Nothing more interesting as far as the situation on campus occurred on that Tuesday. After completing his class at 3:00, Bryce returned to the apartment, where he found Damon and Caroline engaged in experiments in the kitchen, so, after a barely acknowledged greeting, he retreated to the library, where he spent several hours working on his class assignments. About six o’clock, Damon summoned him, and the three of them had a fine dinner, the results of the collaboration of Damon and Caroline. In return for this collaboration, the guys listened to her talk about the latest goings-on in the School of Music, including a concert of ‘scary’ music which would be presented on Friday, only two days prior to Hallowe’en, which happened to fall on a Sunday this year. Everything Caroline mentioned, including a piece which involved a screeching sound like a fingernail scraped down an old-fashioned blackboard, was fairly contemporary. Caroline summed up her position, “I’m not really sure some of this is actually music, but it is fun, so you should come and be part of the audience.”
“Maybe,” was all she could get out of Bryce.
After dinner, the three students walked back to campus, where Caroline separated to pursue her own interests, and the guys went to the fraternity house for the weekly business meeting of Sigma Alpha Tau. Bryce did note the absence of the faculty advisor, and remembered that there was a meeting of the Faculty Senate at this same time. Under Curtis’ leadership, fraternity meetings seldom dragged on interminably, as described by a senior who recalled meetings under the presidency of someone who was never organized. As far as Bryce was concerned, the best part of the meeting was a reminder of a costume party on the same Friday as Caroline’s concert, which got him off the hook to attend a concert he was dreading. The only other interesting aspect of that meeting was Damon’s advanced warning to the brothers to be sure to get a copy of the campus newspaper the next day, as it had an article which would go some way to explain the peculiar activities of the team at the Homecoming game the previous Saturday. Kurt Bordenkircher, who was at his appointed place guarding the door, made a startled sound, but refused to expand, so the brothers were left in anticipation until the next day.
After the meeting, Bryce and Damon got together with their pledges, Roland and John Luke, and discussed the campus situation, including passing on the results of the conversation with Scott. John Luke confirmed that Ed Cuttlesworth might very well have failed a physical test. “He’s not the athlete Buck or Bick are, but I sometimes think he’s the brains of the group. Don’t underestimate Ed. I was in enough classes with him to know.” This also counted as the mentor/pledge meeting for all of them for this week.
The next day began in a very ordinary manner for both Bryce and Damon. In his first class, French literature with Dr. Anjot, Bryce noted that the student who had been so severely rebuked by the professor on Monday was not present in the class. It would be interesting to see whether he returned or allowed his snit to lead to dropping the course.
After Dr. Drake’s English class, Bryce was recruited by Mike Sandoval to assist in distributing flyers from the LGBT Club advertising the movie Breakfast with Scot to be shown in the auditorium at the Union on Wednesday, November 10. It was described as ‘a comedy with a message’ and went on to note that it was the only gay-themed film to win the approval of the National Hockey League and the Toronto Maple Leafs, whose logos are used in the film. It also won the Family Feature Film award from the Directors Guild of Canada in 2008. Bryce was impressed. Someone had done some research in putting together this flyer. Mike modestly took all the credit.
“As I was the one who suggested it, I figured I had better come up with something that might attract an audience,” he preened.
Bryce agreed to help distribute the flyers around campus between lunch and medieval England at 2:00, and again after that class for a while.
When they left the Stuart-Warren Building at 11:00, there was an electricity in the air. Somehow, Bryce just knew that the Wednesday issue of The Clifton Courier, the student newspaper, had hit the campus newsstands. He and Mike rushed to the Union, the nearest distribution point, only to be met by a crowd around the place where the campus paper was available. Usually, each edition was met with a kind of ho-hum acceptance, but this morning students were scrambling to get a copy. Trying to get close enough to snare one, Bryce got an elbow in his eye as another student flailed about, and dropped back.
Off to one side, he noticed Annette Rimbault standing with a very satisfied smile on her face. Even as he saw her, so also did she see him, and motioned for him to come to where she stood.
“Looks like you might just be popular today,” Bryce congratulated her.
“At least, my article is. No one knows me. I’m not getting mobbed,” she said with a hint of regret. “But since you kind of got me and Greg together, I will see to it that you get a personally signed copy, so you don’t have to take your life in your hands in that mob.”
“Oh, thank you. You have my eternal gratitude,” Bryce exaggerated, falling to his knees at her feet.
