***
The engagement also prompted Cardinal Duvall, the chief cleric of Montuga to seek an audience with the king.
‘You seem troubled your eminence,’ the king noted. Relations between the church and the palace had deteriorated since the death of the Queen a few years earlier. The Cardinal’s frequent refrain that the Queen’s illness and death had been the will of God, although intended as a comfort, had served instead to annoy and alienate the king. In recent years, the king had increasingly used his own deteriorating health as an excuse to avoid attending Sunday mass at the High Cathedral. A novel tendency by the crown prince and the princess to attend Sunday Mass on alternate Sundays also annoyed the Church as it suggested that such attendances were a burden to be shared.
‘Your majesty, may I speak freely.’
‘You may.’ The king glanced lazily at the roof for a few moments. Experience had taught him that when people asked to speak freely, it seldom foreshadowed his hearing anything pleasurable or entertaining. He neither liked nor did he trust the Cardinal. However, the king was also painfully aware of the fact that in these uncertain times the monarchy could ill afford to add the church to the growing list of those who might have an axe to grind with it. Despite the kingdom’s division into nobles and commoners, Italians and French speakers, and still further into royalists, constitutionalists and republicans, the one thing which most Montugans shared in common was the Catholic faith. If the King could ensure that the loyalty of the church remained with the monarchy, the king believed that the monarchy’s prospects of survival in its present form were better than even. Most Montugans would not have the appetite to pick a fight with the combined might of the Church and the Monarchy.
‘In past times it was tradition that the Palace sought the advice of the Church on the suitability of any person wishing to marry into the royal family. The office of the Cardinal would customarily carry out a discrete investigation into the background of the person concerned. It would seem that this salutary tradition has been abandoned or dispensed with. And if I may say so, your majesty, it lends itself to rumours of a rift between the Church and the Palace at a time when the Palace’s authority is, how shall I put it, not necessarily fully embraced by all your majesty’s subjects.’ The Cardinal donned a suitably offended expression.
‘Of course you are correct, your eminence.’ The king made every effort to sound sympathetic. ‘However, the Church will be familiar with my declining health. I fear that time prohibited the palace’s adherence to the usual traditions. Surely the Church does not begrudge their king of fulfilling his dying wish of seeing his daughter married before the time of his passing.’
‘No, of course not, your majesty,’ the Cardinal’s tone became more apologetic in the face of the king’s alarming disclosure. ‘However, the Church has no reason to believe that Lord Cavendish is a believer. In such a case the Church cannot perform the wedding ceremony.’
‘Your eminence, you have my assurance that I would not permit my daughter to marry a non-Christian. It is so that Lord Cavendish was a protestant. However, he has, before me, announced his conversion to Catholicism. There is thus no reason for the Church not to perform the wedding ceremony.’
‘Your majesty, there are certain steps to be followed in the Church before we can say that one has converted to being a Catholic.’ The Cardinal struggled to hide obvious annoyance.
‘Your eminence is it not the doctrine of the Church that I, as king, I am ordained by God Himself?’
‘Yes, your majesty.’ The frowned and fidgeted awkwardly as he replied. This left the king to conclude that the Cardinal was less than comfortable with the proposition put to him and was even more ill at ease with his own answer, despite that it being in accordance with accepted church doctrine.
‘As king, duly ordained by God, I am satisfied that Lord Cavendish is now Catholic and an edict to that effect bearing my seal will be delivered to the Church tomorrow. May I assume that the Church will accept the word and the edict of God’s duly ordained representative , and that it will, without reservation, perform the wedding ceremony?’
‘Yes, your majesty,’ the Cardinal announced tautly.
‘There is another matter, your eminence. I have received word that there are some in the Church who are entertaining the prospect of permitting persons who are not of noble birth to attend services in the High Cathedral. Is this true?’
‘Yes, your majesty. The events in France have affected the church in France and the ripple effects are being felt by the churches around Europe and in Montuga. There are those in the Church who believe that all those who worship the Lord God are equal before him and that having separate places of worship for commoners and nobles can no longer be justified.’
‘I assume that your Eminence does not count himself as one of those who share this outrageous view? After all, do the commoners not have several of their own parishes throughout this kingdom?’
‘Your majesty will realise that I am an old man. A man of tradition. The views mentioned originate from younger men who wish to ensure that the church keeps up with the times.’ The cardinal’s reliance upon his age did not fool the king. He relies on his age as I do on my health, the king thought. It was common knowledge that the cardinal ruled the church with an iron hand.
‘It is as well that you do adhere to tradition and that the Church continues to do so, your eminence. If the church were to come out in support of the view that commoners are entitled to worship in the High Cathedral together with the king and the nobles, this would be tantamount to a declaration of support for the doctrine of egalitarianism which be tantamount to a declaration of support for the revolution in France would it not?’
‘Possibly so, your majesty. I would have to give the matter the thought it deserves.’
‘If you did, you may be compelled to conclude that any such declaration of support for the revolution in France might in turn constitute an act of treason?’
‘It might, your majesty.’ The Cardinal remained poker faced as he spoke.
‘I suggest that you ponder on the how God views the murder, or is it the regicide, of his duly ordained representative in France, King Louis XV1 by the revolutionaries. That should surely inform all the Church’s views on these matters, should it not?’
‘As always, your majesty’s point is well made.’
‘In that case, your Eminence will permit me to make another. I realise that the Church in France no longer subscribes to the doctrine that a monarch is God’s representative on earth. I need hardly point out that this is at odds with long established doctrine of the rest of the Catholic Church.’
‘Indeed so, your majesty.’
‘I am glad we agree. Then I suggest that when you return to the Cathedral, you would do well to announce that any Bishop, including yourself, your Eminence, who finds that he has any crisis of conscience about actively supporting the existing church doctrine insofar confirms that monarchs are ordained by God, such a cleric must forthwith give up their positions in the Church. And since I will not tolerate former clerics who hold such views to live in Montuga, I shall require each such cleric to book an immediate passage to some other country. I trust, your Eminence, that the palace will enjoy your full support in this most urgent of Church matters?’
‘Of course, your majesty,’ the Cardinal replied respectfully.
‘Good. I am glad we have spoken. In these uncertain times, the royal family and the Council of Six need to know who our friends are.’ The king maintained unwavering direct eye contact with the Cardinal in order to add appropriate emphasis to his words.
‘Your majesty can be rest assured that I, and the Church of Montuga remain, as always, your most obedient servants.’ As he spoke, the cleric’s pale blue eyes burned with such contempt that nothing about his submissive posture, manner or tone of voice seemed remotely genuine.
‘Excellent. And in order to cement this spirit of co-operation, your Eminence, I shall personally atte
nd at Mass on Sunday and I shall ensure that the entire royal family will do likewise. At this service, I shall expect each of the Bishops, or remaining Bishops, as the case may be, to take a public oath confirming my appointment, and those of my heirs as being ordained by God. And I shall further require each cleric to confirm that oath in a sworn signed statement which will be presented to me at this service. This will, I believe go a long way to repairing any rift between the church and the monarchy. After all, your Eminence, that is what you came to speak to me about in the first place, did you not?’
‘Quite so, your majesty.’