Summa Elvetica: A Casuistry of the Elvish Controversy and Other Stories (25 page)

One month would give the legions time to assemble and the generals time to make their plans. The winter would be used to set the pieces in place—of which he, if he was then serving on his father’s staff, might well be one—and then in the spring they would strike.

All of his desperate efforts in the elven city had been for naught. The end result was no different than if had never gone. Indeed, this was the very result the false Michaelines had meant to achieve by striking him down.

At the thought, he was finally free of the doubt that had lingered when he’d decided to spurn ordination. The Church wanted war, and war it was going to get. He would have none of the hypocrisy of the supposed investigation. His anger swelled. If he’d had his
Summa
with him at the moment, he would’ve cast it into the fire on the spot. Though he felt obliged to serve the Sanctiff one more time, he would do so in the knowledge that he would not be oathbound to do so ever again.

Nevertheless, despite his rage, it did occur to him that the trip would allow him to be with Caitlys again.

“I shall be honored to do precisely as you command, Holiness.” If there was just the slightest stress on the last word, neither the Sanctiff nor Cassius Claudo deigned to notice.

“Then go with God, Marcus Valerius. Our blessing is upon you. Give the other scroll to Father Cornelius at the Proeliatum, and he will see that you are properly outfitted and escorted for the journey.”

“Yes, Holiness.”

• • •

The two great men of the Church watched the newly appointed young ambassador to the elves walk quickly out of the chamber. They saw his flashing eyes and stiffly erect back, which betrayed his despairing anger.

Cassius Claudo shook his head. “This verges on cruel, Ahenobarbus. At least you might have left the scroll unsealed.”

“I doubt he’d look anyhow. It is a penance, after all. The discipline will serve him well. He is young still, with all the proud judgment and arrogant short-sightedness that youth entails. Even now, after all he has learned, he has not yet taken to heart the lesson that things are not always as they seem a priori.”

“Particularly where princes and prelates are concerned.” Cassius Claudo laughed, a short, hard bark of a laugh. “It is a loss for the Church, though.”

“You were the one who saw the elf maid kiss him just before she left you at Kir Donas, were you not? Marcus is not temperamentally suited for the Church, dear friend. It would be a torture where it should be joy. Our desire for talent must never be used to overshadow an absence of calling. That way lie madness and material empire.”

The bishop shrugged. “That may be true, but why give him penance? He did no wrong in receiving the kiss. He could have pursued more, had he wished, because he did not know I was there. It was a temptation perhaps, but manfully resisted, if not conquered. And, Ahenobarbus, they truly are as beautiful as angels.”

“Did wrong? No, far from it—he did very well indeed! Or perhaps she did. Do you know, Claudo, that it was she who made my decision for me?”

Claudo blinked. “Your Grace?”

The Sanctiff laughed heartily. “It is true! It was not your flawless reason that did the trick, nor all of poor Aestus’s flowery rhetoric. It was the elf girl! You caught her kissing our dear Marcus, and when she saw you, she blushed. Blushed, Claudo! That, beyond all the intellectual arguments that might ever be raised, convinced me that elves have souls.”

“You don’t say,” Claudo’s voice dripped sarcasm. “The blush of an elf girl? So why should we use the minds that God has given us when we can let our hearts reason for us?”

“Come, Excellency. Does not Augustinus say ‘Purity is a virtue of the soul’? Think, Claudo. To blush as she did is to be impassioned by an offense against that which is immaculate. Don’t you see it? Only a creature with a soul could possibly be cognizant of offending such virtue.”

The bishop was silent for a splendidly long moment. Then he nodded and arched an eyebrow at the Sanctiff. “You have been delving deep, haven’t you? No wonder you look as if you’ve been wrestling with all the devils in hell.”

“I have! I usually have scholars like you and Aestus and young Valerius to do my digging for me. But I felt this matter called for a more comprehensive inquiry on my part than relying solely upon prayer and counsel.”

“It did, truly.” The bishop shook his head. “I still think it’s a real loss to the Church to lose that young Valerian to the field or the Senate.”

But the Sanctiff only laughed. His was a droll, cheerful laugh. It made even the dour bishop’s lips twitch into a smile.

“The Church’s loss, perhaps, but not God’s. My very dear Cassius Claudo, have you never perused the list of true saints? Have you never seen how very few of them happened to be men of the cloth?”

1 Novembre 1043

His Sanctified Holiness Charity IV

THE IMMACULATE GOD so loved man that He created him in such wise that he might participate, not only in the good that other creatures enjoy, but endowed him with capacity to attain to the inaccessible and invisible Supreme Good and behold it face to face; and since man, according to the testimony of the sacred Scriptures, has been created to enjoy eternal life and happiness, which none may obtain save through faith in our sublime Lord Immanuel, it is necessary that he should possess the nature and faculties enabling him to receive that faith; and that whoever is thus endowed should be capable of receiving that same faith. Nor is it credible that any one should possess so little understanding as to desire the faith and yet be destitute of the most necessary faculty to enable him to receive it.

Hence Christ, who is the Truth itself, that has never failed and can never fail, said to the preachers of the faith whom He chose for that office, ‘Go ye and teach all nations.’ He said all, without exception, for all are capable of receiving the doctrines of the faith.

The enemy of the human race, who opposes all good deeds in order to bring men to destruction, beholding and envying this, invented a means never before heard of, by which he might hinder the preaching of God’s word of salvation to the people: he inspired his satellites who, to please him, have not hesitated to assert that the elves of the west, the orcs, goblins and trolls of the east, the dwarves, jotun and ulfin of the north and the diverse creatures of south that bear the shapes of both man and beast, and other people of whom should be treated as dumb brutes whose creation was inspired by that enemy and are therefore incapable, by virtue of their intrinsic nature, of receiving the true and immaculate faith.

