Heresy (7 page)

“Doctor Bruno—I am John Underhill, rector of Lincoln College. You are most welcome to Oxford, and I hope you will do us the honour of accepting our hospitality at the college.”

“Thank you, I am very grateful.”

“You and I are to be adversaries in the disputation tomorrow night and will face each other across the floor of the Divinity School, but I hope that until then, we may regard each other as friends.” He smiled as he said this, but it died quickly on his lips.

So this was my Aristotelian opponent. He had a fussy air and there was something brittle about his expression of hospitality, but I was determined to make a good impression in Oxford, so I smiled broadly and shook his proffered hand.

“I certainly hope so too, Rector Underhill.”

We entered the city through the east gate, a small barbican in the high walls that encircled the main body of the town, and as we passed under its battlements a concert of musicians struck up, their instruments sounding bravely through the noise of rain and wind. The palatine roused himself from his sulk just enough to wave unenthusiastically as our party progressed along the High Street past rows of little timber-framed houses, which gave way as we neared the centre to the ornate blond-stone façades of one or another of the colleges. Outside these stood groups of students of all degrees, decked out in their formal dress and shivering as they huddled under the eaves to salute us as we passed, flanked by the doctors and aldermen. At length we came to a halt beside a narrow street that turned off to the north, where I was informed I would depart with the rector. After I had dismounted and handed the care of my horse to a young groom, to be taken
to the rector’s private stables, I walked across to Sidney, who reached down and clasped my hand.

“I shall see you tomorrow for your moment of glory, Bruno,” he said, smiling. “Do not let anything throw you off the scent—but spare a charitable thought for me at dinner.” He nodded in the direction of the palatine, who was complaining loudly to one of the university officials about the advanced state of his saddle sores. I would not be sorry to lose his company, though I was disappointed to be separated from Sidney. Tonight, however, I wished only to retire early and prepare myself for the public debate and knew I would not be best disposed for company; once the disputation was over and I had acquitted myself as best I could, I would be able to relax and enjoy the convivial atmosphere of the college hall, and turn my attention to my other missions.

The rector stood at the entrance to the narrow lane, his robe drenched, but smiling resolutely. I pulled up the collar of my cloak as we made our way between buildings for a few yards, until the wall on our left rose up into a squat rectangular tower of that same buttery-yellow stone. The rector pushed open a smaller wooden door the height of a man set into the heavy iron-studded timber of the high arched gateway and held it for me to pass through, followed by the servant who carried my bag.

“I’m afraid that here I must relieve you of your dagger, Doctor Bruno,” he said, apologetically, lowering his eyes to the sheath at my side. “It is one of the first laws of Oxford that no man may carry weapons within the university precincts. We must have a care for our young men’s persons as well as their minds and souls. Don’t worry, we will keep it quite safe for you.” He gave a self-conscious laugh as I reluctantly unstrapped the knife and handed it over.

I stepped past him through an archway that led beneath the tower to a neat quadrangle paved with flagstones. The buttressed range immediately opposite the gatehouse tower I guessed to be the college’s hall, by its high mullioned windows and the smoke louvre in the centre of the roof. Ivy grew
along the stonework there, though not on the ranges to my right and left. At the corners of each range in the quadrangle an archway led to a narrow passage. The rector appeared beside me and took off his sodden hat, passing a hand across his shiny pate.

“Forgive my appearance, Doctor Bruno—this sudden regression to winter has taken us all by surprise, and just as we thought summer on its way. But that is what you must expect in England, I’m afraid. You must long for the blue skies of your native land.”

“At times, though, I must say that I find the weather of northern Europe suited to my temperament,” I replied.

“Ah. You are of a melancholy humour, then?”

“Like all of us, Rector Underhill, I am a mixture of contradictory elements. Equal parts earth and fire, melancholy and choler, I fear. But it is more that warmth and blue skies stir the blood, do you not think? I find it easier to write when I am not tempted to other pursuits.”

Underhill nodded doubtfully; he had the expression of a man whose blood had not been stirred in many years.

