"Beware of that symbol of your Church, Monsignor! It is a very strange
one! It seems about to be expanded into a reality of dreadful earnest!
'I know not the man,' said Peter. Does not the glittering of the
world's wealth piled into the Vatican,--useless wealth lying idle in
the midst of hideous beggary and starvation,--proclaim with no
uncertain voice, 'I KNOW NOT THE MAN'? The Man of sorrows,--the Man of
tender and pitying heart,--the Man who could not send the multitude
away without bread, and compassed a miracle to give it to them,--the
Man who wept for a friend's death,--who took little children in His
arms and blessed them,--who pardoned the unhappy outcast and said, 'Sin
no more,'--who was so selfless, so pure, so strong, so great, that even
sceptics, while denying His Divinity, are compelled to own that His
life and His actions were more Divine than those of any other creature
in human shape that has ever walked the earth! Monsignor, there is no
true representative of Christ in this world!"
"Not for heretics possibly," said Moretti disdainfully.
"For no one!" said Cyrillon passionately--"For no poor sinking, seeking
soul is there any such visible comforter! But there is a grand tendency
in Mankind to absorb His Spirit and His teaching;--to turn from forms
and shadows of faith to the Faith itself,--from descriptions of a
possible heaven to the REAL Heaven, which is being disclosed to us in
transcendent glimpses through the jewel-gates of science! There were
twelve gates in the visioned heaven of St. John,--and each gate was
composed of one pearl! Truly do the scoffers say that never did any
planetary sea provide such pearls as these! No,--for they were but
prophetic emblems of the then undiscovered Sciences. Ah,
Monsignor!--and what of the psychic senses and forces?--forces which we
are just beginning to discover and to use,--forces which enable me to
read your mind at this present moment and to see how willingly you
would send me to the burning, Christian as you call yourself, for my
thoughts and opinions!--as your long-ago predecessors did with all men
who dared to reason for themselves! But that time has passed,
Monsignor; the Spirit of Christ in the world has conquered the Church
THERE!"
The words rushed from his lips with a fervid eloquence that was
absolutely startling,--his eyes were aglow with feeling--his face so
animated and inspired, that it seemed as though a flame behind it
illumined every feature. Abbe Vergniaud, astonished and overcome, laid
a trembling hand on the arm of the passionate speaker with a gesture
more of appeal than restraint, and the young man caught that hand
within his own and held it fast. Moretti for a moment fixed his eyes
upon father and son with an expression of intense hatred that darkened
his face with a deep shadow as of a black mask,--and then without a
word deliberately turned his back upon both.
"Your Eminence has heard all this," he said coldly, addressing the
Cardinal who sat rigidly in his chair, silent and very pale.
"I have," replied Bonpre in a low strained tone.
"And I presume your Eminence permits--?"
"Why talk of permission?" interrupted the Cardinal, raising his eyes
with a sorrowful look, "Who is to permit or deny freedom of speech in
these days? Have I--have you--the right to declare that a man shall not
express his thoughts? In what way are we to act? Deny a hearing? We
cannot--we dare not--not if we obey our Lord, who says, 'Whatsoever ye
would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them.' If we ask
for ourselves to be heard, we must also hear."
"We may hear--but in such a case as the present one must we not also
condemn?" demanded Moretti, watching the venerable prelate narrowly.
"We can only condemn in the case of a great sin," replied Bonpre
gently, "and even then our condemnation must be passed with fear and
trembling, and with full knowledge of all the facts pertaining to the
error. 'Judge not that ye be not judged.' We are told plainly that our
brother may sin against us not only seven times but seventy times
seven, and still we are bound to forgive, to sustain, to help, and not
to trample down the already fallen."
"These are your Eminence's opinions?" said Moretti.
"Most assuredly! Are they not yours?"
Moretti smiled coldly.
"No. I confess they are not! I am a faithful servant of the Church; and
the Church is a system of moral government in which, if the slightest
laxity be permitted, the whole fabric is in danger--"
"A house of cards then, which a breath may blow down!" interposed "Gys
Grandit," otherwise Cyrillon Vergniaud, "Surely an unstable foundation
for the everlasting ethics of Christ!"
"I did not speak to you, sir," said Moretti, turning upon him angrily.
"I know you did not. I spoke to you," answered the young man coolly, "I
have as much right to speak to you, as you have to speak to me, or to
be silent--if you choose. You say the Church is a system of moral
government. Well, look back on the past, and see what it has done in
the way of governing. In the very earliest days of Christianity, when
men were simple and sincere, when their faith in the power of the
Divine things was strong and pure, the Church was indeed a safeguard,
and a powerful restraint on man's uneducated licentiousness and
inherent love of strife. But when the lust of gain began to creep like
a fever into the blood of those with whom worldly riches should be as
nothing compared to the riches of the mind, the heart, and the spirit,
then the dryrot of hypocrisy set in--then came craftiness, cruelty,
injustice, and pitilessness, and such grossness of personal conduct as
revolts even the soul of an admitted sinner. Moral government? Where is
it to day? Look at France--Italy--Spain! Count up the lies told by the
priests in these countries to feed the follies of the ignorant! Did
Christ ever tell lies? No. Then why, if you are His follower, do you
tell them?"
"I repeat, I did not speak to you," said Moretti, his eyes sparkling
with fury,--"To me you are a heretic, accursed, and
excommunicate!--thrust out of salvation, and beyond my province to deal
with!"
