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I started down the steps after him, abandoning the Giovanetti book in the window alcove where I’d left it. “Do you serve a parish here in Avignon, Father Halloran?”
“You can call me Father Mike. Or just plain Mike. Or anything else, except Father Halloran.”
“I’ll go with Father Mike,” I said. “Friendly, but respectful.”
“Once I’ve had a drop or two, you can drop the ‘Father,’ if you’re wanting to respect me a bit less.”
I laughed. I was surprised to feel so relaxed with a priest; ever since my wife’s death, I’d had little use for organized religion or its foot soldiers. “I suspect you’re good at your work, Father Mike.”
“Devilishly.”
He held the exit door for me and we emerged, blinking, into the building’s courtyard. “Oh, you never answered. Do you serve a parish here in Avignon?”
“No, but it might not be such a bad posting,” he said. “I’m just here on holliers.”
“Excuse me?”
“Holliers. Holiday. Seeing how the other half lived, seven hundred years ago.”
“Half? More like the other one-millionth of one percent.”
“Arithmetic was never me strong suit, lad. Is there something I can call you besides ‘lad’?”
“Oh, sorry. Of course. I’m Bill. Bill Brockton.”
“A fine, honest-sounding name. And what brings you to Avignon, Bill Brockton?” He nodded at the impressive façade of the former cardinal’s palace. “And to this humble little parson’s cottage? Are you on holliers, too?”
“Not exactly. I’m an anthropologist. I’m here to look at some bones.”
“Bones? What sort of bones?”
“Just some old bones found at the Palace of the Popes.”
“A pope’s bones?”
“I don’t think so.”
“A papal mistress, perhaps. Clement the Sixth had a niece he was mighty fond of — that’s what he called her in public, at least. Or possibly a pope’s bastard son.”
“You do look on the bright side, don’t you, Father Mike?” He laughed. “I don’t know who it is. Realistically, probably never will. All I know for sure is that the bones are very old, and the guy died a very painful death.”
“Must’ve had his finger in the till, then. The popes didn’t take kindly to that.” He pointed up the street. “So, Bill Brockton, I just happen to know that there’s a pub two blocks yonder way. Shall we wend our way thither, for my heavenly nectar and your hellish excuse for a beverage?”
* * *
“Ah, me, that’s a shame,” he said, when I told him about Rocky.
“I feel at least partly responsible,” I added, explaining my involvement in Rocky’s case. “I need to figure out some way to help his wife and kids.”
“Heavens, can it be? Are you an honorable man, Bill Brockton? I don’t see many of your ilk these days. My parish has seven honorable men in it.” He frowned. “No, make that six.”
“It’s a small parish?”
“Oh, goodness no. We have two hundred people at Sunday-morning Mass. But only a handful of those are honorable men. One in fifteen or twenty: It’s the universal wheat-to-chaff ratio for men, I’m sorry to say. In women, it’s higher. I’d say as many as one woman in three is honorable.”
“For such a cheerful fellow, you’re mighty cynical, Father Mike.”
“Call me crazy. Call me observant. Call me whenever there’s beer on tap.” He hoisted his mug and took an appreciative swig of Guinness.
“So, you seem like a down-to-earth priest, Father Mike. Can I ask you something?” He nodded, licking froth off his upper lip. “When you look around Avignon at all the signs of wealth and excess and greed — the popes filling their coffers with gold, the cardinals building grand palaces like the library — how do you account for it? How do you reconcile it with the teachings of Jesus, who preached the virtues of poverty and humility?”
“I don’t reconcile it. I can’t. It’s not reconcilable; it just is. Or was. Things are better now, I think. Not perfect, but better. I think the clergy’s less obsessed with money and power and more interested in spirituality. I hope so, anyhow. The medieval Church was a product of its times, just as the early Church was, and just as the modern church is. You know, we like to call the Church ‘the bride of Christ.’ Well, she’s like any other bride: Sometimes she’s an angel, and sometimes she’s a bitch.” His words drew a shocked laugh from me. “The church is just people, Bill Brockton. Capable of beauty and nobility, but also capable of duplicity and depravity. The bravest, noblest church work I’ve ever seen — work that raised up villagers and brought down a dictator in Latin America — was led by a priest I knew. After he was killed, I learned he was also a pedophile. Sometimes the Church enables us to do our worst; more often, I hope, it ennobles us to be our best.”
His openness was refreshing. So was his willingness to hang on to the church’s ideals despite its failings.
“You seem to have a bit more air in your tires now, Bill Brockton. Is that true?”
I smiled. “Actually, it is.”
“Then I’ll be leaving now. I’ve got a sacred mission to attend to.”
“A mission? I thought you were on — what’s the word? — holliers?”
“And so I am. But Dublin is playing Manchester on the telly in ten minutes. It’d be a sin to miss the start of the match.” He fished in his pocket and pulled out a pen. “I happen to know you’ve got a mobile.” He smiled. “If you’ll give me your number, I’ll call you before I leave town. I’d enjoy another chat, Bill Brockton.”
To my surprise, I realized I would, too. Perhaps, I thought, I’ve been underestimating men of the cloth.
CHAPTER 17
AVIGNON
1328
“Your Holiness?”
“Come in, Jacques. I have not seen you these past three days. Where have you been?”
“I’ve been dealing with Eckhart. Your Holiness, I…There is a problem. With Eckhart.”
“I am well aware of it,” the pope says drily. “We discuss it often, do we not? The papal crown is not so heavy, and I am not so feeble, that I have already forgotten how diligently you strive to show him the errors of his teachings.”
The White Cardinal — heretic hound Fournier — reaches a plump hand into his robe and retrieves a handkerchief to mop his brow. Despite the autumn chill already settling into the stones of the building, his forehead glistens with beads of sudden sweat.
“There is, Holy Father, a new problem.”
“What is it? Have you allowed him to escape, as you did the Franciscan devil Michael, after I dragged Michael here for you to break? How could Eckhart escape, too? You told me Eckhart could no longer walk.”
Fournier folds the handkerchief, makes another pass. “Eckhart has not escaped. Eckhart has died.”
The pope’s ancient eyes look sharply at the man who is his protégé and doctrinal enforcer. “This preacher was already too popular with the people, Jacques. Have you now made a martyr of him?”
The handkerchief is hopelessly inadequate to soak up the rivulets of sweat coursing down the cardinal’s face. “He was old and frail, Holiness. In his sixties.”
“I’m eighty-five,” the pope croaks. “Do not insult me, insolent boy.” Fournier is nearing fifty — hasn’t been a boy for more than thirty years — but he’s old enough and wise enough not to quibble over terminology, especially in the midst of a scolding that makes him feel like a slow-witted pupil. “Eckhart walked here from Cologne — five hundred miles on foot — to answer the charges against him. He was not a frail man. Not when he arrived.”
Fournier slides his tongue over his lips, back and forth, a nervous habit that looks vaguely obscene. “Perhaps the rigors of the journey took a delayed toll on him.”
“Perhaps the rigors of your questioning proved too much for mortal flesh,” the old man replies. “Your zeal is commendable, but your measures can be excessive.”
