After leaving Dr. Caldwell, Bryce and Damon again fortified themselves with additional nourishment before departing for the Sigma Alpha Tau meeting. After listening to the emeritus professor, both Bryce and Damon had things on their mind. It was, therefore, a low key phase of the day before departing for the fraternity house.
At the house, the guys found several pledges milling about. This reminded them of their own position last year, when a certain number of pledges had to be ‘on call’ during each business meeting to run errands for the brothers. Bryce approached Nate Hagan, saying, “I’d like to know how things went between you and Father Miller yesterday, if that’s not violating any confidences.”
“No,” Nate replied. “Most of what we discussed I’ve already talked to you about.”
“In that case,” Bryce said, “if you have no obligations after the meeting, can we get together for a few minutes?”
“Okay,” Nate agreed.
At the same time, Damon espied Tyler Rollins among the pledges. He approached. “You’re Tyler Rollins, right?”
“Yes, Sir,” the pledge correctly responded.
“I’m Damon Watson. Who’s your mentor?” Damon asked.
“Brother DuBois Kennedy, Sir,” Tyler replied.
Seeing DuBois, Damon called him over. “DuBois, do you suppose that this pledge of yours might be available for a little discussion after the meeting? Something that has nothing to do with SAT.”
DuBois smiled. “Well, always provided you treat him right. I don’t want a damaged pledge.”
“How about it, Pledge? Are you willing to have a little chat after the business meeting?” Damon asked.
Tyler grinned. “Always provided I don’t get damaged,” he agreed.
The meeting was not lengthy. The major topic of discussion was rush week, and the current crop of pledges. Most brothers seemed to feel good about those seeking membership. There was, however, a good deal of complaint about the lack of cooperation from the Office of Student Affairs during rush week. Curtis said he did not want to discuss matters which rightly pertained to the Pan-Hellenic Council, but that lack was felt at all levels. Dr. Dickinson was noted to nod agreement. This was some of the harassment he predicted when the brothers voted not to accept Campbell and Lomax back into the fraternity. Rejecting their bids to become pledges again, and rejecting that of Buck Lomax, only intensified the conflict. Rumor, as yet unsubstantiated, was that all three had a back-up position, and were being accepted in another fraternity.
During the meeting, Bryce and Damon managed to let each other know about their appointments for afterwards. Therefore, they were both going to spend time following the business meeting there at the fraternity house.
When the meeting broke up, Bryce saw Nate waiting for him. He walked over to the pledge, and invited him to join him in a beer. They both collected the sudsy, and retreated to a lounge area where they could talk in private.
“So, how did things go with Father Miller yesterday?” Bryce asked, once they were seated.
“Pretty well. I think I told you that, although we’re distantly related, I did not know him very well. All my anxieties were theoretical. I found my cousin pretty cool, actually,” Nate replied.
“Good,” Bryce said. “I was hoping for that. I know he was a great help to me last year, and in many ways your current situation is a lot like mine was then. You’re just retarded by a year,” he teased.
Nate asked, “Is it permitted for a pledge to sock a brother, especially when the issue has nothing to do with Sigma Alpha Tau?”
“Only when the issue has nothing to do with SAT, and always provided you’re in the right,” Bryce replied with a grin.
“I’ll bear that in mind,” Nate replied. “As to my session with the campus chaplain, we went over my background, and discussed the family tie. We agreed that a third cousin once removed was sufficiently distant that we could be objective. I discussed my relationship with Jason, and he did not blink an eye. He not only had your comments the week before, but had heard something about me from his mother.” Nate sighed, “He told me his mother knew me only as that odd Hagan boy with the blue hair.”
At that, Bryce broke out laughing, and could not restrain himself for several minutes. “Sorry, but that’s pretty much what you told me about how people in your community saw you.”
Nate grinned widely. “Not the first time I heard that.”
“I take it, then, that you and Father Miller got on okay?” Bryce asked.
