and lo, a wild heretic appears! (sort of)
Nov. 3rd, 2014 09:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smackenzie"My apologies, Brother." Brother Gueri pats him on the arm. "Next time you lead the service. Keep your eyes on me and that way you won't be so distracted."
So the next day, when they arrive at Sers Aelinor's house, after the now-traditional offering of wine and equally traditional polite refusal, Brother Peire leads both her and Brother Gueri in worship. He knows this is really the abbot's role, but the abbot has a great many things to do and besides, the old lady specifically requested the two friars, not the abbot. (One or two of the more speculative and gossipy brothers suggest that the old lady's merchant son requested the afternoon service because he knows it's the abbot's job to lead the worship services, and he wants the abbot to minister to his mother personally because it will show how much power the merchant has. This is considered a bit uncharitable an explanation by most of the friars.) Brother Peire is comfortable with the service - and this time he keeps his place - and as it goes on, he becomes more and more comfortable leading it. By the end of the last hymn and the final words of gratitude and praise, he’s starting to wonder if he might someday be ready to strike out on his own, to travel the world (or at least this part of it) as a wandering friar.
St Austor was not himself much of a wandering mendicant, taking his cues more from monasteries and their communal way of life, and so the rules of his order don't insist on traveling friars, as do some of the other friar orders. There's no requirement for Brother Peire to put on a sunhat and cut himself a walking stick and take to the road, and until now he wasn't planning on it. But he does like talking about scripture and the Mother Church's various holy books and the life of a Gray Friar, and he can apparently lead the afternoon service with authority, and he's getting more comfortable in Sers Aelinor's house, even though she still keeps giving him the strangest looks.
Maybe God is trying to tell Brother Peire that his path is a solo one out of Montagui, that he can best serve God by leaving the city.
He should talk to the abbot. The abbot will give him counsel. The abbot might also tell him to wait until the weather is warmer and he's in less danger of freezing on the road. The Gray Friars, like all friars, take a vow of poverty, but that doesn't mean they can’t take advantage of the dorms in their friary when the weather is continually cold or foul.
But he changes his mind during the early evening service, standing in the chapel with all his brother friars, their voices lifted in chorus. The White Friars, of the Order of St Esmond, are known for their beautiful music, and in fact they're often invited to sing for the bishops and the Holy Father in the great cathedral in Esclamonte, and as lovely as Brother Peire's brother friars sound, they don't quite compare. (He's never been lucky enough to hear the White Friars sing a full service, but their reputation is so universally positive that he can't imagine they sound anything other than transcendent.) But the early evening service is marked by particularly pretty hymns, and if Brother Gueri drops a note or four, the voices around him are light and joyous enough that no one notices.
Brother Peire doesn't want to go anywhere. He no longer has a desire to take to the road to spread the good word and minister to the spiritually needy. He's sure now that God is telling him to stay in Montagui with his brother friars.
A week later he and Brother Gueri are walking back to the friary after their daily worship with Sers Aelinor when one of the acolytes comes running out of the gates and up the street towards them. He's skinny and gossipy and eager to help as many brothers as he can in any way he can, and so far he has no idea how to keep his mouth shut.
"There's an apostate in the cellar," he tells the two friars breathlessly.
"Our cellar?" Brother Gueri asks. "Right now?"
"Right now! He was proselytizing heresy in the marketplace and a couple of Ser Mayor’s guardsmen brought him to us. The Black Friars' abbot is very upset." He's grinning as if this is wonderful news.
"Why would - " Brother Peire starts to ask.
"Politics! Ser Mayor is too fond of the Gray Friars, the abbot says. He says Ser Mayor wants us to have the glory of returning a heretic to the bosom of the Mother Church, but the Black Friars are more successful getting heretics to recant, and we don't know how to do it."
"How do you know that?" Brother Gueri asks. "Were you spying outside Brother Abbot's office again?"
The acolyte doesn't even have the grace to look ashamed. Brother Peire feels a twinge of the embarrassment that the boy should feel.
"It wasn't on purpose," the boy protests. "There was a man who wanted to speak to him, so I was only going to tell him."
"You always want to know why heretics believe what they do," Brother Gueri points out to Brother Peire. "Now you might have a chance to find out."
"I'm not qualified to turn a heretic," Brother Peire says.
