Heresy (10 page)

The second half of the meal passed with considerably less interest than the first, now that I had been removed from Sophia’s company. My new dining companions introduced themselves. Opposite me sat Master Walter Slythurst, the college bursar, a bony, thin-lipped man of my own age with narrow, suspicious eyes and lank hair that fell in curtains around his face. Beside him was Doctor James Coverdale, a plump man of about forty with a great sweep of dark hair, a close-cropped beard, and an air of complacency, who explained that he was the proctor, the official responsible for the students’ discipline. To my right was Master Richard Godwyn, the librarian,
who appeared older, perhaps fifty, and whose large, drooping features reminded me of a bloodhound, as though his skin were too big for his face, though his gloomy countenance was transformed when he allowed a brief smile to illuminate it as he shook my hand. All were courteous enough, but I could not help but wish that I had been allowed to continue my discussion with Sophia. It was clear that the tenor of our conversation had angered her father; she was now seated next to him, on the same side of the table as me, so that I could not see her without rudely leaning around my neighbour Godwyn and drawing attention to myself.

“I fear you have had to suffer the sharp end of William Bernard’s tongue up there, Doctor Bruno,” said James Coverdale, leaning across the table.

“He seems disappointed with the world as he finds it,” I observed, checking to see that Bernard had been moved far enough away to be out of earshot.

“It is often the way with old men,” Godwyn said, with a sombre nod. “He has weathered a great many changes in his seventy winters, it cannot be easy.”

“If he continues to speak his mind as plainly among the undergraduates as he does among his fellows, he will soon go the way of his friend,” said Slythurst, in a clipped tone that suggested he would not be displeased at such an outcome. I do not like to judge men on appearance and so little acquaintance, but there was something about the bursar that did not invite respect. He had been staring at me intently from the moment I sat down, and I sensed that the look was not friendly.

“His friend?” I asked.

Coverdale sighed. “It is a sorry business, Doctor Bruno, and a source of shame to the college—the former subrector, Doctor Allen, was deprived of office last year after he was discovered to have”—he hesitated, looking for a diplomatic expression—“perjured himself in swearing the Oath of Supremacy. It seemed he was still a devout communicant of the Roman church.”

“Really? How was he discovered?”

“Denounced by an anonymous source,” Coverdale said, as if relishing the intrigue. “But when his room was searched, he was found in possession of a quantity of banned papist literature. And of course the subrector holds the second-highest office in the college, and is in charge whenever the rector is absent, so you may imagine the scandal. A number of us here had to testify against him in the Chancellor’s Court.”

“The university holds its own legal sessions to enforce discipline,” explained Godwyn in a lugubrious tone. “Though in a matter of such import the Privy Council also took an active interest. The Earl of Leicester—our chancellor, you know—has repeatedly charged the heads of colleges to rid themselves of all suspicion of popery, so the rector had to be seen to strike swift and hard against Allen.”

“Rector Underhill was formerly the Earl of Leicester’s own chaplain, as he has no doubt boasted to you already,” added Slythurst. “He could not have pardoned Allen and kept his own position.”

“Yet Allen hoped for a pardon,” Coverdale interjected. “And for better loyalty from his friends. In that he was badly disappointed.”

“I think the rector did his duty with a heavy heart, James,” Godwyn said, with a meaningful look at Coverdale. “Indeed it grieved all of us to have to bear public witness to his errors.”

“Roger Mercer gave his testimony quickly enough,” said Coverdale, glancing with barely concealed anger down the table to where Roger was laughing merrily with Florio. I saw Slythurst roll his eyes, as if he had heard this grievance many times before. “And he was supposed to be Allen’s closest friend. Still, he got his thirty pieces of silver, did he not?”

“Silver?” I asked.

“His testimony was crucial to condemning Allen, and for that he was given Allen’s position when he was deprived,” Coverdale said bitterly.

“Perhaps I should clarify for Doctor Bruno that, traditionally, it is the proctor who succeeds as subrector, just as the subrector goes on to become
rector,” Godwyn explained. “This is the way it has always been done—there is a congregation of the Fellows, of course, but the vote is really a formal seal of approval on the established succession.”