“Yeah. You got mentioned a lot. He told me the same thing you did. When I told him the solution you gave me, he said that was interesting, but that was your solution. Now we need to work on my solution. That’s pretty much the same thing we decided, isn’t it? I need to make this thing mine if it’s going to satisfy me,” Nate summarized.
“Yeah, that’s the way I see it,” Bryce agreed. “Sorry I could not do a better job myself.”
“That’s okay. As you so smugly pointed out, I need to make this my own if it’s going to work. And as you also admitted, you’re not as good at this as Father Miller,” Nate teased Bryce.
“I object to ‘smugly,’” Bryce said. “As to the rest, after all, it’s part of Father Miller’s calling. I’m just an historian doing an amateur job as a counselor.”
Nate replied, “Bryce, I am truly grateful to you. I’m grateful for you forcing me to go to Father Miller. But I’m also grateful for your friendship.”
“Then let’s keep things developing. I’m glad to have you among my friends, too,” Bryce replied. “There is something else along these lines you should know about. At the reception after the baptism of Mike Sandoval’s nephew, I spoke with Father Fenwick for a few minutes. The topic of your blue hair came up, and when I told him your name, Father said he had a Hagan in his background somewhere. I didn’t mention anything more about you to him, but I thought you should know.”
“Thanks,” Nate said. “After starting with Father Miller, I’m not ready for another relationship with a priestly kinsman at the moment, but I’m not surprised. When I first heard his name, I suspected Father Fenwick might be one of us. Fenwick is another name common among the Maryland migration crowd in my part of the world.”
Their session broke up, and merged into the general camaraderie of the fraternity.
While Bryce and Nate were discussing things, so also were Damon and Tyler. A major difference is that Damon did not really know Tyler before this, nor Tyler him. He decided to begin with a little background.
“Tyler, I know we don’t know each other very well. So, before I ask anything of you, let me tell you that I was in your shoes about this time last year. Not only was I a pledge, but I was DuBois’s pledge. As I’m a brother now, it obviously worked out for me. How’s it going for you?”
Tyler responded, “So far, so good. I heard even before coming to campus that SAT was the fraternity, and I’m interested in the connections this can bring, as well as the companionship during my years here at U of C. I’m glad I was accepted as a pledge.”
“I’ve become pretty good at picking up negative vibes,” Damon observed. “Maybe I’m overly sensitive about the race thing, but I get no negative vibes from you, and that’s good if you’re going to be working with DuBois.”
Tyler smiled. “I had a black friend in high school. I also was on our high school football team, and worked with black teammates for four years. I got over the prejudices I grew up with before I got here.”
“Glad to hear it. But you grew up with racial prejudices? I don’t get any of that,” Damon said.
“I guess that just shows that people can change. My family are really prejudiced. I could never take my friend from high school home. It would have created a major crisis, which I was not prepared to face at that time,” Tyler related.
“I think,” Damon mused, “we’re getting to the reason I asked to speak to you.”
“I was wondering,” Tyler admitted.
“Okay. Let’s begin with the matter of prejudices. How do you feel about gays?”
“Same story, really. My family are strongly biased against gays, and something they call the gay agenda,” Tyler answered. “I guess I sort of left that behind as well. I was talking to a fellow pledge during the meeting, and he told me he was gay. It didn’t make any difference to me.”
“That great,” Damon said. “That’s the way it should be. Now, I think we’re ready for what I really want to talk about. First of all, I’m gay. I’m in a committed relationship with Bryce Winslow, so don’t worry. I won’t be hitting on you. But the thing is, Bryce and I share an apartment over on Belgravia Court in the house belonging to Dr. Caldwell,” Damon told the pledge. “There’s a carriage house which is part of the property, and it has an apartment on the second floor which is shared by two guys, Barry Miller and Sean Rollins. Bryce and I get along with everyone else in the building, but those two seem to be avoiding us. Can you shed any light on this situation?”
