S. J. PARRIS
Heresy
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2010
Copyright © Stephanie Merritt 2010
Stephanie Merritt asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
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Source ISBN: 9780007317707
Ebook Edition MARCH 2010 © ISBN: 9780007317684
Version: 2017-05-10
Table of Contents
Prologue: Monastery of San Domenico Maggiore, Naples 1576
Part Two: Oxford, England, May 1583
Monastery of San Domenico Maggiore, Naples 1576
The outer door was thrown open with a crash that resounded along the passage and the floorboards shook with the purposeful marching of several pairs of feet. Inside the small cubicle where I perched on the edge of a wooden bench, taking care not to sit too close to the hole that opened over the cess pit beneath, my little candle flickered in the sudden draught of their entrance, sending wavering shadows growing and shrinking up the stone walls. Allora, I thought, looking up. They have come for me at last.
The footsteps halted outside the cubicle door, to be replaced by the furious hammering of a fist and the abbot’s throaty voice, strained beyond its usual placid tones of diplomacy.
‘Fra Giordano! I order you to come out this instant, with whatever you hold in your hands in plain sight!’
I caught a snigger from one of the monks who accompanied him, swiftly followed by a stern tutting from the abbot, Fra Domenico Vita, and could not help smiling to myself, in spite of the moment. Fra Vita was a man who, in the ordinary course of events, gave the impression that all bodily functions offended him mightily; it would be causing