Heresy (22 page)

“No—that will come to me during the night,” I said, only half joking, as I passed it to her. “What do you make of this?”

She skimmed her eyes briefly over it and looked up at me, puzzled.

“But this is a map of the heavens according to your Copernicus, is it not?”

I nodded.

“But why bring it to him now in such haste, after the debate is over?”

“Nothing strikes you as odd about it?”

She frowned at the paper again, and then her eyes widened, just for a
moment, before she raised her head again. “That is a strange way to represent the sun,” she said lightly.

“Yes.”

“Like a wheel. But it is very elegantly drawn,” she added, handing the paper back.

“It is, but I cannot claim the credit for that—it is not my work.”

“Then …whose?” Her voice faltered for a moment. “Where did you get it?”

“It was sent to me. By who, I don’t know, but it may have a hidden meaning. I thought I would ask your father’s advice.”

A strange laugh tumbled from her, as if in relief. “You came haring round here, pounding on the door as if the world were ending, just to show him this? If you would take
my
advice, Bruno, I would guess that someone is playing a joke at your expense, making fun of Copernicus. My father may not like you wasting his time with such trifles.”

“Perhaps you are right,” I said neutrally, folding the paper and smoothing it between my hands. “All the same, I will wait for him, if I may?”

She nodded briefly. What, I wondered, was the expression that had flitted so briefly across her face a moment ago when she looked a second time at the diagram? Had it been recognition, or even fear? It seemed improbable that she could know anything of the hidden meaning of the little symbol but then, I reflected, the life of the college was so close-knit that perhaps there were no secrets here. If the symbol meant something to Roger Mercer and to my unknown correspondent, why should it not be known to others, Sophia among them?

“Tell me”—I leaned back on my chair and indicated the large chests against the wall—“does your father have an edition of Foxe?”

Sophia rolled her eyes.

“That, my dear Bruno, is like asking if the pope owns a crucifix. My father has copies of all three of Master Day’s editions, the latter two running to twelve books apiece, and I believe there is a new edition to be printed
this year, so I’m sure he will soon add that to his collection. Foxe is one thing we do not lack in this house. Which edition did you particularly seek?”

“I don’t know.” I paused, running my eye over the books on the desk before turning back to face her. “‘I am the wheat or grain of Christ, I shall be ground with the teeth of wild beasts, that I may be found pure bread.’”

She looked at me with an expression of polite confusion. “Pardon?”

“Is that Foxe, do you know?”

“Oh. A quotation. Truly, I wouldn’t know—my father is the martyrologist, not me. To tell the truth, Bruno, I have only briefly looked into Master Foxe’s book and I detested what I found there. What kind of man devotes his life to recording endless lists of tortures and brutalities done to other human beings? And in such lavish detail? I got the sense he thoroughly enjoyed his own descriptions. Some of those woodcuts gave me nightmares.” She shuddered and screwed up her face.

“He meant to encourage the faithful, I suppose, and looked for the strongest images with which to do so.”

“It is nothing but propaganda, for no purpose but to inspire hatred of Catholics!” Sophia spat, and I was amazed at the vehemence in her voice. Catching my look of surprise, she blushed, and added, in a more moderate tone, “As if there were not enough discord and division between Christians already, without books like that to fan the flames of hate.”

I regarded her with renewed curiosity as, perhaps embarrassed by her outburst, she turned her attention back to the fire. She was so unusually outspoken and unpredictable in her opinions that I did not wonder her father despaired of marrying her well. Such independence of mind went against everything that was expected of a modest wife, yet it was this spirited refusal to keep her proper place that I most admired about her. What could she have meant by this last protest, for instance? While I was contemplating pressing her further on the subject of Foxe, the door was again opened and Adam laid out, with pointed slowness, a platter of bread and cold cuts beside the jug of wine.

“I do not think your father would like food to be taken in his study,” he began primly, but Sophia was already ripping into the bread.

“He has his supper in here all the time,” she said. “Thank you, Adam, that will be all now.”