We have certain knowledge that in some cases, these various races have entered into this world through the wickedness of man and other beings. We acknowledge that the existence of these demonic races, spawned from the lusts of spirits and the evil will of fallen men, a willful and malevolent perversion of God’s creation, and we deny and rebuke the unseemly notion that these beings are a form of man or can be deemed to possess an immortal soul.

We, who, though unworthy, exercise on earth the power of the Purified and seek with all our might to bring those sheep of His flock who are outside into the fold committed to our charge, consider, however, that the elves are a people truly possessed of souls which are naturally united to them through the act of creation by the Most High God and that they are not only capable of understanding the true and holy faith but, according to our information, they desire exceedingly to receive it. Desiring to provide ample remedy for these evils, we define and declare by these our letters, or by any translation thereof signed by any notary public and sealed with the seal of any ecclesiastical dignitary, to which the same credit shall be given as to the originals, that, notwithstanding whatever may have been or may be said to the contrary, the said elves and all other people who may later be determined to be similarly ensouled by us, are by no means to be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property, even though they be outside the faith of the Most Holy Lord Immanuel; and that they may and should, freely and legitimately, enjoy their liberty and the possession of their property; nor should they be in any way enslaved; should the contrary happen, it shall be null and have no effect.

By virtue of our apostolic authority we define and declare by these present letters, or by any translation thereof signed by any notary public and sealed with the seal of any ecclesiastical dignitary, which shall thus command the same obedience as the originals, that the said elves should be converted to the faith of Our Lord Immanuel by preaching the Immaculate Word of God and by the example of good, holy, and peaceable living.

By Marcus Valerius

Article 1, Question VII.

Whether the elves have souls naturally united to them.

Objection 1.
It would seem that elves do not have souls naturally united to them. For it is written: “God formed man of the slime of the earth and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man was made a living soul.” But he who breathes sends forth something of himself. Therefore the soul is of the divine substance. Elves, created subsistent and distinct from man, did not receive the divine substance from God. Therefore the elves do not have souls naturally united to them.

Objection 2.
Further, man is created in the image of God, after the likeness of God. The elves are not created in the image and likeness of God. Therefore the elves do not have souls naturally united to them.

Objection 3.
Further, the psalmist asks of God: “What is man that you are mindful of him?” In answer to which question he writes: “You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet”: whereby we discern that man is foremost among all creation that is materially subsistent. Therefore the elves do not have souls naturally united to them.

Objection 4.
Further, man was created on the sixth day. The more perfect has precedence in the order of nature as given in the account of Creation, therefore man is more perfect than the elves. Now the most perfect state of the soul is to be separated from the body, since in that state it is more similar to God and the angels, and is more pure, as being separated from any extraneous nature. Inasmuch as they are less perfect than man, the elves are still further removed from the most perfect state of the soul. Therefore the elves do not have souls naturally united to them.

On the contrary,
Oxonus said: “In rational animals the sensitive appetite obeys reason.” Therefore, in so far as they are led by a kind of estimative power, which is subject to a higher reason, that is to say the Divine, there is a certain likeness of moral good in them, in regard to the soul.

I answer that:
On this question there have been various opinions. First, if the soul by its nature were a complete species, so that it might be created as to itself, this would prove that the soul was neither man nor elf. But as the soul is naturally a partaker of the form of the body, it was necessarily created, not separately, but in the body. For if the soul had a species of itself it would have something still more in common with the angels. But, as the form of the body, the question of the soul belongs to the animal genus, as a formal principle, and therefore it may not be settled on that basis but must be answered with regards to the particular nature of the elven species.

Second, the condition of man in the state of innocence was not more exalted than the condition of the angels. But among the angels some rule over others; and so one order is called that of “Dominations.” Therefore it was not beneath the dignity of the state of innocence that one man should be subject to another. Forasmuch as one man can be subject to another without imputing significance to his soul, the elves can be subject to the mastership of man without significance to theirs.

Third, while in all creatures there is some kind of likeness to God, in the rational creature alone we find a likeness of “image”; whereas in other creatures we find a likeness by way of a “trace.” Now the intellect or mind is that whereby the rational creature excels other creatures; wherefore this image of God is not found even in the rational creature except in the mind. Gregory (Hom. x in Ev.) calls an elf a rational animal, therefore the elves are more properly likened to men and angels instead of the irrational creatures.

Reply to objection 1.
The body is not of the essence of the soul; but the soul by the nature of its essence can be united to the body, so that, properly speaking, not the soul alone, but the “composite,” is the species. To say that the soul is of the divine substance involves a manifest improbability. For the human soul is sometimes in a state of potentiality to the act of intelligence—acquires its knowledge somehow from things—and thus has various powers; all of which are incompatible with the Divine Nature, wherefore it is evidently false that the soul is of the substance of God. Therefore the elves have souls which are naturally united to them.

Reply to objection 2.
Although creatures do not attain to a natural likeness to God according to similitude of species, as a man begotten is like to the man begetting, still they do attain to likeness to Him, forasmuch as they represent the divine idea, as a material house is like to the house in the architect’s mind. Likeness of creatures to God is not affirmed on account of agreement in form according to the formality of the same genus or species, but solely according to analogy, inasmuch as God is essential being, whereas other things are beings by participation. Therefore the elves have souls which are naturally united to them.

Reply to objection 3.
Certain elves in this state of life are greater than certain men, not actually, but virtually; forasmuch as they have such great charity that they can merit a higher degree of beatitude than that possessed by certain men. In the same way we might say that the seed of a great tree is virtually greater than a small tree, though actually it is much smaller. Therefore the elves have souls naturally united to them.