Nine for the Devil

Chapter Twenty-eight

It was time for John to leave. He walked toward the aisle, passing the reliquaries housing the skulls of saints Andrew, Luke, and Timothy. The reliquaries resembled miniature churches dipped in gold and encrusted with gems. The flames of their surrounding candles made them flash and glitter and twinkle so the gaze could not fix upon their surfaces but was constantly drawn away by the moving light, as a glowing soul might draw the attention from a physical body.

“Lord Chamberlain, I noticed you speaking with Vigilius.”

The long-bearded, narrow face of Patriarch Menas loomed in John’s path.

“We exchanged pleasantries.”

“The pope did not look very pleased, but then he rarely does. I see you are admiring our relics. Some day you should let me show you everything we have here. Relics of John Chrysostom and countless other saints and martyrs. The bones of the three apostles are buried beneath us. They were discovered in three wooden coffins when excavations for this rebuilt church were under way. It was the Lord’s way of blessing Theodora’s enterprise.”

“I was present at the ceremony when she laid the cornerstone,” John replied.

The endless ceremonies he had attended blurred into a soporific cloud of glittering tedium but he could not help recalling the empress in her finery, playing the part of a mason on a brutally cold windy day, managing to splash mud over both herself and the emperor while the assembled officials and courtiers desperately tried to stifle their laughter for the good of their necks.

“She did more than lay the cornerstone,” Menas said. “As it happened there hadn’t been sufficient money allocated for construction. The three apostles appeared to Theodora in a dream and instructed her to go to the shore by the city gate, where she would find twelves jars filled with gold buried. She did so and in fact there were jars of gold coins bearing the likenesses of the apostles.”

The picture of the empress digging in the mud on the beach almost made John smile. “Do you believe that legend, Patriarch Menas?”

“It is a story the common people enjoy, Lord Chamberlain.”

“And so perhaps you thought I would enjoy it also?”

Menas reddened. “I meant no insult.”

“Indeed. What did you wish to speak about?”

“Pope Vigilius. I hope he has not been slandering me?”

“Why would he do so?”

“It is no secret we are at odds over the Three Chapters.” Menas gave John a bleak smile. “I sometimes wish I had remained head of Samsun’s Hospice. I felt I was truly serving the Lord there, ministering to the poor. I would be happy to be doing that today. What greater work is there than alleviating the suffering of our fellow men?”

John had no intention of recounting to Menas his conversation with Vigilius. “You are worried what people might think now that Theodora is dead?”

“You mean because I replaced that favorite of hers, Anthimus, as patriarch, people might suppose I was somehow involved with her demise?”

“You are the one who mentioned slander.”

“It was more than a decade since I was appointed. And it wasn’t as if I sought the position. Pope Agapetus asked me to take it. If Theodora had a grievance with anyone it was with Agapetus. As for Theodora and I, we reconciled long since, even if her views were less than orthodox.”

“That hardly needs to be said. At any rate, Vigilius told me as much.”

“So he was being honest for once.” Menas shook his head vehemently, causing his long beard to tremble. “A troublesome man. When he first arrived he cut me off from the table of the Lord for four months. I wish Justinian would send him back to Rome.”

“You can hardly blame him for being unhappy. He was after all abducted from church forcibly and transported here.” John was remembering his own recent abduction.

“Abducted? Rescued, you mean. The populace was so disgusted they threw stones at his ship as it sailed off. He had no business becoming pope in the first place. Theodora sent him to Rome with a fortune in gold and orders to Belisarius to install him on the papal throne.”

“Do you think Vigilius would have sought to harm the empress?”

“Physically, you mean? I know what is being said but I would never accuse him of murder.”

“Tell me, did you visit Theodora while she was ill? She must have sought spiritual guidance. She wouldn’t have allowed Vigilius to offer it, but she might have accepted comfort from you as patriarch.”

“She seldom summoned me after she took to her sickbed, Lord Chamberlain. She did not seem interested in receiving clergymen, or at least I was never informed of her asking to see one.”

“Odd behavior, I would say,” John offered.

“Very unusual. Perhaps she regretted her heretical leanings or maybe she took comfort from Justinian. He is after all God’s representative on earth.”

They continued to speak for a short time. Menas appeared satisfied Vigilius had said nothing to John which might cause Menas trouble, and John managed to avoid being drawn into further theological discussions.

Both being satisfied, they went their separate ways, John back to the house he had not expected to see again.