Annette broke into peals of laughter at that, but even that distracted the mob at the newsstand not a whit. As Annette and Bryce turned away, Damon joined them.
“You’re going in the wrong direction,” he said.
“No, our wonderful neighbor has promised me a copy without the agony of fighting the mob,” Bryce reported.
Damon must have looked hang-dog, as Annette laughed and said, “Okay, you too.”
They mounted the stairs to the offices of the student paper, where there was plenty of activity, to be sure, but not as much disorganized scramble as downstairs. Bryce and Damon got their own issues, and, as she promised, Annette autographed them.
As they were leaving, another student reporter called to Annette, “I think they’re entirely out of papers at the men’s dorms. If this keeps up, we may have the first known sell-out in the history of the Courier.”
Once again, Annette looked very satisfied.
Retreating to a quiet corner, the guys read the entire interview of Greg Lenihan, which took up most of two pages in this issue. All of a sudden, Damon jumped up, letting out an expletive.
“What?” Bryce questioned.
“I’m supposed to be in class now. And it’s that Political Theory class I love so much. I’d better run, even if Dr. Stevens gives me the evil eye when I come in late.”
With that, Damon took off at a fast pace. Glancing out a nearby window a minute later, Bryce saw him actually running across campus. But then he returned to reading.
About three-quarters of the way down the interview, Greg did a little teaching himself. He noted that he had run into some hazing from people who did not know their science. When asked what he meant by Annette, he responded with a very concise but meaty paragraph about how modern biology and psychology have pretty definitely proven that sexual orientation was a given, not a choice. He concluded, “I guess I have to forgive them [his hazers], since they acted out of ignorance.” Bryce could not refrain from vocalizing his approval with “Way to go!” as he read that. “That puts them in their place,” he added.
“Do you always talk to yourself?” his pledge Roland asked, startling Bryce.
Roland was grinning from ear to ear at Bryce’s little startled jump. He just stood there, as though expecting an answer.
“I’ll have to ask Keith if I was such a trial last year, when I was his pledge, as you seem to be,” Bryce noted.
“Who? Me?” Roland acted innocent.
“Here, read this,” Bryce said, changing the subject and handing Roland the paper.
A few moments later, Roland emitted a whistle, then said, “You can be forgiven for talking to yourself. This definitely is worth talking about. I just hope Greg doesn’t get into too much trouble.”
“We’ll have to keep an eye out for any signs of danger. This is just enough to provoke the homophobes into some ill-considered action,” Bryce noted.
Then, remembering something more important, Bryce suggested, “Let’s see whether we can find Dr. Dickinson.”
“Why him?” Roland asked.
“He’s the secretary of the Faculty Senate. They had a called meeting last night about the ‘Aryans Forever’ blog,” Bryce explained.
And so the two students walked over to Filson Hall, and up to the office of the historian. As they approached, the door opened, and a faculty member neither of them recognized emerged. Seeing them through the open door, Dr. Dickinson invited them in.
He chuckled, “I anticipated that your curiosity might bring you around to see me today before our class, Mr. Winslow. And you, Mr. Lyle, are you involved in all these nefarious goings-on as well?”
“I’m afraid so, Professor,” Roland confessed. “As you may recall from the fraternity, Bryce is my mentor during my pledge semester, and is leading me astray.”
“Tsk, tsk,” Dr. Dickinson uttered. “Not at all unprecedented that a pledge be led astray, but you do surprise me, Mr. Winslow.”
“Guilty as charged,” Bryce admitted with a grin. “I brought Roland along in the hope of hearing the outcome of the Faculty Senate meeting last night.”
At that, Professor Dickinson surprised the boys by breaking into a hearty laugh.
“Sorry,” he said. “I guess you have to know the individual involved. But I was reminded of the response of Dr. Wells from Business Management. When he was told that the author of the blog was a major in his department, he went into a real tirade against anyone who would write as ignorantly as the author of the blog. Before he was finished, I think everything from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Great Depression had been blamed on poor communication among managers.”
“That’s a novel interpretation of history, at least,” Bryce laughed.
“Yes. I’ll have to see about integrating it into my survey level lectures,” the Professor commented sardonically. “Oh, and you might be interested to know that the gentleman whom you passed as you entered my office is Dr. Henderson from the Department of Computer Science. He confirmed just now a statement he made last night at the meeting. This firm ‘Electronic Investigations’ that you had do the analysis is well respected as being especially accurate.”
