‘He persecuted the Manichaeists and Donatists.’
‘And the Novatianists,’ added Fidelma. ‘That is the sect you follow, isn’t it?’
Brehon Aillín was clearly puzzled, as were several others.
‘Novatian was a religious and teacher in Rome,’ Fidelma explained. ‘In fact, he is regarded as the first member of the Faith to write his work in Latin instead of Greek. But he opposed the election of Cornelius as Pope on the grounds that Cornelius was too gentle and forgiving to lapsed Christians. He held that those who did not maintain the Faith, even under torture and persecution, should not be received back into the Faith, whether or not they repented. He also argued that if a widow or a widower remarried, their second marriage was unlawful and they should be publicly accused of fornication and punished. His mistake, however, was in setting himself up as a rival head of the Church in Rome. He claimed that he was Pope. He was immediately excommunicated at a Council in Rome. His teachings were deemed heretical.’
‘I have not heard of this,’ admitted Abbot Ségdae. ‘When was it?’
‘About three centuries ago, according to the annalists.’
‘If Novatian and his followers were declared heretics three centuries ago, how can you claim that Brother Lugna is a member of their sect?’ Brehon Aillín demanded.
‘Oh, the Novatianists still exist. Novatian was executed in the massacre of Christians in Rome by the Emperor Valerian. But his sect spread rapidly after his death. They were numerous in many lands and they called themselves katharoi, which is the Greek for “puritans”, to denote that they kept themselves pure from what they saw as the lax and forgivingways of the Roman popes. Some demanded that even those born and raised in the Faith must be baptised again before they could join the Novatianists and be considered saved. Of course the Novatianists are still regarded as heretics but I am not sure that they have been censured with any force since the time of Pope Clement.’
Abbot Iarnla turned to glare at his steward. ‘Is it true that you follow the teachings of this Novatian?’
‘Why should I deny it?’ retorted Brother Lugna with arrogance.
‘I hold the Faith pure and untainted. There is no room for those who are half-hearted about declaring their beliefs.’
‘And that is why you were concerned when Brother Donnchad returned from the Holy Land and you discovered that far from being strengthened in his Faith, his mind was full of questions for which he tried to find answers?’ said Abbot Iarnla.
‘The devil had tempted Donnchad while he wandered in the wilderness,’ Brother Lugna replied calmly.’ ‘He was not strong enough to fight the devil and fell into the greatest sin of all. He denied the Faith. There is no room in Christendom for those who deny the Faith even if they eventually come seeking forgiveness on their hands and knees. They should be turned away and punished.’
‘Just as your founder Novatian preached,’ said Fidelma.
‘Just as he taught,’ agreed the steward. ‘Such sinners are condemned in this life and in the next. Those who give them forgiveness and succour are the real heretics. They will not receive forgiveness of the Lord when the time comes. They will be made to answer at the awful Day of Judgement.’
‘There is a day of judgement come today,’ Fidelma pointed out. ‘We are here to judge who is responsible for Brother Donnchad’s death.’
‘I shall not deny my Faith,’ Brother Lugna replied stubbornly.‘At least I will not die a sinner and a blasphemer as Donnchad did.’
‘So you killed Brother Donnchad!’ Abbot Iarnla accused, his voice rising. ‘You admit it!’
The refectorium erupted once more.
‘I deny it!’ shouted the steward, red with anger.
Brehon Aillín stamped his staff of office loudly but it took a long time before he was able to quell the noise of surprise and outrage that had arisen.
When some degree of quiet was restored, Fidelma held up her hand.
‘Let us come to the answer in the proper order,’ she said, glancing at the Brehon.
Brehon Aillín was looking anxious and said, ‘There are contentious matters here and in view of what you have told me, I am prepared to let you proceed for a little while longer in the manner you wish. But I urge you, for the sake of peace in this abbey, come to the point as quickly as you can.’
‘I shall proceed as quickly as the matter allows.’ Fidelma’s voice was grave. She turned back to those gathered in the refectorium. ‘The views expressed by Brother Lugna are part of the intolerance that I believe we must fight against. Beliefs are things to be cherished but we cannot be intolerant of others whose beliefs we disagree with. That intolerance can lead to war and even murder. It did lead to murder in the case of Brother Donnchad.
‘As with the killing of Glassán the master builder, two people were involved in the murder of Brother Donnchad. Both parties to his murder were zealots for the Faith and could not tolerate someone who, rightly or wrong — for I make no judgement — began to ask questions instead of simply believing.
‘When it became known to these two people that BrotherDonnchad was researching writings that were critical of the Faith and meant to produce a scholastic work on them, they decided that he should be silenced. He was not to be allowed to proclaim his doubts or voice his questions because of the shame, as they saw it, it would bring upon this abbey.’
Many heads turned to Brother Lugna and to Abbot Iarnla. They both sat with expressions of defiance.
Brehon Aillín leant forward. ‘Do you accuse the abbot or his steward? Or both of them? There is no one in a higher position to protect the reputation of the abbey than they are.’
‘A moment more of patience,’ Fidelma urged. ‘One of the two people planned the murder and the other was their accomplice. But we must first comment on the circumstances of the murder. One of them entered Brother Donnchad’s cubiculum and killed him. They had to remove all the manuscripts that Brother Donnchad had in his cubiculum that would show what he was working on. They could not allow the papers to be known.’
‘How are you going to demonstrate that?’ snapped Abbot Iarnla. ‘There was only one key to the cubiculum, which Brother Donnchad had, and that was by his side when he was found. And no one came out of his cubiculum bearing any papers before his body was discovered.’
‘That was where the second person was involved. It was the Venerable Bróin who gave me the clue with his story of seeing an angel in white fluttering in the sky. The Venerable Bróin occupied the cubiculum beneath Brother Donnchad. What he actually saw was a large piece of parchment fluttering down. The killer, having despatched Donnchad, threw the precious manuscripts out of the window. The window, as you will recall, faces the wasteland that lies just before the abbey graveyard. The window is too small for anyone to enter or exit through it. But it is large enough to throw out themanuscripts to the second person waiting below to collect them.’
She suddenly swung round.
‘What happened to them, Brother Donnán? Have they been destroyed, given to your confederate, or have you hidden them away in the library?’
Brother Donnán turned white, stood up quickly, sat down again and then slowly rose to his feet once more.
‘I … I deny it!’ he gasped but there was no conviction in his voice.
‘The first mistake you made was over a piece of parchment written on by Brother Donnchad. We found the piece below the window. You neglected to pick it up; it was such a small piece, you probably did not notice it. There were only a few words written on it anyway. You, who are certainly an expert on his writings, denied it was Brother Donnchad’s hand. Yet Cunán, the assistant librarian at Fhear Maighe, who is also an expert, not only identified it as Brother Donnchad’s, but was also able to prove this by the particular way letters were formed, by showing us writings received from Brother Donnchad as example.