Part 75 (2/2)
”I will never leave you till you bid me go!” answered Manuel. ”And if I am taken far from hence you shall go with me! Rest, dear friend--rest, true servant of G.o.d! Rest without thought--without care--till I call you!”
x.x.xIX.
The night darkened steadily down over London,--a chill dreary night of heavy fog, half-melting into rain. Cardinal Bonpre, though left to himself, did not rest at once as Manuel had so tenderly bidden him to do, but moved by an impulse stronger than any worldly discretion or consideration, sat down and wrote a letter to the Supreme Pontiff,--a letter every word of which came straight from his honest heart, and which he addressed to the Head of his Church directly and personally, without seeking the interposition of Lorenzo Moretti. And thus he wrote, in obedience to the dictate of his own soul--
”Most Holy Father!--I have this day received through Monsignor Moretti the text of certain commands laid by Your Holiness upon me to fulfil if I would still serve the Church, as I have in all truth and devotion served it for so many years. These commands are difficult to realise, and still more difficult to obey,--I would rather believe that Your Holiness has issued them in brief anger, than that they are the result of a reasonable conviction, or condition of your own heart and intellect. In no way can I admit that my conduct has been of a nature to give offence to you or to the Holy See, for I have only in all things sought to obey the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, upon whose memory our faith is founded. Your Holiness desires me, first, to cease every communication with the only relatives left to me on earth,--my brother-in-law Pietro Sovrani and his daughter, the daughter of my dead sister, my niece Angela. You demand the severance of these bonds of nature, because my niece has produced a work of art, for which she alone is responsible. I venture most humbly to submit to Your Holiness that this can scarcely be called true Christian justice to me,--for, whereas on the one side I cannot be made answerable for the thoughts or the work of a separately responsible individual, on the other hand I should surely not be prohibited from exercising my influence, if necessary, on the future career of those related to me by blood as well as endeared to me by duty and affection. My niece has suffered more cruelly than most women; and it is entirely owing to her refusal to speak, that the memory of Florian Varillo, her late affianced husband, is not openly branded as that of a criminal, instead of being as now, merely under the shadow of suspicion. For we know that he was her a.s.sa.s.sin,--all Rome feels the truth,--and yet being dead, his name is left open to the benefit of a doubt because she who was so nearly slain by him she loved, forgives and is silent. I submit to Your Holiness that this forgiveness and silence symbolise true Christianity, on the part of the poor child who has fallen under your displeasure,--and that as the Christian Creed goes, your pity and consideration for her should somewhat soften the ban you have set against her on account of the work she has given to the world. As a servant of Holy Church I deeply deplore the subject of that work, while fully admitting its merit as a great conception of art,--but even on this point I would most humbly point out to Your Holiness that genius is not always under the control of its possessor. For being a fire of most searching and persuasive quality it does so command the soul, and through the soul the brain and hand, that oftentimes it would appear as if the actual creator of a great work is the last unit to be considered in the scheme, and that it has been carried out by some force altogether beyond and above humanity. Therefore, speaking with all humility and sorrow, it may chance that Angela Sovrani's picture 'The Coming of Christ' may contain a required lesson to us of the Church as well as to certain sections of certain people, and that as all genius comes from G.o.d, it would be well to enquire earnestly whether we do not perhaps in these days need some hint or warning of the kind to recall us from ways of error, ere we wander too far. But, having laid this matter straightly before Your Holiness, I am nevertheless willing to accede to your desire, and see my young niece and her father no more. For truly there is very little chance of my so doing, as my age and health will scarcely permit me to travel far from my diocese again, if indeed I ever return to it. The same statement will apply with greater force to the friends.h.i.+p I have lately formed with him whom you call 'heretic,'--Aubrey Leigh. Your Holiness is mistaken in thinking that I have a.s.sisted him in his work among the poor and desolate of London--though I would it had been possible for me to do so! For I have seen such misery, such G.o.dlessness, such despair, such self-destruction in this great English city, the admitted centre of civilization, that I would give my whole life twice, ay, three times over again to be able to relieve it in ever so small a degree. The priests of our Church and of all Churches are here,--they preach, but do very little in the way of practice, and few like Aubrey Leigh sacrifice their personal ent.i.ty, their daily life, their sleep, their very thoughts, to help the suffering of their fellow-men. Holy Father, the people whom Aubrey Leigh works for, never believed in a G.o.d at all till this man came among them. Yet there are religious centres here, and teachers--Sunday after Sunday, the message of the Gospel is p.r.o.nounced to inattentive ears and callous souls, and yet all have remained in darkest atheism, in hopeless misery, till their earnest, patient, sympathising, tender brother, the so-called 'atheist,' came to persuade them out of darkness into light, and made the burdens of their living lighter to bear. And will you not admit him as a Christian? Surely he must be; for as our Lord Himself declares, 'Not every man that shall say unto Me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven.' And of a certainty, the will of the Father is that the lost should be found, the peris.h.i.+ng saved, the despairing comforted,--and all these things Aubrey Leigh has done, and is yet doing. But I do not work with him--I am here to look on--and looking on, to regret my lost youth!
