XXII
Even Giustinian Giustiniani came and went heavily, asking for the latest change before he returned to the Senate Chamber, and carrying with him always a vision of that white, pleading face which had so wrought upon his anger when he had seen it luminous with her hope for Venice. But now his anger was transferred to her confessor who had bewitched her, to all those Roman prelates who had paid her court—a mere child, not able to defend herself nor to understand, killing herself for a question beyond her! And Marcantonio, for love of her, useless and unmanned! It was more than his senatorial pride could endure to find himself powerless under such complications. To appease his wrath he denounced Fra Francesco through the Bocca di Leone, but when the friar was sought for, by order of the Ten, he was not found. Fra Paolo was appealed to, for he was the friend of the gentle confessor; but he had not known his plans. \"If his conscience held him not, it was well for him to flee,\" he said, \"and best for Venice.\"
But when Fra Paolo was alone in his cell, which, in those days of greatness, he would not exchange for quarters at the Ducal Palace though the Senate pleaded, the memory of a confidential talk held since this quarrel with Rome began brought a hint of the reason for this sudden flight.
He was tender of conscience and strong of faith, this good Fra Francesco; always sad, but never stern toward Fra Paolo''''s failure to hold a belief implicit as his own in some doctrines of his beloved Church which he held to be vital. Yet his reverence for Fra Paolo''''s great knowledge and holy life made him unwilling to criticize where he unconsciously questioned. It was the severest test of friendship to keep his faith and affectionate devotion in one who was taking so prominent a part in a movement opposing papal authority; but sometimes, when Fra Paolo had uttered many things he would not have tolerated in any other priest, Fra Francesco said only to himself, in great sadness, \"It is God who maketh men different; we do not know the why!\"
The gentle friar sometimes wondered in himself that he could not openly say to Fra Paolo when they met, after matins, the many things which had lain hot in his heart through the night—for how could it be right to oppose the supreme authority? But when the placid face of his friend met his, bathed in the fresh benediction of his altar service—new each morning and never omitted—he forgot the horror with which he had been reasoning that Fra Paolo was hastening the curse upon Venice.
But if Fra Paolo derived no added finesse for his masterful thought from the confidences he so often unconsciously invited from this lifelong friend, his faith in the sincerity and spiritual depth of this brother friar who, out of love for him, listened to much that pained him, taught him to value at its highest this opportunity of the closest scrutiny of his own motives, as he noted the impression of their talk on a nature as sincere and spiritual as it was transparent.
But that night, when they had passed from the cloister into Fra Paolo''''s study-cell, continuing as they walked the train of thought they had been discussing, his listener soon became so distrait that Fra Paolo, who was singularly conscious of unspoken moods, dropped the problem he was unfolding and laid his hand upon his shoulder with the rare tenderness expressed only where he hoped that he might serve.
\"We were speaking of weighty matter and thy thoughts are not with me. \"It is a question of responsibility—the burden of the confessional,\" Fra Paolo drew back his hand, and his tone was a shade less tender.
\"Of all that hath been reposed in thee under that sacred seal thou must bear the burden alone.\"
\"My brother, dost thou think I can forget my vow?\" Fra Francesco exclaimed, reproachfully. \"I spake not of that which hath been reposed in me, but of my duty growing out of that sacred office. It was for this I wanted counsel, and I had sought thee before to pray thee to confess me; but I know thy views and I ask thee not.\"
\"Yet as brothers of one holy order thou mayest confide in me, if perchance it may bring thee comfort. For us of the Servi it is our duty of service.\"
Fra Francesco sat for a moment in silence. \"Life is heavy,\" he said slowly, \"and hard to interpret. Yet I seem to feel that thou wilt understand, though it be in the very matter of our difference. There is one—highly placed and noble in spirit, and to the Church a most devoted daughter—who cometh to me for teaching in this matter of the interdict. She asketh of me all its meaning—what it shall bring to Venice?\"
\"Thou tell her, then, it shall bring naught. For if it be pronounced it will be unjustly, and without due cause.\"
\"Nay, Paolo, my brother; it is written in the nineteenth maxim of the \"My brother, who gave thee thy conscience and thine intellect?\" Fra Paolo questioned sternly. \"And hath He who gave them thee so taught thee to yield them that it should be as if thou had''''st not these gifts which, verily, distinguish man from the animals—to whom instinct sufficeth? Yet, if thou would''''st have answer from one of our own casuists in whom thou dost place thy trust, the Cardinal Bellarmino, in his second book on the Roman Pontiffs, will teach thee that without prejudice to this maxim of Gregory thou mayest refuse obedience to a command extending beyond the jurisdiction of him who commands; as Gaetano in his first treatise on the ''''Power of the Pope,'''' will also tell thee. For the peace of thine own mind, my brother, I would I might make thee understand!\"
\"Nay,\" answered Fra Francesco, not less earnestly. \"Peace for him who hath faith cometh not with one intellectual solution, nor another; but with calm purpose to do the right, however it may be revealed.\"