“But since the present rector was placed here by the Earl of Leicester, to do his bidding,” Coverdale hissed, hunching down in his seat so that he would not be heard, “he shows scant regard for tradition and appoints those he finds most pliable. And we all know why Leicester forced through Underhill’s election,” he added significantly.

“James,” said Slythurst, a warning in his voice.

“I understood it was to enforce propriety in religion,” I said. “Cut out the canker of popery.”

“Oh, that is the official reason.” Coverdale waved a dismissive hand. “But the college owns substantial manors and parcels of profitable farmland in Oxfordshire, you understand—many of which are now leased at a most advantageous rate to friends of Leicester, are they not, Master Bursar?”

“You forget yourself, James,” Slythurst said smoothly. “Doctor Bruno here is a friend of the Earl of Leicester.”

“Indeed, I have never met him,” I said hastily. “I merely travel with his nephew.”

“In any case,” Coverdale continued, warming to his theme, “the college loses valuable profit and must struggle to make ends meet by admitting legions of these so-called gentlemen commoners—paying students who have neither the inclination nor the talent to be scholars and gad about the town wenching and gambling and bringing the university into disrepute.”

“This is not an appropriate subject for the supper table,” said Slythurst, in a voice thick with cold anger, bringing down his palm flat against the board just firmly enough to signal his displeasure. “There is nothing improper about those leases, but the disbursal of college funds can be of no interest to our guest, I am sure. A little discretion, if you please, gentlemen.”

The Fellows looked down, embarrassed; an uncomfortable silence loomed.

“Doctor Coverdale,” I said, turning to the proctor with a diplomatic smile, “you were telling me about the trial of Edmund Allen—please do go on.”

Coverdale exchanged a look with Slythurst that I could not read, then folded his hands together.

“I was saying only that Mercer’s testimony against Allen carried great weight in the trial, not least because he was Allen’s closest confidant. The rector needed Mercer’s cooperation, and in return Mercer was given Allen’s position.”

“Which should have been yours,” I prompted.

Coverdale placed a plump hand on his breast and assumed a face of unconvincing modesty. “It is not for my own merits that I say an injustice has been done, Doctor Bruno,” he said, “but for the violation to tradition. This university is founded on tradition, and if individuals feel that they are not obliged to respect it because their personal patronage carries more weight, the fabric of our community will crumble.”

“Edmund was friend to many of us,” Godwyn said, with an air of regret. A sombre mood had fallen on our group as once again I heard Sophia, Florio, and Roger erupt into laughter. “He was well liked by the undergraduates, too—it was a great pity that he could not in his heart renounce the errors of his old beliefs.”

“Exile seems a harsh punishment for owning a few books,” I ventured, helping myself to more beef and onions.

“He was lucky to leave England with his guts still inside his belly,” said Slythurst dispassionately. “Less-favoured men have had harder punishments for less. You of all people, Doctor Bruno, should know that heterodoxy in religion is a most grave sin, against God and the established order.” He looked at me pointedly.

“It was not just the books,” Godwyn interrupted, in a confidential tone. “He was suspected of being a courier for his cousin, William Allen, at the English seminary in Rheims. They took him to London and questioned him
under cruel torture, but he never said a word and in the end they sent him abroad. Poor Edmund.” He shook his head sadly and drained his cup.

“I met his son today,” I remarked, tearing another piece of bread.

Coverdale rolled his eyes. “Then I pity you,” he said. “No doubt he was begging you to carry pleas to the court for his father’s pardon?” Without waiting for an answer, he clicked his tongue angrily. “That boy should never have been allowed to stay on after his father’s disgrace. Thomas Allen holds dangerous beliefs, mark my words. Though I could not persuade the rector to act on my advice—he is too softhearted with that boy.”

I could not help thinking that if the rector’s treatment of Thomas Allen was evidence of softheartedness, the boy’s life must be harsh indeed.