Tyler took some time before answering. When he did, it was a restrained response. “I kind of thought you were one of the guys at the Caldwell house. Sean is my older brother. I mentioned getting over the prejudices I grew up with. Some people never do. Being black is enough to explain the distance, but being black and gay is something beyond what my family could ever imagine. Don’t expect Sean to be a friend.”
“It’s not just me or me and Bryce. Those two seem to avoid everyone else there, including Dr. Caldwell,” Damon expanded his indictment.
Tyler hesitated. Then he obviously made a decision. “Sean and Barry think Dr. Caldwell is gay, too. They like the apartment, but they don’t want any contact with him or anyone associated with him because of that.”
“Hummmm. Interesting,” Damon mused. “I don’t think Dr. Caldwell is gay, but I guess that does explain their attitude. Thanks, Tyler. I don’t want to put you in an awkward position with respect to your brother. I won’t ask anything more.”
“Sean and I are not all that close. But thanks, anyway,” Tyler said.
On the way home, Bryce and Damon shared what they had learned that evening. Damon’s information was more immediately useful. They would simply avoid contact with Sean Rollins, and also with Barry Miller, who presumably shared his prejudices. They discussed how to relate all this to Dr. Caldwell. They did promise to share any information related to the stand-off-ish-ness of Rollins and Miller. Perhaps this was something to discuss at a future tea with the Professor.
Wednesday went off without a hitch. Dr. Anjot continued to discuss Molière, for whom he clearly had a special liking. Dr. Drake similarly continued to discourse on John Dryden. The only interesting thing in the campus mail box was a request from the Illinois Bureau of Vital Statistics for an additional fee to search for a death certificate for Ernest Watson. The campus box was in the name of both Bryce and Damon, but Damon seemed to be content to allow Bryce to check anything relevant, and let him know during lunch, so it was a fairly safe place to be receiving correspondence relating to Bryce’s secret project of tracing the ancestry of his partner.
In the afternoon, Dr. Dickinson discussed the conflicts between Henry II and his sons, but also spent some time on his judicial achievements, including the use of circuit judges to preside over cases, and the imposition of the King’s law, later called common law, over the feudal lords and their courts. While this was, of course, part of the same effort which led to the conflict with Thomas Becket, it was not the same in the minds of the men of the middle ages. While the Church clearly had a right to a separate existence, and existed independently of the King, the feudal lords held their fiefs as vassals of the King, and were under his authority. The distinction was precisely the point in the conflict between Henry and Thomas.
Dr. Dickinson concluded the class by again quoting from 1066 and All That. He read, “Henry II was a great Lawgiver, and it was he who laid down the great Legal Principle that everything is either legal or (preferably) illegal.” While the opinion of the class was divided on these citations, Dr. Dickinson was clearly enjoying himself.
The English history class ended at 3:00, but the study group did not meet until 4:00 because of some other commitments by members of the class. At 4:00 the group assembled in the seminar room in Filson Hall reserved for this purpose in the name of Bryce Winslow. On this occasion, the discussion was on the conflict between King Henry II and Archbishop Thomas Becket. Most of the students sided with the King. It seemed to them somehow unfair that members of the clergy get ‘special treatment’ with their own courts and laws.
Bryce pointed out that things were much more personal in those days. For one thing, one’s peers pretty much meant someone in the same social or occupational class. The lords claimed they could only be tried by other lords, so it only made sense that the clergy could only be tried by other clergy. The difference was that the king had no control over the clerical courts. The “state” was pretty much identified with the person of the king. It was only in more recent times that what had been the king became the state, and became identified with society as a whole.
Kevin Weatherington asked how it could be said that there was no capital punishment in canon law, when those accused of heresy were burned at the stake. Bryce was able to point out that one had to take into consideration the times. There were no burnings at the stake in the time of King Henry and Beckett. That began in the thirteenth century, and it began not by the Church, but by the state, or at least the secular power. All the governments of the West made heresy into a capital offense during that time. After a church court found someone guilty of heresy, that person was then turned over to the state, and it was the secular government which carried out the execution.
