it be, since discussions about Grantville almost always stimulate speculation upon Satan’s literal presence in this world. This benefits the Church; for a century, priests have worried that the increase in secularism will cause the laity to forget the reality of the Devil. That trend has dramatically reversed-thanks to the Devil himself, if we are to believe Cardinal Wadding.
“In conclusion, to accept Grantville as a diabolical creation, one must be willing to overturn all the Church’s canonical and traditional understandings of the powers and prerogatives of both God and the Devil.”
Ruy blew out an appreciative breath. “Cardinal Mazzare is quite a formidable philosopher. To say nothing of subtle. Are you sure he is not a Jesuit?”
Larry had evidently overhead Ruy’s more-than- sotto voce aside to his wife; Mazzare smiled as he said to Vitelleschi, “Father-General, I have one personal observation.” He turned in a circle, making eye-contact with his various listeners. “I see before me a pope who paid one up-timer the supreme compliment of officiating at his wedding. I see a seasoned Spanish veteran who has married an up-timer himself. I see a father-general who kindly encouraged an up-timer-me-to address the papal court convened on the matter of Galileo. I see a young cardinal who generously invited an up-time ambassador into his Roman palace, and who has since been happy to find that hospitality repaid in this desperate hour. And I see one last cardinal”-he turned and smiled at Wadding-“who began today’s proceedings with an apology for calling into question the humanity-the presumed humanity-of his host, that same ambassador.”
“And your point is?” muttered Vitelleschi gruffly, evidently discomfited by Larry’s reference to his well- concealed kindness.
Mazzare indicated the entirety of his audience. “My point is that none of the down-timers in this room- religious or otherwise-would have behaved as they did if they deeply, truly believed that the beings they were blessing, hosting, marrying, entreating, or thanking were demons or the damned in disguise. I know the moral fiber of the persons in this room as well as I know anything, and none of them would be so remiss in their duty to God, nor so hypocritical, that they would willingly consort with agents of Hell. In short, whatever you may say, suspect, or argue here, your actions have already rendered the verdict of your instincts: that we up-timers are frail, flawed humans no different from you except that we are now orphans in time.”
The room was quiet for a long moment, then Wadding coughed politely. “Presuming all this to be true, it still does not preclude the possibility that Grantville may have merely been brought to this time and place by the power of Satan.”
Mazzare shrugged. “This is true. But the distinction in that alternative is very great indeed, Cardinal Wadding. For if we were only transported here by Satan, then we are not his constructs at all; we truly are from the future, and the contents of Grantville are an authentic record of it.”
“It is also possible,” persisted Wadding, “that the instincts of every down-timer in this room have been misled, that Satan has created the perfect illusion.”
Mazzare smiled again. “If the cream of the Church’s intellect, as well as the common people, can be so completely duped, then the real miracle is that Satan has not used that skill to triumph long before now. To cite an axiom of my time, you can fool all of the people some of the time, and can fool some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. If Satan had such powers of deception, there would never have been any hope for humanity.”
Vitelleschi waited. When no debate ignited, he lifted his palms, inviting “Any who have questions may ask them.”
Sharon was surprised when Ruy stood. “Learned Eminences, will you allow a poor, ignorant soldier to ask a question?”
Vitelleschi raised an eyebrow. “First, you are none of the things you say, Don Ruy. And second, I did say any who have questions. So ask.”
“Your Eminences, Father-General, you may certainly presume I have made my own determination that Grantville is not a creation of Satan.”
He looked back briefly at Sharon, who was shocked by the sudden gravity of his smile. So this is what Ruy looks like when he is very, very serious.
“And yet,” he continued, “I am not without my reservations. Cardinal Mazzare, you raised the issue of the knowledge that has come to us from Grantville. I have read many of your books. One author-a Swiss by the name of Nietzsche-has, in particular, troubled me.”
Larry’s eyes became very grave. “I’m not surprised.”
