Shadow of a Hero

LEGEND

Restaur Vax and the Bishop

BISHOP PANGO¹ WAS a proud, proud man. On his left hand he wore three rings, and on his right five. He knew more Latin than the Pope and more Greek than the Patriarch.² When he came to the seminary the young men who were studying to be priests were brought before him, one by one, so that he could test them and know their worth.

Last of all Restaur Vax stood before him, and the Bishop tested him with a hard question. Restaur Vax answered him perfectly.

‘Good,’ said the Bishop. ‘We will make you a priest.’

‘I would sooner fight the Turks,’ said Restaur Vax.

The Bishop frowned, and tested him with a harder question. Again Restaur Vax answered him perfectly.

‘Good,’ said the Bishop. ‘When you have done being a priest, we will make you a bishop.’

‘I would sooner fight the Turks,’ said Restaur Vax.

The Bishop frowned and bit his lip and tested him with the hardest question he knew. For the third time Restaur Vax answered perfectly.

‘Good,’ said the Bishop. ‘When I myself am taken hence, you will sit on my throne.’

‘I would sooner fight the Turks,’ said Restaur Vax.

‘How can you fight the Turks?’ said the Bishop. ‘Seven hundred years they have been our masters. You have neither sword nor gun nor horse. You had far best be a priest.’

‘Without sword or horse or gun I will fight the Turks,’ said Restaur Vax.

The Bishop took a ring from his left hand.

‘With this you may buy yourself a sword,’ he said.

He took two rings from his left hand.

‘With these you may buy yourself a gun,’ he said.

He took four rings – all but his great Bishop’s ring – from his right hand.

‘With these you may buy yourself the best horse in the mountains,’ he said. ‘Now I have nothing to give you but my blessing. Go and fight the Turks.’

¹ Pango XIV (1766–1850) Bishop Supreme of Varina from 1818 and Prince-Bishop from 1829. During the period leading up to the War of Independence he was more than once arrested by the Turkish authorities on suspicion of support for nationalist leaders, but he was released because of the popular unrest and international pressure. The nature of his support for nationalist ideals remains unclear. He may well have examined the young Restaur Vax for the priesthood.

² The National Church of Varina was, and remains, unique. At the Great Schism of 1054 it announced its allegiance to both Rome and Byzantium, accepting Pope and Patriarch as equal spiritual heads. Both major Churches pronounced the Varinian compromise heretical, but with characteristic obstinacy the Church of Varina still insists that it accepts only the joint authority. The authority is theoretical. In practice it goes its own way.