“Tom Stone in Venice, and the USE leadership, both know our situation here. We just got a message from Venice that they are preparing our back-up site, have sent half of the embassy Marines-cavalrymen, every one of them-to reinforce us up here until we can move. They’ll ride through the night and pick up an additional twenty troops along the way, mostly trusted retainers of four different nobles known to support you, and who are said to be incorruptible.”
Personally, Larry wondered if there were really four such paragons of aristocratic virtue to be found in the entirety of this most materialistic of republics.
“I see,” Urban said as the other clerics entered. “When will we be leaving?”
“That’s just it, Your Holiness. We have to leave the second the cavalry comes over the hill.”
Urban stood particularly straight. “So it must be. Can you tell me where we are going?”
Sharon sighed. “Actually, Your Holiness, that’s the exact question I was coming to ask you.”
“I beg your pardon?”
Sharon put out her hands helplessly. “We got a signal just a few minutes ago that Frank and Giovanna are safe and on the way back to Italy. So we have to make travel and security arrangements for all our ‘at risk’ persons as soon as possible. We don’t want to give Borja another crack at you or them. But we’ve got one problem: we still don’t know where you want to go.”
Urban stared at the ground a moment. “I see your quandary. And I owe you that answer-now. Particularly after all of this. So, I assume we have some hours, yet?”
“At least a day, Your Holiness. And if there is another group of assassins who are able to reach us in that time, I’m not sure how much we could do to stop them-not if they are as large as this bunch was.”
“Very well. Then here is what we shall do.” He turned toward Antonio. “Cardinal Barberini, you will need your pen, ink, and parchment. I will give my judgment on what I have heard in the debates.”
Vitelleschi raised on eyebrow. “Indeed? How soon?”
“In five minutes, my friend.” He turned to a speechless Sharon. “Would you be so kind as to announce to those who can, and wish, to attend that they are welcome to do so?”
Wadding frowned. “Holy Father, is that wise?”
“I do not know, Cardinal Wadding, but I know this: no person who was in this house last night, sharing our peril, shall be kept away from our deliberations today. Now, Lawrence, let us go fetch a pitcher of cold water.” Urban smiled crookedly. “Pontificating is thirsty work.”
The audience in the Garden Room was less than a dozen persons. After fetching water with the pope, Larry had sidled off to buttonhole Ruy and point out that it was defensive suicide to allow the security forces to attend. Ruy politely declined to undermine the pope’s offer, but pointed out that all the security personnel were so deeply engaged in their duties, and so far away from the villa itself, that they could not possibly be summoned in time. Then, as three of the Hibernians walked by, not ten yards away, Ruy smiled at Larry.
Larry stared at the nearby soldiers, then at the ironic smile on Ruy’s face, and said, “Oh.”
If Urban detected, or was upset by the suspiciously limited audience for his pronouncements, he gave no sign of it. He simply stood and began.
“Time is short, so I shall not indulge in either a preamble or words of gratitude. Indeed, no words of gratitude could begin to express our deep debt to our hosts for what they have done, and what they have sacrificed.”
Sharon nodded stately thanks and acknowledgment.
“Cardinals Wadding and Mazzare did their jobs with all the vigor and insight that can be asked of mortal men. Their part in this is over. The first matter for us to consider if there is any basis for a lingering doubt that-although the up-timers are not constructs of the devil-it is still possible that they have been called back to our time to work as his unwitting tools.”
Urban folded his hands. “Much turns on this first matter-so much that I would be remiss to color the thinking of the most vigilant mind among us by expressing my opinion first. Therefore, Father-General Vitelleschi will share his personal judgment on this topic.” Urban sat-and smiled at Vitelleschi.
The father-general stood rigidly for a moment; Mazzare couldn’t tell if he was shocked or angry, or very possibly, both. But the Jesuit quickly schooled his expression to impassivity and folded his arms, staring downward. After almost ten seconds, he spoke, “I have heard only one credible reason that explains why Satan might choose these up-timers as his unwitting tools: that they might mislead us with new ideas for which we are simply not ready. This assertion presumes that it is perilous to embrace a doctrine for which men are not ready, or which ultimately distracts them from the salvation of their souls. Bellarmine rightly said that ‘Men are so like frogs. They go openmouthed for the lure of things which do not concern them, and that wily angler, the Devil, knows how to capture multitudes of them.’”
