Peter Tremayne - Chalice of Blood

‘Brother Donnchad discovered that the name Abdes in the language spoken in Sidonia meant a “servant of Isis”, a god of the Egyptians. Abdes joined the first cohort of archers and rose to be the standard bearer, a signifer . Abdes served forty years in the Roman army and Brother Donnchad discovered that his regiment, the Cohors Primus Sagittariorum, was stationed in Judea until Jesus was nine years old. Then the cohort was moved to the northern frontier in Germania Superior along the banks of the River Renos. Abdes was stationed in a fort called Bingium where, at the age of sixty-two years, he died and where he was buried.’

‘You say all this was written down by Brother Donnchad?’ demanded Abbot Ségdae, then he turned to the Brehon. ‘Forgive me, Brehon Aillín, I want to be absolutely sure on this point.’

‘It was,’ replied Fidelma. ‘His written account will be presented to you as evidence. I know nothing of these places or their history. All I know is that Brother Donnchad wrote this down and was influenced by it. On his return journey, when he landed at Tarentum, he bade farewell to his blood brother, Cathal, and continued his journey north. He crossed the mountains. Finally, he arrived in Bingium by way of the River Renos. There, so he recounts, he found a guide who led him to the grave of Abdes Pantera. The Latin inscription was still clearly legible. He recorded it word for word.’

‘But all this proves nothing about who killed him,’ Brehon Aillín interjected.

‘What this is meant to prove is the state of Brother Donnchad’s mind — and a motive for his killing. As I have frequently said, I do not vouch for its accuracy one way or the other. But Brother Donnchad found himself troubled by the story, which is known to the people of Judea, the story of a rape in Nazareth, mentionedin a Jewish law text, recounted by the Phoenicians in Sidonia, and by Greek and Latin writers like Celsus. The story Celsus tells was even rebutted by Origenes who took the arguments seriously enough to argue with them. Brother Donnchad went so far as to trace the tomb of Abdes in Germania. Brother Donnchad was a great scholar. True or not, this was the matter that troubled him.

‘What he had uncovered created such doubts in his mind that he was losing his belief in the new Faith, He was a very logical man. But, at times, belief calls upon us to shed our rational minds and simply accept that which we are unable to prove. Credo quia impossible est , I believe it because it is impossible, as many of our priests would say. Well, faced with evidence of a rational story about Christ, Brother Donnchad found he could no longer believe what logic told him was impossible.’

There was another ripple of angry mutterings in the refectorium . Eadulf looked round uncomfortably. Fidelma was only presenting arguments that had caused Brother Donnchad to slip away from the Faith but to those who sincerely believed, it was as if she was preaching heresy or attacking the Faith itself.

Brehon Aillín rapped his staff of office. ‘And you maintain that his doubts provoked such anger in someone that that person killed him?’

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 havenot 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 forgivingways 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.