He hesitated. “Mistress Sophia, I wonder if your mother—”

“My mother took to her bed yesterday evening at dinner and has not stirred from it since. When her nerves are bad she wishes to be left alone. Thank you, Adam.” She smiled pleasantly, but there was steel in her voice.

Adam, clearly believing himself the appointed defender of Sophia’s honour, seemed about to find some other objection to our continued presence together in the rector’s study, but after a moment’s pause he dipped his head and retreated, this time closing the door behind him with a soft click.

“Help yourself,” Sophia said, indicating the food. “We can search through Foxe after, if you like.”

I took my place on the chair by the fire and gratefully tore off a hunk of the rough-grained bread.

“Now then, Bruno,” she began, lowering her voice and leaning forward purposefully, as if it were she who had summoned me, “you promised to teach me more of the magic book of Agrippa, and here we are with an unexpected opportunity for a lesson.”

“So I did,” I replied, my mouth full, “but first you must tell me why you wish so fervently to know of spells and love talismans? These books are forbidden here and merely to possess such knowledge is considered dangerous.”

“I never said I wished to learn love spells,” she said, affecting hauteur, “that was
your
assumption.” But the sudden colour in her cheeks gave the lie to her protest.

“I only wondered why a wellborn young lady would occupy herself with the idea of practical magic.”

“I am fascinated by the idea that a person could master forces beyond our understanding and turn them to her own purpose. Isn’t everyone? Because
I have always thought magic must be immensely powerful, mustn’t it? I mean, it must work, or the Church would not be so anxious to keep it out of the hands of ordinary people.”

I hesitated. “There are undoubtedly forces of great power in the universe, but to draw them down demands long and profound study. The Hermetic magic of which Agrippa writes is not a matter of mixing a few herbs and muttering incantations like a village wisewoman. It requires knowledge of astronomy, mathematics, music, metaphysics, philosophy, optics, geometry—I could go on. Becoming an adept is the work of a lifetime.”

“I see.” Her mouth set tight, and she clasped her hands together on her knees. “And you mean to say that I have not the wit for it, being only a woman?”

“I mean nothing of the kind.” I held up a hand in protest; how quick she was to take offence on this subject! Then I remembered the impotent anger I had felt in the Divinity School at her father’s repeated insinuations that my nationality was synonymous with stupidity; at least I could find parts of Europe where such prejudice would not be current, but to my knowledge there was nowhere in Christendom where a woman like Sophia would be suffered to learn or converse with men as an equal, no matter how sharp her mind or how widely she read. Only in a queen was such an intelligence tolerated. “I meant only that to devote one’s life to the study of Hermetic magic requires enormous sacrifice, and I would not lightly recommend it. For a start, it could likely see you burned as a witch.”

She appeared to consider this for a moment, then lifted her head suddenly to look at me, her eyes lit with a vivid anguish.

“Then is there no way of learning any magic that might work?” she burst out.

“Work for what?” I said, taken aback at the force of her expression. “You seem to have something very specific in mind, but if you will not say what, I cannot advise you.”

She turned her face back to the fire and sat without speaking for a while. I cut a lump of cheese and waited to see if she decided to trust me.

“Did you never love anyone who could not return your love?”

“No,” I said, frankly. “But I have loved someone I could not have, so perhaps I understand a little.”

She nodded, still staring into the weaving flames, then raised her head and fixed me with those clear, tawny eyes. “Who was she?”

“A French noblewoman, when I lived in Toulouse. She also scorned the pursuits of ladies and hungered after books. In fact, she was a lot like you in spirit and beauty,” I added, gently.

She ventured a shy smile. “Did you want to marry her?”

I hesitated. “I wanted to go on loving her, certainly. I wanted to be able to talk to her, and hold her. But marriage—it was so far from possibility. Her father intended her to make a match that would suit his ambitions, not hers. I was not it.”

“Like my father,” she said, nodding again, her hair tumbling around her face as she rested her chin on her hand and continued to look intently at me. “So you were forced to part?”