“Did you tell him that it is really one of his students?” Bryce grinned.
“No,” Dr. Dickinson looked a little guilty, “I thought I’d save that bit of information for later.”
“What student?” Roland asked.
“Oh, didn’t I tell you?” Bryce asked. “It was Hunter Matthews who did the analysis for us.”
“And who is Hunter Matthews?” Roland persisted.
Bryce sighed and put his arm across Roland’s shoulder. “I forget you are a mere child, and were not around last year when Hunter assisted us with a little problem in the fraternity. He is a total geek, and totally reliable.”
Dr. Dickinson smiled at the interchange between pledge and mentor. But he brought them back to the purpose of the guy’s visit. “We did eventually get around to passing a resolution last night. It was delivered to President Rodes’ office first thing this morning by the President of the Senate, and personally handed to Rodes. In it, the Senate takes note of the blog and of the analysis tracing it to a student at the University. Although you sent copies to the President and the Vice-President for Student Affairs, we offered to provide copies to the President should he not have access, just to cover any effort to claim ignorance. We strongly condemned the ideas expressed in the blog as unworthy of a university student, or any educated person. We noted that the admission of participation in violence against the persons of other students was, in effect, a confession of guilt to a criminal offense. We then demanded that the University take appropriate disciplinary action against the students involved, and that the investigation into the attack on Peter Boyington, which remains shrouded in mystery, be pursued with the greatest vigor.”
“Wow! We couldn’t have asked for better than that,” Bryce said in appreciation.
“My uncle says he and the others have given the President until Saturday to actually do something before going to the Governor again,” Roland said.
“Your uncle?” Dr. Dickinson queried.
“Sorry. My uncle is Mark Castleman. He and Bryce’s father and Mr. Young, the father of Josh Young, one of the students involved in the demonstrations and who was injured, have joined together to put pressure on the school administration,” Roland explained.
“Yes, I am familiar with the name of Mr. Castleman. I simply did not know he was your uncle,” Dr. Dickinson responded. “We appreciate the public spiritedness which prompts them to assist us in this manner.”
“Well,” Roland grinned, “that, and they all have vulnerable relatives among the student body.”
“Gentlemen, I’m afraid I have other obligations at noon,” Dr. Dickinson drew the visit to a close.
“And I need to get back to the Union and meet Damon,” Bryce said. “He became so involved in the interview with Greg Lenihan in today’s Courier that he was late to his eleven o’clock class.”
“Ah yes. I was given a head’s-up on that by my colleague in Communications who advises the paper. A very articulate young man,” Dr. Dickinson commented, as he gathered his paraphernalia for his next class.
Roland also had a class, so Bryce met Damon alone. For almost the entire lunch period, he had to listen to Damon’s dire predictions of his immanent expulsion from the University and banning for life from all academic activities for interrupting Dr. Stevens’ lecture. Damon did tend to worry, and exaggerated just a mite. Thinking it might be good to change the topic, Bryce suggested that, at some time in the near future, it would be a good idea to get Josh Young and Marc Rimbault, and maybe Roland as well, together with their other friends, Mike and David, Jason and Nate. It worked. Damon immediately perked up, and began considering what would be involved in feeding nine hungry males. He decided he needed to consult Caroline, and had her on his phone as he walked to his Spanish class.
Remembering that he had promised to keep Josh and Marc informed of anything significant, Bryce sent them a rather lengthy account of what he had just learned from Dr. Dickinson. Then, he turned his attention to distributing flyers for the LGBT Club until it was time for his 2:00 class in the history of medieval England.
In this class, Dr. Dickinson discussed the condition of the Church in the fourteenth century and the career of John Wycliffe (1330-1384). Like all of medieval society, the Church was going through a series of crises at this time. Dr. Dickinson noted that the situation was highly complex, and involved many factors lying outside England, so the best he could do at this level of study was an inadequate summary. Beginning in 1307, the papacy was removed from Rome and established at Avignon, in what is now southern France. For the next seventy years, the popes lived at Avignon. There were seven popes, all of whom were Frenchmen, and all of whom were canon lawyers. As canon lawyers, they were more concerned with the institution and revenues of the Church than with her spiritual welfare. There were widespread abuses, especially in the financial sphere, with the papacy seeming more concerned with collecting taxes than anything else. This became even more pronounced after the disaster of the Black Death in mid-century. Wycliffe was by far not the only one to protest against these abuses, but was the most influential as far as England is concerned.