"You're qualified to talk to one. Did the Holy Father or a bishop send an inquisitor?" Brother Gueri asks the acolyte, who shrugs.
"I haven't seen one," he says.
They've stopped just outside the friary gates to have this conversation, and the acolyte must suddenly realize that he has work that needs to be done, because he bobs his head at the two friars, says "Brother Imbert would like to speak to you," to Brother Gueri, and "he's in the chapel," and dashes inside.
"A heretic," Brother Gueri muses. "Ask Brother Abbot. He might let you talk to him. You might even be persuasive enough to bring him back to the fold."
Brother Peire doubts that, but he knows better than to say anything, because Brother Gueri would just argue with him. Along with their vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, the Gray Friars – indeed, all friars – take an unspoken vow of humility, but they're not above offering a little praise and encouragement to their brothers.
Before the early evening service, the abbot gathers all the friars in the chapter house, where friary business is usually conducted, to share what the acolyte already told Brothers Peire and Gueri - that they were brought a man who was preaching apostasy in the marketplace, and they've been charged with showing him the light of God's love and the rightness of God's words, so that they might bring him back to God's way.
"I have been told that an inquisitor has been sent for from Botenon," the abbot says. Botenon is at least a three-day journey away, so whoever brought the heretic to the Gray Friars must have set out right after that to fetch the inquisitor. "We may not see him for a week. In the meantime, it is up to us to bring this misguided man back to the light, to cure the illness of heresy that has taken root in his soul. Now we must pray for him."
The early evening service seems a little more important to Brother Peire that night. The chants and the hymns seem more heartfelt to him - not just the words coming from his mouth, but the words and the emotions issuing from his brother friars as well. It's an important thing they do, trying to intercede with God on another person's behalf, and begging God to help that person see the path to His mercy.
In the morning, to Brother Peire's great surprise, the abbot sends for him and instructs him to bring the heretic bread and water, and to talk to him.
"Me?" is all Brother Peire can say.
"Yes, brother, you," the abbot answers. He's an old man, the abbot, spare of frame and gray of hair and dignified of bearing. He's lived in Montagui his entire life, took his vows at seventeen, the same age as Brother Peire, and worked and prayed alongside Father Ancelmetz, back in the days before the good father took to the road and ended up the priest of Brother Peire’s village. The abbot is well respected among the Gray Friars - not just the friary in Montagui but in other chapters of the order in other cities - and no one is surprised that the mayor thinks so highly of him.
(The mayor professes no particular loyalty to any of the friar orders, in the sense that he worships in his own private chapel in the mayoral mansion rather than at any of the friar chapels or churches in the city. But he donates to the Order of St Austor over the Order of St Othon, a sore point with the Black Friars.)
"Why?"
The abbot chuckles. "I think it will be good for you."
From anyone else, that would be patronizing and a bit insulting, but the abbot means it sincerely.
"You want to understand him, don't you," the abbot continues. "To know why he believes the things he does. Why he denies the teachings of God and the Mother Church. It might help you in your understanding to talk to him, so that you might know better how to convince him of the poison he is allowing into his soul."
"But – Brother Abbot – I can't get a heretic to recant. I don't know how. I'm not trained."
"That is for the inquisitor. It doesn't take any training to speak kindly to someone. Sers Aelinor has let me know how much she appreciates that you and Brother Gueri come to her house to pray with her. You're a good and faithful man, Brother Peire. Go and take our heretic his breakfast, and talk to him."
So dismissed, Brother Peire heads over to the kitchen, retrieves a heel of bread and a cup of water, and takes them to the cellar where the heretic is being kept. Brother Aimeric, who is in charge in the kitchen, has to unlock the cellar door for him. In all the years he's been living with the Gray Friars, Brother Peire has never known the cellar door to be locked. No one would ever steal from them.
"I'm not worried he's going to try and escape," Brother Aimeric says, noticing Brother Peire's confused look. "He's done nothing but sit on the floor. He hasn't even said anything."
"Don't lock it behind me," Brother Peire says, suddenly worried. Brother Aimeric just shrugs and goes back to the kitchen. Brother Peire takes the bread and water down the cellar stairs.
It's dark in the cellar, but Brother Aimeric has left the door open behind him so there's a little light. Brother Peire wishes he had some candles so he could see the heretic more clearly, because right now the man is little more than a shadow sitting cross-legged on the cellar floor.