“Her father wanted to separate us. On top of that, Toulouse was then in the grip of religious conflict between the Catholics and the Huguenot Protestants, and it was safer for me to leave. That has been my life for the past few years, I’m afraid. I have had to move around so much and shift for myself, perhaps it has made me unfit for a settled life with a wife and family.”

“That is sad. But I’m sure you would not be short of admirers here, Bruno. No Englishman has eyes like yours.”

I was so surprised by this compliment that I could not think of an immediate reply. Sophia looked embarrassed and hastily turned her attention back to the fire.

“You have travelled so much, you cannot imagine how envious I am.
You must have had so many adventures. I have not left Oxford in six years. Sometimes I feel so restless”—she poked the fire vigorously—“I fear I shall never see anything of the world, unless I can make some dramatic change happen. Oh, sometimes I just want to shake this life I have into pieces! Do you ever feel like that?” She looked at me earnestly, her eyes full of feeling.

“Certainly. I spent thirteen years of my youth in a monastery—I knew more about restlessness and that desire for new horizons than anyone. But be careful what you wish for, Sophia. I have also learned that adventure is not always something to seek for its own sake. You don’t realise the value of a home until you no longer have one,” I added quietly.

“My father said you lived at the court of King Henri in Paris—you must have met many beautiful ladies of fashion there, I suppose?”

“There were beautiful faces, certainly, and many beautiful costumes, but I never found much beauty of mind at court.”

“Still, I expect you dazzled them all with your ideas,” Sophia said, her eyes reflecting the crackling flames.

“I don’t know that my ideas were of much interest to the ladies at court.” I gave her a rueful smile. “Few women there cared to read or trouble themselves with ideas. Most of them had little grasp even of the politics of their own city, and I’m afraid I could never feign interest in a woman whose conversation is limited to court gossip and fashions. I am too intolerant of stupidity.”

She sat up then, looking at me with curiosity. “Then you would value in a woman the capacity to form her own opinions and express them?”

“Of course, if they are well-informed. Otherwise she is no more than an ornament, however lovely. Better to buy a painting if you just want something beautiful in a corner of your parlour. And a painting’s value increases with age.”

Sophia smiled and shook her head. “You are not like most Englishmen, Bruno. But then I saw that when I first met you. My father assures me that
no man values a strong mind in a woman, and that if I want a husband I would do well to smile prettily and keep my thoughts to myself.”

“Then his understanding of his fellow men is as wrongheaded as his cosmology.”

She laughed then, but it was not reflected in her eyes.

“And your inamorato?” I prompted. “What does he value?” When she did not answer, I continued. “Because I cannot believe that a young woman so favoured by nature should even need to consider magical arts to secure any man’s affection. With the greatest respect, I can only imagine that your inamorato is either blind or an idiot.”

“There is no inamorato,” she snapped, folding her arms across her chest and turning pointedly away from me. “Don’t make fun of me, Bruno. I had thought you were different.”

“Forgive me.” I poured another glass of wine and sat back, stifling a smile. If she wanted to confide in me, I reasoned, she would do so in her own time. We sat in silence for a while, with only the spitting of the logs and the lulling rhythm of the flames for company.

“To answer your question, Agrippa had his knowledge of practical magic from an ancient manuscript known in Europe by the name of
Picatrix,”
I began, to break the silence when it appeared that she was not going to speak. “Its true name is the
Ghayat al-Hakim
, the Goal of the Wise, and it was transcribed by the Arabs of Harran about four hundred years ago. In fact, it is a translation of a much older work, from before the destruction of Egypt, thought to be inspired by Hermes Trismegistus himself.” I paused to take a sip of wine, confident that I had now won back her attention; she was staring at me, rapt, her chin cupped in her hands. “This book is forbidden by the church of Rome and has never been printed—it would be too dangerous to do so—but it was translated into Spanish at the order of King Alfonso the Wise and then into Latin, so for some years there have been a small number of manuscript copies in circulation. One of these
was imported in secret to Paris by King Henri ten years ago. He has a fancy for collecting obscure books of esoterica, but he does not know how to use them once he has them.”