John Wycliffe came from Yorkshire, in northern England, but was associated during the greater part of his life with the University of Oxford. He began, and always remained, a critic of the financial abuses in the Church found in his day. But, as his criticisms continued to be ignored, he became increasingly alienated from the institutional Church itself, and some of its most significant doctrines.
At some time during the 1360s, Wycliffe adopted the doctrine of the invisible church. Although this doctrine had been developed by the Waldensians earlier, it is not clear that Wycliffe was directly influenced by them. He would not have said so, as they had already been condemned as heretical. Essentially, this doctrine held that the true church was not the visible structure of pope, bishops, sacraments, etc., but rather consisted only of those who were predestined to heaven. As no one knew who those were in this life, the true church was, therefore, invisible. Only those predestined by God for heaven made up the church, and only those were saved. Everyone else was destined for eternal punishment in hell. As a corollary to this doctrine, Wycliffe taught that sacraments administered by an unworthy priest had no validity. This was a revival of the ideas of the early heresy called Donatism. Eventually, Wycliffe also abandoned the doctrine of real presence in the Eucharist, a position which had also already been condemned, in this case by the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215.
By the mid 1370s, Wycliffe had clearly placed himself outside the accepted doctrines of the Catholic Church. He was summoned to answer for his teachings in 1377 by representatives of the English church, and condemned by Pope Gregory XI in that same year. But he continued to write and teach, in large part because of the favor of John of Gaunt.
By the 1370s, King Edward III, who had been one of the most popular and successful of medieval English kings, was entering his dotage. In his last years, Edward lost most of the English possessions in France. The efforts of his second son, Lionel, to impose effective English rule on Ireland failed. His eldest son and namesake, Edward, the Black Prince, was in bad health, and in fact died before his father. Two of the King’s children died of the plague. Edward seems to have lost all interest in public affairs. He and the land were under the influence of John of Gaunt, the third son of the King, and Duke of Lancaster. It was this John who was the patron of Wycliffe, seeing in him a valuable ally in his struggle with some of the great ecclesiastical lords of the day. In 1376, the Black Prince died, and in 1377 King Edward died, leaving the throne to the ten year old Richard II. Gaunt was then supreme. Hence, despite the formal condemnation of Wycliffe’s theology by the English church in 1381, he continued to teach and write until his death in 1384.
Wycliffe is seen by most scholars as a precursor of the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century. In several ways this seems justified. Doctrinally, perhaps this is most clear in his constant reference to the Bible as the final authority on all ecclesiastical matters. In 1382 the so-called Wycliffe Bible was produced, with Wycliffe himself probably the primary translator of the New Testament. This was not the first translation into English, but it was more complete than earlier efforts. It was a translation of the Latin Vulgate, as scholarship had not developed to the point that Greek and Hebrew texts were used. Another teaching which would be associated with the Protestants later was the supremacy of the secular power over the clergy, and the call on the king to take the lead in reforming the church.
John Wycliffe was officially condemned by name at the Council of Constance on 4 May 1415 for the first time. His followers in England were known as Lollards, and continued to exist down to the time of the Protestant movement two centuries later.
This connection of such matters as the plague, the politics of the time, and theology clearly laid out by Dr. Dickinson gave Bryce much to consider. Only an hour after class dismissed, at 4:00, the medieval England study group would meet, and Wycliffe was certain to be the main topic of discussion this week.
Realizing that he was in a vulnerable position, Bryce entered the study group with the determination to remain silent. That did not last very long. He found himself inserting comments about the general condition of society which influenced the events in the life and teachings of Wycliffe. He pointed out that Dr. Dickinson had mentioned that a number of Wycliffe’s ideas had previously been condemned by the Church, and so controversy over them was only to be expected. Finally, he said, “Whether the church dominates the state, or the state dominates the church, the result is not the result you guys keep talking about. One side dominating the other is NOT the same as a separation of church and state.”
At this point, Marc Rimbault, with something like a smirk at having grasped the sense of the meeting better than Bryce, pointed out, “Bryce, you don’t seem to get it. The goal is to reduce, and if possible eliminate, the authority of the Catholic Church, and any means to that end, including complete control of religion by the government, is acceptable.”
That caused several others to quibble with Marc’s analysis, but Bryce saw that he was right as far as the tendency of at least a significant segment of the students was concerned, and so he actually did remain quiet for the remainder of the meeting.