"Good morning," Brother Peire says, a little hesitantly. "I've brought you some breakfast."
words: 1891
total words: 5521
So the next day, when they arrive at Sers Aelinor's house, after the now-traditional offering of wine and equally traditional polite refusal, Brother Peire leads both her and Brother Gueri in worship. He knows this is really the abbot's role, but the abbot has a great many things to do and besides, the old lady specifically requested the two friars, not the abbot. (One or two of the more speculative and gossipy brothers suggest that the old lady's merchant son requested the afternoon service because he knows it's the abbot's job to lead the worship services, and he wants the abbot to minister to his mother personally because it will show how much power the merchant has. This is considered a bit uncharitable an explanation by most of the friars.) Brother Peire is comfortable with the service - and this time he keeps his place - and as it goes on, he becomes more and more comfortable leading it. By the end of the last hymn and the final words of gratitude and praise, he’s starting to wonder if he might someday be ready to strike out on his own, to travel the world (or at least this part of it) as a wandering friar.
St Austor was not himself much of a wandering mendicant, taking his cues more from monasteries and their communal way of life, and so the rules of his order don't insist on traveling friars, as do some of the other friar orders. There's no requirement for Brother Peire to put on a sunhat and cut himself a walking stick and take to the road, and until now he wasn't planning on it. But he does like talking about scripture and the Mother Church's various holy books and the life of a Gray Friar, and he can apparently lead the afternoon service with authority, and he's getting more comfortable in Sers Aelinor's house, even though she still keeps giving him the strangest looks.
Maybe God is trying to tell Brother Peire that his path is a solo one out of Montagui, that he can best serve God by leaving the city.
He should talk to the abbot. The abbot will give him counsel. The abbot might also tell him to wait until the weather is warmer and he's in less danger of freezing on the road. The Gray Friars, like all friars, take a vow of poverty, but that doesn't mean they can’t take advantage of the dorms in their friary when the weather is continually cold or foul.
But he changes his mind during the early evening service, standing in the chapel with all his brother friars, their voices lifted in chorus. The White Friars, of the Order of St Esmond, are known for their beautiful music, and in fact they're often invited to sing for the bishops and the Holy Father in the great cathedral in Esclamonte, and as lovely as Brother Peire's brother friars sound, they don't quite compare. (He's never been lucky enough to hear the White Friars sing a full service, but their reputation is so universally positive that he can't imagine they sound anything other than transcendent.) But the early evening service is marked by particularly pretty hymns, and if Brother Gueri drops a note or four, the voices around him are light and joyous enough that no one notices.
Brother Peire doesn't want to go anywhere. He no longer has a desire to take to the road to spread the good word and minister to the spiritually needy. He's sure now that God is telling him to stay in Montagui with his brother friars.
A week later he and Brother Gueri are walking back to the friary after their daily worship with Sers Aelinor when one of the acolytes comes running out of the gates and up the street towards them. He's skinny and gossipy and eager to help as many brothers as he can in any way he can, and so far he has no idea how to keep his mouth shut.
"There's an apostate in the cellar," he tells the two friars breathlessly.
"Our cellar?" Brother Gueri asks. "Right now?"
"Right now! He was proselytizing heresy in the marketplace and a couple of Ser Mayor’s guardsmen brought him to us. The Black Friars' abbot is very upset." He's grinning as if this is wonderful news.
"Why would - " Brother Peire starts to ask.
"Politics! Ser Mayor is too fond of the Gray Friars, the abbot says. He says Ser Mayor wants us to have the glory of returning a heretic to the bosom of the Mother Church, but the Black Friars are more successful getting heretics to recant, and we don't know how to do it."
"How do you know that?" Brother Gueri asks. "Were you spying outside Brother Abbot's office again?"
The acolyte doesn't even have the grace to look ashamed. Brother Peire feels a twinge of the embarrassment that the boy should feel.
"It wasn't on purpose," the boy protests. "There was a man who wanted to speak to him, so I was only going to tell him."
"You always want to know why heretics believe what they do," Brother Gueri points out to Brother Peire. "Now you might have a chance to find out."
"I'm not qualified to turn a heretic," Brother Peire says.
"You're qualified to talk to one. Did the Holy Father or a bishop send an inquisitor?" Brother Gueri asks the acolyte, who shrugs.
"I haven't seen one," he says.