“Isn’t that kind of hypocritical?” Kevin asked. “After all, the church court knew the condemned person would be burned at the stake.”
“I can’t argue that point,” Bryce conceded. “I think it was hypocritical, too. But that’s not what was at stake in the conflict between Henry and Thomas.”
“What in your opinion was at stake?” Chris Robles asked?
“In a sense, it was freedom, and respect for law,” Bryce answered. “After all, Thomas was not making any new claims. He was merely defending the traditional rights of the Church, rights which go back in some respects to the Roman Emperor Constantine and the end of persecution of Christians by the state.”
“Oh, when Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire,“ another student commented.
“No!” Bryce immediately pounced. “Contrary to all the popular assumptions, Constantine never made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. What he did was end the discrimination against Christianity that had been part of Roman law since the days of Nero in the first century. He extended to Christianity the same rights as already were accepted as belonging to other recognized religions. And that included some of the rights that Thomas was upholding in the twelfth century. The right of the Church to regulate its own agents was part of that recognition of religion as something separate from normal political activity recognized by Constantine.”
“But that is completely contrary to the English way of doing things,” Kevin protested.
“Remember, we are discussing the twelfth century,” Bryce insisted. “I think it’s a mistake to read back into the Middle Ages practices and outlooks which may have developed later. If you’re going to claim that this or that is the English way of doing things, Kevin, you need evidence that it was the English way of doing things in the twelfth century, not something more typical of the sixteenth or the nineteenth century.”
“I don’t know why you’re in this class, Bryce,” Kevin retorted. “You seem to hate the English.”
“No, I don’t. My chosen field of study is English history, especially the history of the Early Modern period. I have great admiration for the achievements of the English, especially in upholding the concepts of limited government and the rule of law. In this instance, I think Thomas is more in line with the long-range traditions of the English than was King Henry, who wanted royal supremacy over every aspect of public life,” Bryce protested.
“You only see it that way because of your prejudices. You see everything from a Catholic viewpoint,” Kevin accused him.
“Would it be correct to say that you see everything from a Protestant viewpoint?” Bryce replied. “I could make a point that you’re prejudiced against Thomas because he represents the Catholic Church, and his chief backer was Pope Alexander. Maybe I just understand Thomas better because I’m also Catholic. And, by extension, maybe I just understand medieval England better as well.”
“The Roman Catholic Church was an alien presence in Britain,” Kevin asserted.
“Now that is a very questionable statement,” Bryce replied. “You are reading back from the sixteenth century split, and applying that to conditions in the middle ages, which I maintain is bad history.”
“The native British church goes back to Joseph of Arimathea, and was always independent of Rome,” Kevin asserted.
“I think you would have to come up with evidence to support that position,” Bryce said. “As far as I know, your first statement is nothing more than a pious myth, and a medieval one as well. But even if the first part of your position is true, and Christianity in Britain goes back to Joseph of Arimathea, that says nothing about the second part of your claim, the relationship to Rome. That’s something else you will have to prove.”
“You’re just prejudiced against the English,” Kevin reiterated.
“I really don’t think I am, Kevin. But I will admit I don’t think the English are in any way superior to other nations. They have their good points and their bad points, just like everyone else,” Bryce insisted. “Your approach is the one satirized by Sellar and Yeatman in 1066 and All That.”
“That’s something else I don’t like about this class,” Kevin asserted. “Dr. Dickinson is prejudiced, too. And I don’t get the point of citing this old bit of bias in every class.”
“Now hold on. You might not appreciate the humor in 1066 and All That, but that’s no reason to slander it. Remember, it was written by Englishmen. It is a take-off on the outlook of the unthinking English chauvinist of the early twentieth century. It was thought enough of to be reprinted by the Folio Society. That’s the edition I have here. The Folio Society is also an English institution devoted to publishing works of enduring value. Its headquarters is in London. In short, Kevin, I think you don’t know what you’re talking about, and are just reflecting unthinking biases in favor of the English.”