”Touching the miracle attributed to me at Rouen, I have gone over this ground so often with Your Holiness, both by letter and personally while in Rome, that it seems but foolish to repeat the story of my complete innocence in the matter. I prayed for the crippled child, and laid my hands upon him in blessing. From that day I never saw him--never have seen him again. I can bear no witness to his recovery,--your news came from persons at Rouen, and not from me. I am as unconscious of having healed the child as I am innocent of having any part in the disappearance of the man Claude Cazeau. The whole thing is as complete a mystery to me as it is to Your Holiness or to any of those who have heard the story. I fully and freely admit, as I have always fully and freely admitted, that I condoned and forgave the sin of the Abbe Vergniaud, and this, not only because the man was dying, but because we are strictly commanded to forgive those who truly repent. And on this point, I cannot even to you, Most Holy Father, admit that I have been wrong.
”And now coming to the last part of Your Holiness' expressed desire, wherein you ask me to part from the boy I rescued,--the child Manuel, who is all alone in the world,--I cannot acknowledge it to be a Christian act to desert anyone whom we have once befriended. The boy is young, and far too gentle to fight the world or to meet with such love and consideration as his youth and simplicity deserve. I will not disguise, however, from Your Holiness that I have been often much troubled in mind regarding his companions.h.i.+p with me,--for foolish as you may judge my words, I feel that there is something in him not altogether of earth,--that he speaks at times as a wise prophet might speak,--or as an Angel sent to warn the world of swiftly-coming disaster! Of the strangely daring spirit in which he addressed himself to Your Holiness at the Vatican it is not for me to discourse--I cannot explain it or condone it, for I was overcome with amazement and fear, and realized the position no more than did Your Holiness at the time, or than did those of your confidants immediately around us. It was indeed a matter that went beyond us all.
”But the chief end of this letter is arrived at--Your Holiness asks me to part with this boy. With the deepest regret at the rupture you threaten to cause between myself and Holy Church if I disobey this command, I must still utterly refuse to do so. So long as the child looks upon me as a friend, so long will I be one to him. So long as he will accept the shelter of my roof, so long shall he receive it. I would rather break with a dozen Churches, a dozen forms of creed, than be untrue to a child who trusts me! That is my answer to Your Holiness, and in giving it I add the sincere expression of my sorrow to cause you displeasure or pain. But I venture to pray you, Holy Father, to pause and consider deeply before you eject me from the Church for so simple and plain a matter. Let me as one who is nearing the grave in company with yourself--as one who with yourself must soon stand on that dark brink of the Eternal from which we see the Light beyond--let me most humbly yet most earnestly point out to you the far more serious things than my offence, which are threatening Rome to-day. The people of all lands are wandering away from faith, and wars and terrors are encompa.s.sing the land. The l.u.s.t of gold and pride of life are now the chief objects of man's existence and desire, and there was hardly ever a time in history when utter indifference to the laws of G.o.d was more openly exhibited than it is just now. The sin of unbelief and all the evils attendant on that sin are steadily increasing, and the Church seems powerless to stop the approaching disaster. Is it, that knowing herself to be weak, she does not make the attempt to be strong? If this is so, she must fall, and not all the getting-in of gold will help her!