"Oh, that a man should be thrust out of salvation in these Christian
days!" exclaimed Cyrillon with a flashing look of scorn, "And that he
should find a servant of Christ to tell him so! Accursed and
excommunicate! Then I am a kind of leper in the social community! And
you, as a disciple of your Master, should heal me of my infirmity--and
cleanse me of my Leprosy! Loathsome as leprosy is whether of mind or
body, Christ never thrust it out of salvation!"
"The leper must wish to be cleansed!" said Moretti fiercely, "If he
does not himself seek to be healed of his evil, no miracle can help
him."
"Oh but I do seek!" And young Vergniaud threw back his handsome head
with a splendid gesture of appeal, "With all my soul, if I am diseased,
I wish to be cleansed! Will YOU cleanse me? CAN you? I wish to stand up
whole and pure, face to face with the Divine in this world, and praise
Him for His goodness to me. But surely if He is to be found anywhere it
is in the Spirit of Truth! Not in any sort of a lie! Now, according to
His own words the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of Truth. 'When the Spirit
of Truth is come He will guide you into all Truth.' And what then?
Monsignor, it is somewhat dangerous to oppose the Spirit of Truth,
whether that Force speak through the innocent lips of a child or the
diseased ones of a leper! 'For whosoever speaketh a word against the
Son of Man it shall be forgiven him, BUT WHOSOEVER SPEAKETH AGAINST THE
HOLY GHOST'--or the Spirit of Truth, known sometimes as Inspiration . .
. "IT SHALL NOT BE FORGIVEN HIM in this world, neither in the world to
come.' That is a terrible curse, which an ocean of Holy Water could
scarcely wash away!"
"Your argument is wide of the mark," said Moretti, impatiently, yet
forced in spite of himself to defend his position, "the Church is not
opposed to Truth but to Atheism."
"Atheism! There is no such thing as a real atheist in the world!"
declared Cyrillon passionately, "No reasoning human being alive, that
has not felt the impress of the Divine Image in himself and in all the
universe around him! He may, through apathy and the falsehoods of
priestcraft, have descended into callousness, indifference and egotism,
but he knows well that that impress cannot be stamped out--that he will
have to account for his part, however small it be, in the magnificent
pageant of life and work, for he has not been sent into it 'on chance.'
Inasmuch as if there is chance in one thing there must be chance in
another, and the solar system is too mathematically designed to be a
haphazard arrangement. With all our cleverness, our logic, our
geometrical skill, we can do nothing so exact! As part of the solar
system, you and I have our trifling business to enact, Monsignor,--and
to enact it properly, and with satisfaction to our Supreme Employer, it
seems to me that if we are honest with the world and with each other,
we shall be on the right road."
"For my part, I am perfectly honest with you," said Moretti smiling
darkly, "I told you, and I tell you again, that to me you are a
heretic, accursed and excommunicate. You will, as the democrat 'Gys
Grandit,' no doubt feel a peculiar pleasure when your father is also
declared accursed and excommunicate. I have said, and I say again, that
the Church is a system of moral government, and that no laxity can be
permitted. It is a system founded on the Gospel of our Lord, but to
obey the commands of our Lord to the letter we should have to find
another world to live in--"
"Pardon me--I ask for information," interposed Cyrillon, "You of course
maintain that Christ was God in Man?"
"Most absolutely!"
"And yet you say that to obey His commands to the letter we should have
to find another world to live in! Strange! Since He made the world and
knows all our capabilities of progress! But have you never fancied it
possible that we may be forced to obey His commands to the letter, or
perish for refusing to do so?"
Moretti made as though he would have sprung forward,--his face was
drawn and rigid, his lips tightly compressed, but he had no answer to
this unanswerable logic. He therefore took refuge in turning brusquely
away as before and was about to address himself to Bonpre, but stopped
short, as he perceived Manuel, who had entered while the conversation
was going on, and who now stood quietly by the Cardinal's chair in an
attitude of composed attention. Moretti glanced at him with a vexed
sense of irritation and reluctant wonder;--then moistening his dry lips
he began,
"I am bound to regret deeply that your Eminence has allowed this
painful discussion to take place in your presence without reproof. But
I presume you are aware of the responsibility incurred?"
The Cardinal slowly inclined his head in grave assent.
"In relating the scene of to-day to His Holiness, I shall be compelled
to mention the attitude you have maintained throughout the
conversation."
"You are at perfect liberty to do so, my son," said Bonpre with
unruffled gentleness.
Moretti hesitated. His eyes again rested on Manuel.
"Pardon me," he said suddenly and irrelevantly, "This boy . . ."
"Is a foundling," said the Cardinal, "He stays with me till I can place
him well in the world. He has no friends."
"He took some part in the affair of this morning, I believe?" queried
Moretti, with a doubtful air.
"He saved my life," said Abbe Vergniaud advancing, "It was not
particularly worth saving--but he did it. And I owe him much--for in
saving me, he also saved Cyrillon from something worse than death."
"Naturally you must be very gratefu," retorted Moretti satirically,
"The affection of a son you have denied for twenty-five years must be
exceedingly gratifying to you!" He paused--then said, "Does this boy
belong to the Church?"
"No," said Manuel, answering for himself, "I have no Church."
"No Church!" exclaimed Moretti, "His Eminence must educate you, boy.
You must be received."
"Yes," said Manuel, raising his eyes, and fixing them full on Moretti,
"I must be received! I need education to understand the Church. And
so,--for me to be received might be difficult!"