“Once again, it behoves me to say that I do not think our eminent guest has travelled all the way here to listen to us griping about college matters,” Slythurst interrupted in a voice smooth as ice. He tucked a limp strand of hair behind his ear and, smiling with his teeth, turned to me. “Tell us, Doctor Bruno, something of your travels in Europe. I understand you have taught at many of the famous academies across the continent. How do you find Oxford by comparison?”

Returning his smile with equal insincerity, for the remainder of that course and the almond custard and jellied fruits that followed, as the candles burned lower I told them of my wandering years, leaving out what I thought politic and subtly flattering my new companions with what they wanted to hear—namely, that none of the European universities could hold a candle to the great scholarship and wisdom of the men of Oxford.

“How long do you stay in Oxford, Doctor Bruno?” asked Coverdale, sitting back in his chair and wiping his lips as the servants cleared away the last plates and cups.

“I believe the palatine, in whose party I travel, intends to stay a week,” I said.

“Then I hope you will attend chapel with us here in the college. The
rector is delivering a most erudite series of sermons on John Foxe’s
Actes and Monuments
. Are you familiar with it?”

“The Book of Martyrs?
Naturally,” I replied, suspecting that this was some sort of test. “Many consider it a most inspiring work.”

“Doctor Bruno is not genuine in his admiration, I fear,” said Slythurst, glancing from me to his colleagues. “I never met a Catholic yet who admired Foxe’s dreadful accounts of what was done to the Protestant martyrs.”

“Does he not also give many examples of Christian martyrs from the earliest centuries of the faith, when Christians suffered at the hands of pagans and unbelievers, before we began persecuting one another?” I replied. “And are these not martyrs whom all Christians may honour, and whose sufferings may remind us of a time when we lived in unity?”

“That was not Foxe’s intention—” Slythurst began, but Coverdale interrupted.

“Well said, Bruno. Believers on both sides have suffered for Christ, and only He knows who shall stand with Him at the Last Judgment.”

“That is the first time I have ever heard
you
advocate tolerance, James,” Slythurst said, his eyes narrowing even further. Coverdale ignored the provocation.

“Let us have some more wine here, ho!” he cried to a serving boy, clapping his hands. I declined another glass, for I wanted to reflect on my notes for the disputation before I went to bed and needed to keep a clear head.

By the time the meal was over, it was fully dark outside and the guests all rose, taking their leave with much handshaking and compliments to the rector on the food, which I understood had been greatly superior to the usual fare of the college hall supper. The Fellows all shook my hand warmly, repeating their welcome to Oxford and wishing me a good night’s rest in anticipation of the great disputation the following day, which they were all, they said, much looking forward to. Richard Godwyn invited me to make use of the library whenever I chose, for which I thanked him. John Florio expressed
in perfect Italian his eager hopes that we might spend some time together before I left, and even Doctor Bernard rose unsteadily and clasped my fingers between his bony hands.

“Tomorrow night, sorcerer,” he hissed, with a toothless grin, “you will contradict their pious certainties, and I shall be there in the front row applauding you. Not because I support your heretical notions but because I admire men who are not afraid. There are too few left in this place.”

Here he glanced pointedly at the rector, who affected not to notice. Only Slythurst did not trouble himself to express a welcome; he merely acknowledged me with a curt nod as he disappeared through the doorway, and only then because I caught him looking at me with those cold eyes. I felt again his dislike of me, though I tried not to view it as a personal slight; I noticed that he left without saying good night to his colleagues either, and surmised that he was one of those men, common enough among academics, who was simply not blessed with an easy social manner.

When I said good night to Sophia, she extended her hand demurely and I kissed it respectfully under her father’s watchful eye, but he was then distracted by Doctor Bernard loudly fretting about where he had left his coat, and while the rector was reassuring Bernard that he had not brought any coat, Sophia leaned close to me and laid a hand on my arm.

“Doctor Bruno, I should very much like to continue our earlier conversation. You remember? The book of Agrippa? Perhaps when the disputation is over, you may have more leisure to talk. I can often be found in the college library,” she added. “My father allows me to read there in the mornings and the early evenings, when most of the scholars are attending lectures and disputations.”

“So that you do not distract them from their books?” I whispered back. She blushed, and gave me a knowing smile.