come upon us from the East.’
‘We cannot afford tolerance,’ Brother Lugna snapped. ‘The Faith is inviolable and every soul lost is a soul condemned to the fires of hell.’
‘Brother Lugna is dogmatic on such points,’ pointed out Fidelma mildly.
‘I am only dogmatic when people deny the truth of the Faith.’
‘Indeed. One would say that you have a fanatical belief.’
‘I am zealous for my Faith, that is true.’
‘And if someone disagreed with your Faith?’ prompted Fidelma.
Brother Lugna opened his mouth to respond and then snapped it shut as he realised where Fidelma was leading him.
Fidelma watched him. ‘Your sect does not hold with dissension, does it?’
Brehon Aillín had given up trying to make people accept the protocol of the court. Now he turned to Fidelma with a question. ‘His sect? What do you mean?’
‘I once talked with Brother Lugna about the rules of Pope Clement.’
‘Persecutions!’ Brother Lugna almost spat the word.
‘It was ruled by Clement that certain philosophies were not consistent with the Faith.’
‘He persecuted the Manichaeists and Donatists.’
‘And the Novatianists,’ added Fidelma. ‘That is the sect you follow, isn’t it?’
Brehon Aillín was clearly puzzled, as were several others.
‘Novatian was a religious and teacher in Rome,’ Fidelma explained. ‘In fact, he is regarded as the first member of the Faith to write his work in Latin instead of Greek. But he opposed the election of Cornelius as Pope on the grounds that Cornelius was too gentle and forgiving to lapsed Christians. He held that those who did not maintain the Faith, even under torture and persecution, should not be received back into the Faith, whether or not they repented. He also argued that if a widow or a widower remarried, their second marriage was unlawful and they should be publicly accused of fornication and punished. His mistake, however, was in setting himself up as a rival head of the Church in Rome. He claimed that he was Pope. He was immediately excommunicated at a Council in Rome. His teachings were deemed heretical.’
‘I have not heard of this,’ admitted Abbot Ségdae. ‘When was it?’
‘About three centuries ago, according to the annalists.’
‘If Novatian and his followers were declared heretics three centuries ago, how can you claim that Brother Lugna is a member of their sect?’ Brehon Aillín demanded.
‘Oh, the Novatianists still exist. Novatian was executed in the massacre of Christians in Rome by the Emperor Valerian. But his sect spread rapidly after his death. They were numerous in many lands and they called themselves
katharoi
, which is the Greek for “puritans”, to denote that they kept themselves pure from what they saw as the lax and forgiving
ways of the Roman popes. Some demanded that even those born and raised in the Faith must be baptised again before they could join the Novatianists and be considered saved. Of course the Novatianists are still regarded as heretics but I am not sure that they have been censured with any force since the time of Pope Clement.’
Abbot Iarnla turned to glare at his steward. ‘Is it true that you follow the teachings of this Novatian?’
‘Why should I deny it?’ retorted Brother Lugna with arrogance.
‘I hold the Faith pure and untainted. There is no room for those who are half-hearted about declaring their beliefs.’
‘And that is why you were concerned when Brother Donnchad returned from the Holy Land and you discovered that far from being strengthened in his Faith, his mind was full of questions for which he tried to find answers?’ said Abbot Iarnla.
‘The devil had tempted Donnchad while he wandered in the wilderness,’ Brother Lugna replied calmly.’ ‘He was not strong enough to fight the devil and fell into the greatest sin of all. He denied the Faith. There is no room in Christendom for those who deny the Faith even if they eventually come seeking forgiveness on their hands and knees. They should be turned away and punished.’
‘Just as your founder Novatian preached,’ said Fidelma.
‘Just as he taught,’ agreed the steward. ‘Such sinners are condemned in this life and in the next. Those who give them forgiveness and succour are the real heretics. They will not receive forgiveness of the Lord when the time comes. They will be made to answer at the awful Day of Judgement.’
‘There is a day of judgement come today,’ Fidelma pointed out. ‘We are here to judge who is responsible for Brother Donnchad’s death.’
‘I shall not deny my Faith,’ Brother Lugna replied stubbornly.
‘At least I will not die a sinner and a blasphemer as Donnchad did.’
‘So you killed Brother Donnchad!’ Abbot Iarnla accused, his voice rising. ‘You admit it!’
The
refectorium
erupted once more.
‘I deny it!’ shouted the steward, red with anger.
Brehon Aillín stamped his staff of office loudly but it took a long time before he was able to quell the noise of surprise and outrage that had arisen.
When some degree of quiet was restored, Fidelma held up her hand.
‘Let us come to the answer in the proper order,’ she said, glancing at the Brehon.
Brehon Aillín was looking anxious and said, ‘There are contentious matters here and in view of what you have told me, I am prepared to let you proceed for a little while longer in the manner you wish. But I urge you, for the sake of peace in this abbey, come to the point as quickly as you can.’
‘I shall proceed as quickly as the matter allows.’ Fidelma’s voice was grave. She turned back to those gathered in the
refectorium
. ‘The views expressed by Brother Lugna are part of the intolerance that I believe we must fight against. Beliefs are things to be cherished but we cannot be intolerant of others whose beliefs we disagree with. That intolerance can lead to war and even murder. It did lead to murder in the case of Brother Donnchad.
