Brother Cadfael 16: The Heretic's Apprentice

churches. Hard-pressed by enemies, it was on their own they turned most savagely. Here at home he had never before encountered it, but it might yet come to be as common as in Antioch or Alexandria. Not, however, if Radulfus could rein it in.
    "His own priest does not seem to have regarded William as an enemy, either within or without," said the abbot mildly. "But Deacon Serlo here is about to tell us what he recalls of the contention, and it is only just that you should afterward speak as to your master's mind before his death, in assurance that he is worthy to be buried here within the precinct."
    "Speak up!" said Gerbert as Serlo hesitated, dismayed and unhappy at what he had set in motion. "And be precise! On what heads was fault found with the man's beliefs?"
    "There were certain small points at issue," Serlo said submissively, "as I remember it. Two in particular, besides his doubts concerning the baptism of infants. He had difficulty in comprehending the Trinity..."
    Who does not! thought Cadfael. If it were comprehensible, all these interpreters of the good God would be out of an occupation. And every one of those denies the interpretation set up by every other.
    "He said if the first was Father, and the second Son, how could they be co-eternal and co-equal? And as to the Spirit, he could not see how it could be equal with either Father or Son if it emanated from them. Moreover, he saw no need for a third, creation, salvation, and all things complete in Father and Son. Thus the third served only to satisfy the vision of those who think in threes, as the songmakers and the soothsayers do, and all those who deal with enchantment."
    "He said that of the Church?" Gerbert's countenance was stiff and his brow black.
    "Not of the Church, no, that I do not believe he ever said. And the Trinity is a most high mystery, many have difficulty with it."
    "It is not for them to question or reason with inadequate minds, but to accept with unquestioning faith. Truth is set before them, they have only to believe. It is the perverse and perilous who have the arrogance to bring mere fallible reason to bear on what is ineffable. Go on! Two points, you said. What is the second?"
    Serb cast an almost apologetic glance at Radulfus, and an even more rapid and uneasy one at Elave, who all this time was staring upon him with knotted brows and thrusting jaw, not yet committed to fear or anger or any other emotion, simply waiting and listening.
    "It arose out of this same matter of the Father and the Son. He said that if they were of one and the same substance, as the creed calls them consubstantial, then the entry of the Son into humankind must mean also the entry of the Father, taking to himself and making divine that which he had united with the godhead. And therefore the Father and the Son alike knew the suffering and the death and the resurrection, and as one partake in our redemption."
    "It is the Patripassian heresy!" cried Gerbert, outraged. "Sabellius was excommunicated for it, and for other his errors. Noetus of Smyrna preached it to his ruin. This is indeed a dangerous venture. No wonder the priest warned him of the pit he was digging for his own soul."
    "Howbeit," Radulfus reminded the assembly firmly, "the man, it seems, listened to counsel and undertook the pilgrimage, and as to the probity of his life, nothing has been alleged against it. We are concerned, not with what he speculated upon seven years and more ago, but with his spiritual well-being at his death. There is but one witness here who can testify as to that. Now let us hear from his servant and companion." He turned to look closely at Elave, whose face had set into controlled and conscious awareness, not of danger, but of deep offence. "Speak for your master," said Radulfus quietly, "for you knew him to the end. What was his manner of life in all that long journey?"
    "He was regular in observance everywhere," said Elave, "and made his confession where he could. There was no fault found with him in any land. In the Holy City we visited all the most sacred places, and going and returning we lodged whenever we could in abbeys and priories, and everywhere my master was accepted for a good and pious man, and paid his way honestly, and was well regarded."
    "But had he renounced his views," demanded Gerbeit, "and recanted his heresy? Or did he still adhere secretly to his former errors?"
    "Did he ever speak with you about these things?" the abbot asked, overriding the