“Then I shall remain silent,” said the goliard, shrugging and turning his head away. “I shan’t say another word, m’lord, for fear of disappointing you even more.”

The party stopped for a break beneath a huge, ancient oak full of scampering squirrels. After unhitching the horses from the wagon, the company rested in the shelter of its branches. Soon, as Reynevan had expected, political discussions began again regarding the threat of Hussite heresy arriving from Bohemia and the great crusade that was meant to put an end to that heresy any day now. Typical though the subject was, however, the discussion didn’t follow the usual course.

“War,” announced one of the Franciscans unexpectedly, rubbing his pate onto which a squirrel had just dropped an acorn. “War is evil. For it is said: thou shalt not kill.”

“But in one’s own defence?” asked the tax collector. “Or in defence of one’s property?”

“Or in defence of one’s faith?”

“Or in defence of one’s honour?” said Hartwig of Stietencron, jerking his head up. “Foolish talk! Honour must be defended and insults are washed clean by blood!”

“Jesus didn’t defend himself in Gethsemane,” the Franciscan replied quietly. “And he made Peter sheathe his sword. Was that shameful?”

“And what does Augustin, a doctor Ecclesiae, write in De civitate Dei?” shouted one of the pilgrims, demonstrating unexpected scholarship given that the colour of his nose testified rather to other predilections. “Why, we are discussing a just war. And what is more just than a war against heathenism and heresy? Isn’t a war like that pleasing to God? Doesn’t it please Him when someone kills His enemies?”

“And what do John Chrysostom and Isidore write?” called another polymath with a similarly blue-and-red nose. “And Saint Bernard of Clairvaux? He orders heretics, Moors and heathens killed! He calls them filthy swine. To kill such as them, he says, is not a sin—it glorifies God!”

“Who am I, may God be merciful,” said the Franciscan, putting his hands together in prayer, “to contradict the saints and Doctors of the Church? Why, I’m not here to enter a dispute. I’m simply repeating the words of Christ on the Mount. He commanded us to love our neighbours and forgive those who trespass against us. To love our enemies and pray for them.”

“And Paul ordered the Ephesians,” added another of the monks, “to arm themselves against Satan with love and faith, not with spears.”

“And God will also make love and faith vanquish, amen,” said the third Franciscan, crossing himself, “and bring about reconciliation and pax Dei among Christians. For who benefits from the differences between us? The Infidel! Today, we are wrangling with the Czechs over the Word of God and the form of Communion. But what might happen tomorrow? Muhammad and crescent moons on churches!”