Kevin shouted, “No! You’re the one who’s biased. Everyone knows that all that is great and good in our society comes from the English past. You’re just part of the left wing efforts to tear down our past.” With that, he stalked out of the room.
The rest of the class was left somewhat stunned by this altercation. For a moment or two, no one said anything. Bryce looked at the dozen or so fellow students in the study group.
“Well,” he said, “I think that’s the first time I’ve been accused of being left wing.”
There was a nervous titter of laughter from the group.
“Look, guys,” Bryce said, “this got kind of personal, and entirely out of hand. This is supposed to be an opportunity to discuss the class and try to resolve any difficulties any of us have with the material, not a debate about religion or politics. If any of you think I’m imposing my personal opinions on the group, then let me know, and I’ll step aside and let someone else lead the group.”
There was no response to that offer.
“Okay, well, the offer stands for the entire semester. Now, let’s try to understand how the people of the twelfth century saw the conflict between Henry and Thomas, and not read back our twenty-first century assumptions onto that conflict. We’re supposed to be doing history, not propaganda, here,” Bryce concluded.
The remaining time went smoothly, although there was a wariness in some of the comments and opinions expressed. It would take a while to overcome that confrontation and restore a sense of camaraderie to the group.
When the discussion group broke up, Bryce remained in his seat, thinking about what had just happened. He was considering whether he should withdraw from the group. Was his Catholicism really an impediment to understanding the medieval past, as Kevin seemed to say? He honestly did not think so, but then, if it really were a kind of myopia which limited his vision, he would not think so. He would think just as he did, that he was attempting to be a good historian, and evaluate the past in its own terms. Maybe that was something to talk to Father Miller about.
As he sat pondering these things, Bryce was unaware that Chris Robles came back into the room, and took a seat next to him. When Bryce let out a huge sigh, Chris interrupted his musings by saying, “Come on, it can’t be that bad.”
Bryce jumped, startled by Chris’s presence. “I thought you left.”
“I came back. You looked so troubled,” Chris said.
“This conflict with Kevin bothers me. I don’t want to be imposing my interpretation on everyone else,” Bryce stated.
“I don’t think you are. And I don’t think most of the others see it that way, either. The only problem I see is that you’ve studied more English history than most of us, and you make decisions based on things we aren’t aware of.” Chris then chuckled. “And then there’s that book you and Professor Dickinson are so fond of. Frankly, Bryce, most of us don’t get it. If you want some advice, I’d say restrict it to explaining the references when Dr. Dickinson quotes something.”
Bryce chewed on that for a bit. “Okay, I can see that. Thanks for that advice. But I’m still bothered by the tensions in the class. Kevin is only the most outspoken. It’s like I’m attacking some sacred idol or something. I never experienced that in my other English history classes.”
“What were those classes?” Chris asked.
“Last year I had the Stuart period fall semester and the Hanoverian period in the spring,” Bryce replied.
“I think part of the problem is that by the seventeenth century the outline of later British development is pretty clear, but in the middle ages things could have gone in a different direction,” Chris proposed. “The critical turning point is the period missing. I’ll lay you dollars to doughnuts you’ll find the same tensions next semester in the Tudor period, and perhaps even more pronounced.”
Bryce considered that. “Yeah, I think you’re right. That explains a lot. Thanks, Chris. At least, this gives me hope that it’s not all my fault that the group is the way it is.”
“Come on, Buddy. Your partner is probably looking for you,” Chris said, urging Bryce out of his chair.
“Yeah, you’re right. How about joining us for something to eat?” Bryce invited, looking at this watch.
“Sure. If I’m going to be a brother of Sigma Alpha Tau, I need to get to know all the other brothers, including Damon,” Chris replied.
And so they did one of the things young people do best, eat.