Scene II.
The Patriarch, after marching up one of the aisles with great pomp, approaches.
TEMPLAR.
I'd rather shun him--he is not my man--
A round, red smiling prelate! And what state!
FRIAR.
But you should see him at a festival,
Now he but comes from visiting the sick.
TEMPLAR.
Great Saladin will then have cause to blush.
PATRIARCH (coming forward, makes signs to the Friar).
Was that the Templar? What's his business here?
FRIAR.
I know not.
PATRIARCH (advancing, whilst the Friar and his train retire.)
Well, Sir Knight, I'm truly glad
To meet so brave a youth. So very young,
Something may come of him, if Heaven assist.
TEMPLAR.
Not more than has already come of him,
But rather less, my reverend father.
PATRIARCH.
Well,
It is my prayer that so devout a Knight
May for the cause of Christendom and God
Be long preserved; nor can it fail to be,
If valour will give ear to aged words.
Then say, how can I serve you, Sir?
TEMPLAR.
With that
In which my youth's deficient--sound advice.
PATRIARCH.
Most gladly, if you'll follow my advice.
TEMPLAR.
Not blindly, though.
PATRIARCH.
Whose words are those? Indeed,
None should neglect to use the intellect
Bestowed by God, when it is suitable.
But is it always suitable? O no!
If God, through one of the celestial choir--
That is, through one of the blest ministers
Of His most sacred word--should condescend
To show some way by which the Church's weal,
Or else the general good of Christendom,
Might be secured, what man would venture then
To weigh the laws of intellect against
His will, who fashioned intellect itself?
Or measure the unchanged decrees of Heaven
By empty rules that suit this petty world?
But of all this enough. Now tell me, Knight,
Wherefore you seek our counsel?
TEMPLAR.
Reverend father!
Suppose a Jew possessed an only child--
A girl--whom he with fond parental care
Trained to each virtue, treasured as his soul,
Whilst she, with love as ardent as his own,
Repaid his love,--suppose it rumoured then
That she was not the daughter of this Jew,
But a poor orphan, purchased in her youth,
Or stolen, or found--or anything, but still
Of Christian birth, and in her youth baptised,
And that the Jew had reared her in his faith,
Allowed her to be thought a Jewish maid,
And firmly to believe herself his child,--
Say, reverend father, what should then be done?
PATRIARCH.
I shudder at the thought! But, worthy Sir,
Say, is this fact, or mere hypothesis?
That is, if your own head has framed the case,
Or has it happened--does it still exist?
TEMPLAR.
That's unimportant, and could not assist
Your reverence to pronounce upon the point.
PATRIARCH.
What! unimportant! See, Sir Knight, how apt
Proud reason is to err in sacred things.
'Tis of deep import; though, 'tis true, the case
May be the offspring of your sportive wit,
When we should straight dismiss it from our thoughts,
And I should then refer you to the stage
Where pros and cons like these are oft discussed
With loud applause. But if the object be,
By something better than a sleight of hand,
To sound my judgment, if the thing be fact,
And may have happened in our diocese,
Here in our dear Jerusalem itself,
Why then----
TEMPLAR.
What then?
PATRIARCH.
Then were it well, Sir Knight,
To execute at once upon the Jew
The penalty provided for the case,
By Papal and Imperial laws, against
So foul a crime, such dire iniquity.
TEMPLAR.
Indeed!
PATRIARCH.
The laws I mention have decreed
That if a Jew shall to apostasy
Seduce a Christian, he shall die by fire.
TEMPLAR.
Indeed!
PATRIARCH.
How much more when a Jew by force
Tears from baptismal bonds a Christian child?
For all that's done to children is by force,
Save what the Church shall order and perform.
TEMPLAR.
What if the child were steeped in misery,
And must have died, but for this bounteous Jew?
PATRIARCH.
It matters not: the Jew should still be burnt.
'Twere better to expire in misery,
Than live to suffer never-ending pains.
The Jew moreover should not have forestalled
The hand of God, whom had He willed to save,
Could save without him.
TEMPLAR.
Make him happy too,
In spite of him.
PATRIARCH.
It matters not, the Jew
Must still be burnt.
TEMPLAR.
That grieves me very much,
And all the more, as people say that he
Has reared the child not in his own belief,
So much as in no faith at all, and taught
Her neither more nor less of God than is
By reason asked.
PATRIARCH.
It matters not, the Jew
Must still be burnt--and for this very cause
Would merit threefold death. To rear a child
Without a faith! Not even teach a child
The greatest of all duties--to believe!
'Tis heinous, and I'm rapt in wonder, Knight,
That you yourself----
TEMPLAR.
Oh, reverend Sir, the rest
In the confessional, if God allow. (Is going.)
PATRIARCH.
What, going! and not await my questioning!
Not name to me this infidel, this Jew!
Not find him out for me at once! But, hold!
A thought occurs. I'll to the Sultan straight.
According to the treaty we have sworn
With Saladin, he must protect our creed
With all the privileges, all the rights
That appertain to our most holy faith.
Thank God! we have retained the deed itself,
With seal and signature affixed, and we
Can readily convince him, make him feel
How full of peril for the state it is
Not to believe. All civil bonds are rent
Asunder, torn to pieces, Knight, when men
Have no belief. Away, away for ever
With such impiety!
TEMPLAR.
I much deplore
That I want time to relish this discourse,
This holy sermon. Saladin awaits
My coming.
PATRIARCH.
Ah, indeed!
TEMPLAR.
And I'll prepare
The Sultan for your presence, reverend Sir,
If you desire.
PATRIARCH.
Why, yes! for I have heard
You have found favour in the Sultan's sight.
I beg to be remembered with respect.
Zeal in the cause of God impels me on,
And all excesses are performed for Him.
Weigh that in kindness, then, most noble Sir!
But, tell me, was your case about the Jew
A problem merely?
TEMPLAR.
Problem! (He retires.)
PATRIARCH.
(Of the facts,
I must have fuller knowledge. I must be
Better informed; 'twill be another job
For brother Bonafides.) Son, come hither!
(Speaks with the Friar as he retires.)