Peter Tremayne - Master of Souls

‘Are you implying that the guilty are here in this abbey?’

‘I told the Venerable Mac Faosma once that I never imply things. You may take it as a fair interpretation,’ returned Fidelma calmly.

‘Then I demand that you tell me what you know,’ snapped the abbot.

Fidelma’s brows came together.

‘Demand?’ Her voice was cold. ‘You demand of a dalaigh?’

Abbot Erc blinked at her tone. But Brother Cu Mara, young and now a little headstrong, replied somewhat sarcastically.

‘You had best remember that times are changing, Fidelma of Cashel. Your laws are becoming outdated. The new Penitentials of Rome are replacing them and the law and its administration will soon be in the hands of abbots and bishops.’

Fidelma regarded him with a cold and piercing stare.

‘God save us from that catastrophe,’ she said reverently, as if in prayer.

‘When, in ancient times, the High King Ollamh Fodhla ordered the laws of the Brehons to be gathered so that they could be applied evenly over the five kingdoms, it was guaranteed that no king nor priest stood above the law and every judge had to justify his judgements. All were equal before the law. Abbots as well as kings. When that system is overthrown then our people will truly be in bondage, whether it be to your Roman Penitentials or to some other power.’

Brother Cu Mara flushed angrily.

‘Bondage?’ he snapped. ‘That is something you Eoghanacht of Cashel need give us no lessons in. You keep the Ui Fidgente in bondage!’

Fidelma had to control her own growing anger.

‘Indeed? So you would disagree with the policy of your chieftain, Donennach, that peace with Cashel is better than constant rebellion against the king?’

Brother Cu Mara seemed to forget himself and took a threatening step forward.

‘Cu Mara! Enough!’ cried Abbot Erc sharply. ‘Your fidelity is to this abbey and to the welfare of its people. Remember that and leave us.’

Brother Cu Mara paused for a moment. His expression seemed to show that he was struggling.

‘Leave us!’ repeated the abbot harshly.

Exhaling with a hissing sound, Brother Cu Mara left the chamber.

‘There is an enemy in that one,’ Eadulf whispered softly to Fidelma.

Abbot Erc grimaced as if trying to make an apology.

‘Cu Mara is a young and headstrong man,’ he sighed. ‘Diplomacy is not a gift of youth. Yet he does have a point. The Ui Fidgente were defeated by your brother at Cnoc Aine and our ruling family were killed. Many now feel we are in bondage to Cashel.’

‘That’s not exactly accurate, for your new chieftain Donennach traces his lineage back to Fidgennid after whom the Ui Fidgente take their name. Peace for the clan is better than the centuries of continued warfare that have taken place.’

Abbot Erc bowed his head. ‘Let us not talk of politics, Fidelma. I know that you are gifted with eloquence in such matters.’

Fidelma was serious. ‘We may have to speak of such matters before long.’

The abbot looked puzzled. ‘Are you suggesting that politics enter into this matter of murder and abduction? Most of our community here are loyal Ui Fidgente. Most were supporters of our old leadership.’

‘Most,’ agreed Fidelma. ‘But the Venerable Cinaed was not. I think you disapproved of him, didn’t you?’

The abbot was trying to fathom the meaning behind her words.

‘I will not attempt to deny it. I disapproved of Cinaed’s ideas. But that does not mean I killed him. I knew him for many years and we worked together. Yet I simply had no liking for Cinaed’s ambition to seek out controversy.’

‘You call it an ambition?’ said Fidelma. ‘That is an interesting choice of word.’

‘Everything he wrote was designed to contradict orthodoxy. What else is that but courting controversy? He was resolute in his pursuit of controversial arguments so that it can be truly said that he had a strong desire to achieve notoriety in these matters.’

‘It might also be called adhering to one’s principles in search of the truth,’ interposed Eadulf, having kept quiet so far during the conversation.

‘Perhaps,’ agreed the abbot absently. ‘Cinaed was a cross to bear in the running of this abbey, for many found him and his views objectionable.’

‘Like young Brother Cu Mara?’ Eadulf queried in an innocent tone.

‘And others,’ Abbot Erc replied with quick emphasis. ‘But do not misinterpret what I say. As an individual, Cinaed was stimulating in conversation

‘That was rather extreme, wasn’t it?’ Fidelma reproved. ‘Why would you disapprove?’

‘I believe in the call for celibacy among the clerics.’

‘Yet Ard Fhearta is a mixed house, a conhospitae, in which you have men and women raising their children to Christ’s service.’

Abbot Erc was dismissive.

‘One cannot move a mountain in a day. Vincit qui patitur — he prevails who is patient. You are right that this is a conhospitae and Abbess Faife and I shared its governance. Now that Abbess Faife is dead, I am sole governor of the abbey and it will be my rule that prevails. Abbess Faife will not be replaced. Within the year, Ard Fhearta will become a male domain ruled by the new laws. I agree with young Brother Cu Mara. More and more of our abbeys are adopting the Penitentials. We shall change our church laws to the rules we receive from Rome.’ He glanced at Eadulf. ‘That should be pleasing to you, Brother Saxon, for you wear your tonsure in the manner of Rome and therefore, I presume, you believe in its rule.’

For a moment Eadulf looked uncomfortable.

‘Perhaps I have spent too long in your country — and I seem to recall the writings of the Blessed Ambrose, the bishop of Milan — si fueris Romae, Romano vivito more; si fueris alibi, vivito sicut ibi.’

Abbot Erc regarded him with an expression of reproof.

‘Well done, Brother Saxon. “If you are at Rome, live in the Roman style; if you are elsewhere, live as they live elsewhere,’” he translated. ‘It is a good philosophy, perhaps. But since you have raised the subject of the teachings of Ambrose let us remember that when the Emperor Theodosius massacred the Greeks in Thessalonika because they killed a Roman governor, Ambrose condemned it as a crime that needed to be expiated by public penance. “The emperor is within the church,” he wrote, “he is not above it.” Thus he made Theodosius make that public penance. You, Sister Fidelma, might do well to remember that fact when you say the church comes within the law. Rome teachers that the church is the law.’

Fidelma smiled thinly.

‘Your scholarship is admitted, Abbot Erc. However, we are, as Eadulf

‘You are a stubborn woman.’ The abbot was disapproving.

‘I am a dalaigh,’ she replied simply.

Abbot Erc was dismissive. ‘I presume that the lord Conri. will be returning here?’

‘That I can assure you is his intention.’

‘Very well. I hope that by the end of two days you will come before me and present me with the information that you are currently withholding. I will instruct Brother Cu Mara that he must accept this ruling.’

Sister Fidelma rose. ‘Then I am sure that we will have a good outcome to this mystery.’

With a quick nod of her head in acknowledgement of his office, she left the abbot’s chamber, followed by Eadulf.

Outside, they paused for a moment.

‘Not the most supportive of persons,’ observed Eadulf. ‘He seems to have profited in his ambitions for himself and the abbey by the death of Abbess Faife.’

‘That is so,’ agreed Fidelma. ‘One wonders whether he profited by design or accident. That must be borne in mind.’

‘Either way, I think that he and Brother Cu Mara need watching.’