The Heretic's Apprentice by Ellis Peters Page B

our own.’
    â€˜And do you yourself, in good conscience, believe that you said nothing that could run counter to true belief?’ asked Radufus mildly.
    â€˜To the best that I know and understand, Father, I never did.’
    â€˜You, fellow, Aldwin,’ ordered Canon Gerbert, leaning forward in his stall, ‘repeat those things of which you complained to Brother Jerome. Let us hear them all, and in the words you heard spoken, so far as you can recall them. Change nothing!’
    â€˜My lords, as we sat together, we were speaking of William who was newly buried, and Conan asked if he had ever taken Elave with him down the same road that got him into straits with the priest, those years ago. And Elave said William never made any secret of what he thought, and on his travels no one ever found fault with him for thinking about such matters. What are wits for, he said, unless a man uses them. And we said that it was presumption in us simple folk, that we should listen and say Amen to what the Church tells us, for in that field the priests have authority over us.’
    â€˜A very proper saying,’ said Gerbert roundly. ‘And how did he reply?’
    â€˜Sir, he said how could a man say Amen to damning a child unchristened to hell? The worst of men, he said, could not cast an infant into the fire, so how could God, being goodness itself, do so? It would be against God’s very nature, he said.’
    â€˜That is to argue,’ said Gerbert, ‘that infant baptism is unneeded, and of no virtue. There can be no other logical end of such reasoning. If they are in no need of redemption by baptism, to be spared inevitable reprobation, then the sacrament is brought into contempt.’
    â€˜Did you say the words Aldwin reports of you?’ asked Radulfus quietly, his eyes on Elave’s roused and indignant face.
    â€˜Father, I did. I do not believe such innocent children, just because baptism does not reach them in time before they die, can possibly fall through God’s hands. Surely his hold is more secure than that.’
    â€˜You persist in a deadly error,’ insisted Gerbert. ‘It is as I have said, such a belief casts out and debases the sacrament of baptism, which is the only deliverance from mortal sin. If one sacrament is brought into derision, then all are denied. On this count alone you stand in danger of judgement.’
    â€˜Sir,’ Aldwin took him up eagerly, ‘he said also that he did not believe in the need because he did not believe that children are born into the world rotten with sin. How could that be, he said, of a little thing newly come into being, helpless to do anything of itself, good or evil. Is not that indeed to make an empty mockery of baptism? And we said that we are taught and must believe that even the babes yet unborn are rotten with the sin of Adam, and fallen with him. But he said no, it is only his own deeds, bad and good, that a man must answer for in the judgement, and his own deeds will save or damn him.’
    â€˜To deny original sin is to degrade every sacrament,’ Gerbert repeated forcibly.
    â€˜No, I never thought of it so,’ protested Elave hotly. ‘I did say a helpless newborn child cannot be a sinner. But surely baptism is to welcome him into the world and into the Church, and help him to keep his innocence. I never said it was useless or a light thing.’
    â€˜But you do deny original sin?’ Gerbert pressed him hard.
    â€˜Yes,’ said Elave after a long pause. ‘I do deny it.’ His face had sharpened into icy whiteness, but his jaw was set and his eyes had begun to burn with a deep, still anger.
    Abbot Radulfus eyed him steadily and asked in a mild and reasonable voice: ‘What, then, do you believe to be the state of the child on entering this world? A child the son of Adam, as are we all.’
    Elave looked back at him as gravely, arrested by the serenity of the voice that