“In particular, I am worried by his famous assertion that ‘God is dead.’ I understand that he was not literally claiming that divinity had recently expired, but rather, that God had never existed, except in the human imagination: that the idea of God was how early man explained the inexplicable phenomena that surrounded him.”
Mazzare nodded. “That is as good a summary as I’ve ever heard, Ruy.”
“His Eminence flatters an old soldier’s stunted powers of insight. However, it also seems that this philosopher claimed that Man’s increasing knowledge and command of natural phenomena caused ‘God’s death.’ So I ask you: are we not seeing the beginning of that same process in this world? In short, how long before the majority of down-timers make a chorus with this Nietzsche, saying also that ‘God is dead’?”
Larry Mazzare smiled slowly, fondly, at Ruy. “Ruy Sanchez, you are indeed a wily old soldier. And I freely admit that what you fear could transpire. But it was coming, anyhow; had we not arrived and changed your history, your outcome would have matched our own.
“But I believe that our arrival may have, in fact, changed that. I think that this world may do better than ours did in handling this challenge to faith. The trial came upon us up-timers slowly, and faith decayed inside us over the centuries, like a citadel falling to a long, slow siege. But here, where this century’s eyes of undiminished faith are abruptly shown the natural wonders unveiled by Grantville’s science, I think it likely that those same eyes will see that God is more alive than ever. How much more astounding is the wonder of God’s design when we see the elegant beauty of His handiwork in the microscopic structures of a leaf, a snowflake?”
Ruy nodded. “I have thought-and hoped-this too. Now, we look into a stagnant puddle and discover a teeming universe of animalcules. We look up and discover not a closed system, but an infinity so vast that its size defies the human mind.”
Wadding frowned mightily. “Yes, and the same science that reveals these wonders is also the enabler of oblivion, of ‘atomic weapons,’ as I believe you called them, Cardinal Mazzare. What dark fruit of human hubris could be more pleasing to Satan, whose imprisonment in Hell fills him with burning envy of, and hatred for, the clean, fertile world of our Creator? How elegant and delicious a victory for him if he can tempt man to build weapons that can destroy this lesser Eden, can reduce God’s gift to ashes and ruin.”
Larry Mazzare nodded soberly. “I could not agree with you more, Cardinal Wadding. But science, and the technology that arises from it, is neither good nor evil. It is a lens, whereby the intents and hopes-both noble and petty-of its human wielders are magnified. Therefore, atomic weaponry also poses humankind the ultimate test of self-control, of the triumph of peace and grace over wrath and sin.”
Ruy’s eyes did not leave Mazzare. “As you yourselves successfully demonstrated toward the end of your twentieth century.”
Wadding frowned. “Don Ruy, that was but one crisis averted. The problem with such power, such weapons, is that one mistake is a final mistake. They are like the apple in Eden; they wait, eternally, for human frailty to induce a momentary lapse of reason or resolve-for that is all it takes to undo eternity: a momentary lapse.”
“True, Your Eminence,” nodded Ruy. “But I learned in my catechisms-and again, reading the resolutions that arose out of the Council of Trent-that the Lord our God never permits Satan to tempt or deceive us past our individual capacity to resist. It is a central tenet of the concept of free will, is it not?”
Larry Mazzare could not keep the sudden, bright smile off his face. “Ruy Sanchez de Casador y Ortiz, I think it is you who should be doing my job. What do you think, Cardinal Wadding?”
Who was, strangely enough, smiling also. “I think an old soldier has just reminded an old priest how important the simplest truths of our faith are. I am in your debt, Don Ruy.”
Vitelleschi nodded primly. “Are the arguments and questions concluded? Very well. My recommendation to His Holiness are as follow: Cardinal Wadding’s warning that the Devil might have transported the town of Grantville to our time cannot be wholly discounted. However, I find that the arguments supporting the assertion that the whole town is a satanic creation to be well beyond the bounds of credibility. As Cardinal Mazzare points out, the magnitude of such a manifestation as Grantville, both physical and intellectual, far exceed those limits that we