Vitelleschi looked around the room. “What could be more tempting to us down-timers than the wealth of information that arrived along with Grantville? And surely, their record of societies which successfully embraced absolute religious toleration is a nearly irresistible lure for the war-weary people of this world. Satan would also foresee that, precisely because the up-time knowledge is so empirically sound, the principle of absolute toleration might acquire an unwonted halo of implicit truth just by sharing common origin with all the rest of the authoritative information they brought to us.”
Vitelleschi’s brows lowered. “This is precisely the kind of trap that The Deceiver would lay for us. Eager for the promise of peace, our multitudes might poison themselves by drinking in such spirits, Holy or otherwise, distilled during the up-timers’ further centuries of strife and tribulation. As Cardinal Wadding argued, the up-time nations may have been prepared to healthily imbibe this potent liquor, but ours may not be.”
Mazzare looked over at Wadding, expecting to discover him swelling at the scent of approaching victory, but the Irish cardinal was strangely quiet, listening carefully.
“However,” said Vitelleschi, “we must now measure this hypothetical threat against the very solid-even bloody-reality of this moment. To be blunt, does it seem plausible that these up-timers-who have risked themselves for us, for our Church, our pope-could in fact be the Devil’s tools?”
Vitelleschi shook his head. “The answer is obvious if we simply reverse the question: would we be alive this moment if they were the Devil’s tools? Less than twelve hours ago, our survival and the future of the legitimate Church rested in the hands of these up-timers and their allies. That I stand here now, alive and speaking, is all the proof I need that they are not agents of darkness. Yes, I may be able to imagine fabulous plots in which Grantville is Satan’s ultimate and pivotal conceit, but they all collapse under the weight of this momentous fact: if it were not for the up-timers last night, the Church would not exist this morning. Satan had his opportunity to strike a mortal blow last night, but instead, his hopes died along with Borja’s assassins-all slain by up-timers and their allies.”
Vitelleschi’s proud neck went erect again. “And so I conclude-” he surveyed the up-timers sternly “-that whatever else they might be, the up-timers are not Satan’s unwitting tools.” With a brief glance at Urban-was it defiance, pride, annoyance? — the father-general sat.
Urban stood, and suddenly, Larry could hardly recall what Vitelleschi had said, because he knew he was about to hear history being made. And also, he was about to learn whether he was going to be traveling to the USE and living a while longer, or die very soon, because if Urban struck out on his own, Larry would have to-and wanted to-follow him. And they would all soon be found and killed, like rabbits beneath the teeth of wolves.
“I thank the father-general for his illuminating and instructive reasoning on the matter of our up-time friends, who, I now pronounce, speaking ex cathedra, to be found no different than the other children of God, possessed of the same graces, flaws, and origins as the rest of us. Now, let me speak to the other issues at hand.
“Since we have now accepted that the up-timers are neither satanic agents or dupes, then we are, de facto, accepting the reality of their future world. Which means that the later popes of their world are most assuredly popes. And this, in turn means that I acknowledge that they, too, enjoyed the grace of the Sacred Magisterium and thus were infallible in matters of faith and morals.
“Which brings us inevitably to the next point: by acknowledging them as true popes, one must also then acknowledge that God guided them to convene the council known as Vatican Two. And although God’s instruction to them does not constitute instructions to me, His inspiration and intents were manifest in that council and the doctrines arising therefrom. And so I must bear in mind their decisions and deeds as I consider my own.
“However, let us now address the crux of the matter: are the decrees of pontiffs from a future world that will now never exist to be obeyed in this one? I cannot see how that could be. The papacy is not only a succession of men, but of interactions between man and God. Consequently, it is logical that a later pope may not question the charism of an earlier pope, whose deeds and relationship with God must necessarily shape those of his successors.