But you, Holy Father--you might arrest all this trouble if you would!
If you would change the doctrines of Superst.i.tion for those of Science--if you would purify our beautiful creed from pagan observances and incredible idolatries--if you would raise the Church of Rome like a pure white Cross above the blackening strife, you might save the sinking s.h.i.+p of faith even now! So little is needed!--simplicity instead of ostentation--voluntary poverty instead of countless riches, spiritual power instead of the perpetual cry for temporal power,--the doctrine of Christ instead of the doctrine of Church Councils--and the glad welcoming and incorporation of every true, beautiful, wise and wonderful discovery of the age into the symbolic teaching of our Creed.
Holy Father, if this is not done, then things old must disappear to make room for things new,--and a new Church of Christ must rise from the ashes of Rome! We cannot but call to mind the words of St. John, 'Repent and do the first works, or else I will come quickly and remove thy candlestick from its place.' 'Do the first works.' Holy Father, those first works, as exemplified in Christ Himself, were love, charity, pity and pardon for all men! With all my heart I beseech Your Holiness to let these virtues simplify and sustain our Church,--and so raise it a burning and s.h.i.+ning light of loving-kindness and universal tolerance,--so shall it be the true city set on a hill which shall draw all men to its shelter! But if unjust judgment, intolerance, cruelty and fanaticism, should again be allowed, as once before in history, to blot its fairness and blight its reputation, then there is not much time left to it,--inasmuch as there is a force in the world to-day likely to prove too strong for many of us,--a mighty combat for Truth, in which conflicting creeds will fight their questions out together with terrible pa.s.sion and insistence, bringing many souls to grief and pitiful disaster. You, Holy Father, can arrest all this by making the Church of Rome, Christian rather than Pagan--by removing every touch of idolatry, every recollection of paid prayers, and by teaching a lofty, pure and practical faith such as our Redeemer desired for us, so that it may be a refuge in the storm, a haven wherein all the world shall find peace. This is for you and for those who come after you to do,--I, Felix Bonpre, shall not be here to see the change so wrought, for I shall have gone from hence to answer for my poor stewards.h.i.+p,--G.o.d grant I may not be found altogether wanting in intention, though I may have been inadequate in deed! And so with my earnest prayer for your health and long continuance of life I bid you farewell, asking you nothing for myself at all but a reasonable judgment,--unprejudiced and calm and Christlike,--which will in good time persuade you that it would be but a cruelty to carry out your indignation against me by depriving me of that diocese where all my people know and love me,--simply because I have befriended a child, and because having once befriended him I refuse to desert him. But if your mind should remain absolutely fixed to carry out your intentions I can only bow my head to your will and submit to the stroke of destiny, feeling it to be my Master's wish that I should suffer something for His sake, and knowing from His words that if I 'offend one of these little ones,' such as this friendless boy, 'it were better for me that a millstone were hung about my neck and I myself drowned in the depths of the sea!' Between the Church doctrine and Christ's own gospel, I choose the gospel; between Rome's discipline and Christ's command I choose Christ's command,--and shall be content to be glad or sorrowful, fortunate or poor, as equally to live or die as my Master, and YOUR Master, shall bid. For we all are nothing but His creatures, bound to serve Him, and where we serve Him not there must be evil worse than death.
”So in all humbleness still awaiting a more reasonable decision at your hands, I am, Most Holy Father,
”Your faithful servant and brother in Christ,
”Felix Bonpre.”
