Read Brother Cadfael 16: The Heretic's Apprentice for Free Online

man Elave to come back into council?"
    "Very gladly," said Brother Denis, and went out with such indignant alacrity that it was not difficult to read his mind.
    Elave came back into chapter in all innocence, expecting his formal answer and in no doubt what it would be. His alert step and confident face spoke for him. He had no warning of what was to come, even when the abbot spoke up, choosing his words with careful moderation.
    "Young sir, there is here some debate concerning your master's request. It has been said that before he departed on his pilgrimage he had been in some dispute with a priest sent by the archbishop to preach here in Shrewsbury, and had been reproved for certain beliefs he held, which were not altogether in accord with Church doctrine. It is even suggested that his pilgrimage was enjoined upon him almost as penance. Do you know anything of this? It may well be that it never came to your ears at all."
    Elave's level brows, thick and russet, darker than his hair, drew together in doubt and bewilderment, but not yet disquiet.
    "I knew he had given much thought to some articles of faith, but no more than that. He wanted his pilgrimage. He was growing old but still hearty, there were others and younger could manage here in his stead. He asked me if I would go with him, and I went. There was never any dispute between him and Father Elias that I know of. Father Elias knew him for a good man."
    "The good who go astray into wrong paths do more harm than the evil, who are our open enemies," said Canon Gerbert sharply. "It is the enemy within who betrays the fortress."
    Now that, thought Cadfael, rings true of Church thinking. A Seljuk Turk or a Saracen can cut down Christians in battle or throw stray pilgrims into dungeons, and still be tolerated and respected, even if he's held to be already damned. But if a Christian steps a little aside in his beliefs he becomes anathema. He had seen it years ago in the east, in the admittedly beleaguered Christian 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