“You are right, it is hard to bend the students to study during the summer months. Now—I have arranged a room for you in the south range, where you will be adjacent to my own residence.” Here he waved a hand at the mullioned bay windows next to the hall. “And directly opposite, across the quad, you will find our very fine library, which you must feel free to make use of at any time.”

“Have you many books?” I asked, shaking the water from my cloak.

“Some of the finest of any college,” he said, swelling with a pride I could forgive, since it was on behalf of his manuscripts. “Largely works of scholastic theology, but Dean Flemyng, the nephew of our founder, left as a bequest to the college a remarkable collection of literary and classical texts, many of which he copied in his own hand. He studied in Italy, you know, and brought many manuscripts back from the corners of Europe at the end of the last century,” he added.

“Really? I should very much like to see your collection,” I said, my pulse quickening. “Do you know if Dean Flemyng visited Florence at all during his travels? Around the 1460s?”

The rector gave a little swagger with his shoulders. “He certainly did—a number of books in our collection bear the inscription of the great Florentine bookseller Vespasiano da Basticci, dealer to Cosimo de’ Medici, as I’m sure you know. Does this period particularly interest you?”

I took a deep breath, trying to keep my face neutral, and clasped my hands together so that their trembling would not betray my excitement.

“You know, every Italian scholar must be fascinated by Cosimo’s library—at that time he had envoys travelling through all Europe and the Byzantine empire in search of undiscovered texts to augment his collection. I knew a descendant of Vespasiano once, in Paris,” I added lightly. “I should be extremely interested to see which of these rare treasures Dean Flemyng brought back to Oxford with him, if I may.”

Was it my imagination, or did the rector look slightly uncomfortable?

“Well, you must ask Master Godwyn, our librarian, to show you the collection—he will be delighted to share his knowledge, I’m sure. But for now you must be longing to change your clothes and take supper. And if you want to have a shave first”—here he cast a critical eye over my hair and beard—“we have a barber in the college. The porter will let you know where to find him. Usually the senior Fellows and I dine in hall with the undergraduates, but it is a noisy affair and for your first evening in Oxford I thought you might prefer something more sedate. Therefore I would like to invite you to join my family and a few select guests to dine in my own lodgings, which you see there next to the hall, abutting the south range.”

“Your family?” I said, surprised. “You are not a bachelor, then?”

“We are no longer a community of clerics here in Oxford, Doctor Bruno,” he said with a modest laugh. “Priests of the Church of England may marry—in fact, Her Majesty positively encourages them to do so, to further distinguish themselves from those of the Roman faith—and likewise
for the heads of colleges here, though I admit we are still very much in the minority. I suspect it is not a life to tempt many wives—university society is somewhat limited for ladies—but my dear Margaret is a rare woman and professes to have been happy enough here these past six years, excepting—” Here he broke off and it was as if a cloud passed over his face, before he resumed, in a lighter tone. “She does not dine with us in hall, according to the regulations, so she is always delighted to be able to entertain guests in our own rooms. I shall go now and tell her you are arrived, and call a servant to show you to your room. Perhaps in an hour you would like to make your way over—just through that right-hand archway beside the hall and you will see a wooden door off the passage.”

We had moved out from the shelter of the gatehouse arch to venture through the rain across the quadrangle when we were interrupted by an urgent cry.

“Rector! Rector Underhill—wait, I pray you!”

From the north side of the quadrangle a figure was running toward us, a tattered black scholar’s gown fluttering behind him, with a paper in his hand which he brandished as if there were some imminent emergency. I noticed the rector’s face set tight for a moment in annoyance. The young man slid to a halt in front of us on the wet flagstones, and I saw that he was perhaps twenty years of age and very shabbily dressed, his shirt and breeches patched and his shoes thin and worn through at the toe. He looked from me to the rector with an expression of great anxiety and said, breathlessly, “Rector Underhill, is this your esteemed visitor from the court? I beg you, give me leave to speak to him.”

“Thomas”—the rector looked supremely irritated—“this is neither the time nor the place. Kindly show some decorum before our guest.”