This letter finished, signed and sealed, the Cardinal addressed it and enclosed it under cover to one of the secretaries at the Vatican who he knew might be trusted to deliver it personally into the Supreme Pontiff's own hands. Then stretching out his arms wearily he closed his eyes for a moment with a sigh of mingled relief and fatigue. The night was very cold, and though there had been a fire in the room all day, it had died down in the grate, and there were only a few little dull embers now glowing at the last bar. The chill of the air was deepening, and a s.h.i.+ver ran through the spare, fragile form of the venerable prelate as he rose at last from his chair and prepared to take his rest. His sleeping room was a very small one, adjoining that in which he now stood, and as he glanced at his watch and saw that time had gone on so rapidly that it was nearly eleven o'clock, he decided that he would only lie down for two or three hours.
”For there is much to do yet,” he mused. ”This one letter to the Pope will not suffice. I must write to Angela,--to say farewell to her, poor child!--and give her once more my blessing--and then I must prepare the way at home--for myself, and also for Manuel.” He sighed again as the vision of his own house in the peaceful old-world French town far away, floated before his mental sight,--almost he heard the sweet chiming of the bells in his own Cathedral tower; which like a pyramid of delicate lace-work, always seemed held up in the air by some invisible agency to let the shafts of sunlight glimmer through,--once more he saw the great roses in his garden, pink and white and cream and yellow, clambering over the walls and up to the very roof of his picturesque and peaceful home--the white doves nesting in the warm sun--the ripe apples hanging on the gnarled boughs, the simple peasantry walking up his garden paths, coming to him with their little histories of pain and disappointment and sorrow; which were as great to them as any of the wider miseries of sufferers more beset with anguish than themselves. He thought of it all sorrowfully and tenderly,--his habit was ever to think of others rather than himself,--and he wondered sadly, as he considered all the bitterness and hards.h.i.+ps of the poor human creatures who are forced into life on this planet,--why life should be made so cruel and hard for them,--why sudden and unprepared death should snap the ties of tenderest love--why cruelty and treachery should blight the hopes of the faithful and the trusting--why human beings should always be more ready to destroy each other than to help each other--why, to sum all up, so merciful and divine a Being as Christ came at all into this world if it were not to make the world happier and bring it nearer to heaven!
”The ways of the Infinite Ordainment are dark and difficult to understand,” he said. ”And I deserve punishment for daring to enquire into wisely-hidden mysteries! But, G.o.d knows it is not for myself that I would pierce the veil! Nothing that concerns myself at all matters,--I am a straw on the wind,--a leaf on the storm--and whatever G.o.d's law provides for me, that I accept and understand to be best. But for many millions of sad souls it is not so--and their way is hard! If they could fully understand the purpose of existence they would be happier--but they cannot--and we of the Church are too blind ourselves to help them, for if a little c.h.i.n.k of light be opened to us, we obstinately refuse to see!”
He went to his sleeping room and threw himself down on his bed dressed as he was, too fatigued in body and mind to do more than utter his brief usual prayer, ”If this should be the sleep of death, Lord Jesus receive my soul!” And as he closed his eyes he heard the rain drop on the roof in heavy slow drops that sounded like the dull ticking of a monstrous clock piecing away the time;--and then he slept, deeply and dreamlessly,--the calm and unconscious and refres.h.i.+ng slumber of a child.
How long he slept he did not know, but he was wakened suddenly by a touch and a voice he knew and loved, calling him. He sprang up with almost the alacrity of youth, and saw Manuel standing beside him.
”Did you call me, my child?”
”Yes, dear friend!” And Manuel smiled upon him with a look that conveyed the brightness of perfect love straight from the glance into the soul. ”I need you for myself alone to-night! Come out with me!”
The Cardinal gazed at him in wonder that was half a fear.
”Come out with me!”
Those had been the words the boy had used to the Pope, the Head of the Church, when he had dared to speak his thoughts openly before that chiefest man of all in Rome!
”Come out with me!”
”Now, in the darkness and the rain?” asked the Cardinal wonderingly.
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