Free The Religion by Tim Willocks Page B

same bestial mob.
    Ludovico said, "The world is awash with evil, now as then, and the evidence of Satan's handiwork is everywhere apparent."
    "I'll not gainsay you," said Tannhauser.
    "There was wickedness afoot amongst the Piedmontese," said Ludovico. "Purity of faith had been impaired by war and malignant doctrines flourished. Discipline had to be restored. I'm happy that you were not numbered among the guilty."
    Tannhauser spat on the dockside and covered the phlegm with his boot. "My wickedness is too common to invite the attention of such as thee," he replied. "In Mondovi, you murdered uncommon men. Men of uncommon learning. Like Petrus Grubenius."
    A change in the light in Ludovico's eyes showed cognition of his victim's name, but he said nothing. Tannhauser pointed due south, toward Syracuse.
    "It wasn't far from here that the great Archimedes was murdered too, by an illiterate Roman soldier, for writing mathematical ciphers in the dust." He turned back to Ludovico. "It's a comfort to know that in the centuries stacked high since, Rome's admiration for learned men has not diminished."
    No man there had ever heard an inquisitor accused of murder. To hear it twice left both Bors and Gonzaga pale with stupefaction.
    Ludovico took it all with equanimity. "My comfort is the triumph of order over anarchy. And heresy-which is the enemy of good order-is rooted in the vainglory of learned men. He who hears the Eternal Word has no need of learning, for learning in itself is no virtue at all and is often the road that leads to infinite darkness."
    "I'll agree that learning confers no guarantee of virtue, for the evidence stands before me." Tannhauser could feel Bors's eyes drilling into his skull, but the mood was upon him. "As to darkness, broader roads lead thereto than that of knowledge."
    "What good is knowledge without fear of God?"
    "If God needs human agents to make us fear Him, then you must tell me what paltry manner of god He must be."
    "I am no agent of God," said Ludovico, "but rather of the One True Church." He pointed to the knights on the jetty. "These noble Knights of the Baptist, whose valor I imagine you honor, are come to defend the Cross against the Red Beast of Islam. The war that Mother Church struggles to survive is more desperate by far. The enemies ranged against Her from every quarter are more terrible and more ubiquitous, and the very worst are spawned from within Her own bosom. The duration of the Church's war will be measured not in weeks, or even in years, but in millennia. And at stake is not an army, or an island, or a mere people, but the destiny of all mankind for all eternity. My purpose, then, is not to spread fear but to defend the Rock upon which Peter founded Christ's congregation."
    "I do indeed honor these knights," said Tannhauser, "but they come to cross swords with the bravest fighting men in the world, not to torture the powerless and execute the meek."
    "And the Paradise of the saints will be their reward. But you, too, wear a sword. If you believe in your inmost heart-in that place where even you hear the Voice of God-that you would rid His world of evil in riddingit of me, then I urge you, now, to draw your sword with gladness and strike me dead."
    The more the man talked, the more Tannhauser liked him, and the more he was convinced that he would rid the world of a very great menace indeed by striking him dead. He smiled. "I'll match words with you no longer," he said, "for I concede I cannot best you."
    "The challenge was issued in earnest," said Ludovico. "And your comrade, at least, believes you might take it up."
    Tannhauser looked at Bors, who was indeed poised as if to spring on him. At Tannhauser's expression, and somewhat sheepishly, he relaxed.
    "It is not my purpose to rid the world of evil," said Tannhauser, "but rather to accumulate wealth-and even a little learning-and to die of all the vices my allotted span will allow me to indulge. I turned my face from God a long