To my surprise, the boy then turned to me, dropped to his knees there on the wet ground, and clutched the hem of my cloak in one hand, pressing his scrap of paper into my hand with the other.

“My lord, I beseech you, take pity on one whom God has forgotten.
Give this letter to your uncle, I beg of you, and ask him to pardon my poor father and let him return, please, my lord, if you have any Christian compassion, grant me this favour and take his suit to the earl, tell him Edmund Allen repents of his sins.”

There was a wildness in his eyes, and his evident distress moved me. Guessing his misunderstanding, I laid a hand gently on his head.

“Son, I would gladly help but my uncle was a stonemason in Naples. I cannot imagine he would be much use to you. Come.” I took his hand and helped him to his feet.

“But—” He started at my accent, then his face reddened violently and he looked at me in an anguish of confusion as he realised his mistake. “Oh. I beg your pardon, my lord. You are not Sir Philip Sidney?”

“Alas, no,” I said, “though I am flattered you should mistake us—he is a good half foot taller than I, and six years younger. But I will see him tomorrow, most likely—is there some message I might convey to him?”

“Thank you, Doctor Bruno, that is kind but it won’t be necessary, this is no more than an impertinent intrusion,” the rector cut in brusquely. Then he turned to the boy with barely suppressed anger. “Thomas Allen, have some care for your manners. I will not have you assaulting guests of the college. Must you be disciplined again? Do not forget how fragile is your position here. Back to your studies, Master Allen—or else I’m sure you must have some servant’s duties to attend to. You will not trouble Doctor Bruno again during his stay, do you understand my meaning?”

The boy nodded miserably, lifting his eyes briefly to see if I was in agreement with the rector’s harsh words. I tried to convey my sympathy in my face.

“And look to your dress, boy,” the rector called after him as he sloped away, defeated. “You shame the college looking like a beggar as you do.”

The boy turned then, mustered what little scrap of dignity remained to him, and said, with his head high, “I cannot afford new clothes, Rector Underhill, and you well know why, so do not ask me to apologise for what is
no fault of my own.” Then he disappeared into one of the staircases on the west range.

The rector stood looking after him for a moment, perhaps shamed by his own severity.

“That poor boy,” he said, eventually, shaking his head. “Why poor?” I asked, curious. “Who is he?”

“Let us step inside your staircase here, it will not do for you to have another soaking,” he said, motioning to the farthest archway on the south range. We ducked into its shadows out of the rain. “It is a sad story, that boy has suffered much for one so young. I am sorry you were troubled by him.”

I shook my head; I was intrigued by the boy’s words.

“His name is Thomas Allen. His father, Doctor Edmund Allen, was a doctor of divinity here in Oxford and my subrector in the college last year.”

“Are all the Fellows permitted to live with their families?” I asked in surprise.

“Not at all, only the heads of colleges. Edmund had moved away and taken a living at one of the London churches when he married. He only returned to Oxford after his wife died and Thomas, being then too young to matriculate, lodged with a family in the town.” He shook his head again in a show of pious sorrow. “Edmund Allen was a good man—appointed by the Earl of Leicester himself, you know, as was I.”

“The senior positions are not appointed through election by the Fellows?” I asked, affecting innocence.

“In normal circumstances, yes,” he replied, looking a little embarrassed. “But there were many entrenched papists still in high office here—some of them appointed by Queen Mary herself and still unrepentant—so to weed them out, the earl began placing his own men to ensure loyalty to the English church, until such time as the canker of popery could be cut out altogether. I was his personal chaplain prior to my position here.” He smiled, and couldn’t resist a little strut of pride.

“And this was a popular choice among the senior university men?”

“No, since you ask. But we must all rely on patronage, one way or another,” he replied, somewhat ruffled. “Edmund Allen was also appointed by the earl at my recommendation—we had been undergraduates together here. So you may imagine our distress when it was discovered last year that he too was secretly practising the old religion—and not so secretly, either, for he was discovered in possession of forbidden books and had for some time been corresponding with the Catholic seminaries in France.”