They've stopped just outside the friary gates to have this conversation, and the acolyte must suddenly realize that he has work that needs to be done, because he bobs his head at the two friars, says "Brother Imbert would like to speak to you," to Brother Gueri, and "he's in the chapel," and dashes inside.
"A heretic," Brother Gueri muses. "Ask Brother Abbot. He might let you talk to him. You might even be persuasive enough to bring him back to the fold."
Brother Peire doubts that, but he knows better than to say anything, because Brother Gueri would just argue with him. Along with their vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, the Gray Friars – indeed, all friars – take an unspoken vow of humility, but they're not above offering a little praise and encouragement to their brothers.
Before the early evening service, the abbot gathers all the friars in the chapter house, where friary business is usually conducted, to share what the acolyte already told Brothers Peire and Gueri - that they were brought a man who was preaching apostasy in the marketplace, and they've been charged with showing him the light of God's love and the rightness of God's words, so that they might bring him back to God's way.
"I have been told that an inquisitor has been sent for from Botenon," the abbot says. Botenon is at least a three-day journey away, so whoever brought the heretic to the Gray Friars must have set out right after that to fetch the inquisitor. "We may not see him for a week. In the meantime, it is up to us to bring this misguided man back to the light, to cure the illness of heresy that has taken root in his soul. Now we must pray for him."
The early evening service seems a little more important to Brother Peire that night. The chants and the hymns seem more heartfelt to him - not just the words coming from his mouth, but the words and the emotions issuing from his brother friars as well. It's an important thing they do, trying to intercede with God on another person's behalf, and begging God to help that person see the path to His mercy.
In the morning, to Brother Peire's great surprise, the abbot sends for him and instructs him to bring the heretic bread and water, and to talk to him.
"Me?" is all Brother Peire can say.
"Yes, brother, you," the abbot answers. He's an old man, the abbot, spare of frame and gray of hair and dignified of bearing. He's lived in Montagui his entire life, took his vows at seventeen, the same age as Brother Peire, and worked and prayed alongside Father Ancelmetz, back in the days before the good father took to the road and ended up the priest of Brother Peire’s village. The abbot is well respected among the Gray Friars - not just the friary in Montagui but in other chapters of the order in other cities - and no one is surprised that the mayor thinks so highly of him.
(The mayor professes no particular loyalty to any of the friar orders, in the sense that he worships in his own private chapel in the mayoral mansion rather than at any of the friar chapels or churches in the city. But he donates to the Order of St Austor over the Order of St Othon, a sore point with the Black Friars.)
"Why?"
The abbot chuckles. "I think it will be good for you."
From anyone else, that would be patronizing and a bit insulting, but the abbot means it sincerely.
"You want to understand him, don't you," the abbot continues. "To know why he believes the things he does. Why he denies the teachings of God and the Mother Church. It might help you in your understanding to talk to him, so that you might know better how to convince him of the poison he is allowing into his soul."
"But – Brother Abbot – I can't get a heretic to recant. I don't know how. I'm not trained."
"That is for the inquisitor. It doesn't take any training to speak kindly to someone. Sers Aelinor has let me know how much she appreciates that you and Brother Gueri come to her house to pray with her. You're a good and faithful man, Brother Peire. Go and take our heretic his breakfast, and talk to him."
So dismissed, Brother Peire heads over to the kitchen, retrieves a heel of bread and a cup of water, and takes them to the cellar where the heretic is being kept. Brother Aimeric, who is in charge in the kitchen, has to unlock the cellar door for him. In all the years he's been living with the Gray Friars, Brother Peire has never known the cellar door to be locked. No one would ever steal from them.
"I'm not worried he's going to try and escape," Brother Aimeric says, noticing Brother Peire's confused look. "He's done nothing but sit on the floor. He hasn't even said anything."
"Don't lock it behind me," Brother Peire says, suddenly worried. Brother Aimeric just shrugs and goes back to the kitchen. Brother Peire takes the bread and water down the cellar stairs.
It's dark in the cellar, but Brother Aimeric has left the door open behind him so there's a little light. Brother Peire wishes he had some candles so he could see the heretic more clearly, because right now the man is little more than a shadow sitting cross-legged on the cellar floor.
"Good morning," Brother Peire says, a little hesitantly. "I've brought you some breakfast."
words: 1891
total words: 5521