‘As with the killing of Glassán the master builder, two people were involved in the murder of Brother Donnchad. Both parties to his murder were zealots for the Faith and could not tolerate someone who, rightly or wrong – for I make no judgement – began to ask questions instead of simply believing.
‘When it became known to these two people that Brother
Donnchad was researching writings that were critical of the Faith and meant to produce a scholastic work on them, they decided that he should be silenced. He was not to be allowed to proclaim his doubts or voice his questions because of the shame, as they saw it, it would bring upon this abbey.’
Many heads turned to Brother Lugna and to Abbot Iarnla. They both sat with expressions of defiance.
Brehon Aillín leant forward. ‘Do you accuse the abbot or his steward? Or both of them? There is no one in a higher position to protect the reputation of the abbey than they are.’
‘A moment more of patience,’ Fidelma urged. ‘One of the two people planned the murder and the other was their accomplice. But we must first comment on the circumstances of the murder. One of them entered Brother Donnchad’s
cubiculum
and killed him. They had to remove all the manuscripts that Brother Donnchad had in his
cubiculum
that would show what he was working on. They could not allow the papers to be known.’
‘How are you going to demonstrate that?’ snapped Abbot Iarnla. ‘There was only one key to the
cubiculum
, which Brother Donnchad had, and that was by his side when he was found. And no one came out of his
cubiculum
bearing any papers before his body was discovered.’
‘That was where the second person was involved. It was the Venerable Bróin who gave me the clue with his story of seeing an angel in white fluttering in the sky. The Venerable Bróin occupied the
cubiculum
beneath Brother Donnchad. What he actually saw was a large piece of parchment fluttering down. The killer, having despatched Donnchad, threw the precious manuscripts out of the window. The window, as you will recall, faces the wasteland that lies just before the abbey graveyard. The window is too small for anyone to enter or exit through it. But it is large enough to throw out the
manuscripts to the second person waiting below to collect them.’
She suddenly swung round.
‘What happened to them, Brother Donnán? Have they been destroyed, given to your confederate, or have you hidden them away in the library?’
Brother Donnán turned white, stood up quickly, sat down again and then slowly rose to his feet once more.
‘I … I deny it!’ he gasped but there was no conviction in his voice.
‘The first mistake you made was over a piece of parchment written on by Brother Donnchad. We found the piece below the window. You neglected to pick it up; it was such a small piece, you probably did not notice it. There were only a few words written on it anyway. You, who are certainly an expert on his writings, denied it was Brother Donnchad’s hand. Yet Cunán, the assistant librarian at Fhear Maighe, who is also an expert, not only identified it as Brother Donnchad’s, but was also able to prove this by the particular way letters were formed, by showing us writings received from Brother Donnchad as example.
‘Donnchad wrote an entreaty that the chalice be removed from him. What chalice? The chalice of his knowledge. Brother Donnchad had also written
Deicide
several times; he was not referring to the Jews killing the Christ but to himself, to his own research, which was killing his Faith. He knew what was happening and he used the words written in the gospel of Luke when even Jesus doubted: “Father, if you be willing, remove this chalice from me …’ It was to be a bitter chalice for Brother Donnchad.
‘Brother Donnán also tried to lead us away from the books Donnchad was researching. Then he discovered that the original book by Celsus was in Fhear Maighe. By coincidence, the
abbey of Ard Mór had asked and paid for a copy of it, having read Origenes’ answer to it, which this abbey had lent them after Brother Donnchad had read it. A messenger arrived at the library with the news that the copy was ready and that it would be sent by barge. As the physician, Brother Seachlann, was going to Ard Mór, he volunteered to take the message. Brother Donnán overheard this and even wrote down the titles of the books. However, he thought it was the original that Fhear Maighe was sending. He passed that information on to someone on the barge, who arranged for it to be attacked and the copy stolen.’
There was a deathly hush in the great room. Everyone was sitting spellbound.
‘The attack on the barge was made to appear as if men from the Uí Liatháin carried it out. I will explain why, in a moment.’
Uallachán and Cumscrad stirred uneasily in their seats but they made no comment.
‘Brother Donnán’s accomplice, or should I say the person who was the main instigator of all these events, then learned that Fhear Maighe still had the original of Celsus’s work. An attack on the library to destroy this copy and, indeed, to kill the librarian who might have read the work was arranged.
‘Why were you involved, Brother Donnán?’ Fidelma asked the
scriptor
. ‘You have been at this abbey a long time. I suppose you have pride in your library, your
scriptorium
, and pride in the abbey which you hoped would become one of the great teaching abbeys of Christendom. Did you fear that if a scholar of Brother Donnchad’s merit declared his doubts, it would destroy your ambitions for the abbey and tarnish the reputation you took such pride in?’
Brother Donnán resumed his seat and folded his hands before him. He was shaking his head. His face was set, his mouth
compressed into a firm line.
‘You will not tell us who the instigator was in all this?’ Fidelma shrugged and turned towards Abbot Iarnla. ‘Who, more than most, wanted to protect the reputation of this abbey and make it, as I have said, renowned for its Faith and learning throughout Christendom? Who wanted this abbey to rise as a great monument to the Faith that would last forever?’
Many in the
refectorium
were now looking with open hostility at Brother Lugna, while a few were casting suspicious glances at Abbot Iarnla.