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supposed to give warmth to the rooms. Eadulf wore a scowl of annoyance on his face and he swung the heavy oak door shut behind him none too gently.
    Fidelma glanced up from the book that she was reading with a frown of irritation. Her book was one of the small satchel books, called a tiag liubhair , intended to be carried easily on pilgrimages and missions to far-off countries. She liked to read beside the fire and such small books could be held in the hand and were ideal for the purpose.
    ‘Hush! You’ll wake Alchú,’ she said reprovingly. ‘He’s only just gone to sleep.’
    Eadulf’s scowl deepened as he crossed the room to the fire.
    ‘Is something wrong?’ enquired Fidlema, suppressing a sudden yawn and laying aside the book. She could recognise the signs when Eadulf was annoyed.
    ‘I have just encountered that old fool, Bishop Petrán,’ Eadulf said tersely, dropping into a chair opposite her. ‘He started giving me a lecture on the benefits of celibacy.’
    Fidelma gave a tired smile. ‘He would, wouldn’t he? Bishop Petrán is a leading advocate of the idea that all members of the religious should be celibate. He holds that celibacy is the ideal of the Christian victory over the evil of worldly things.’
    Eadulf’s expression was moody.
    ‘Such an ideal victory would see humankind disappear from the earth within a few generations.’
    ‘But why did you get involved in argument with old Petrán?’ demanded Fidelma. ‘Everyone knows that he is a woman hater and that is probably the cause of his own celibacy. No woman would look at him anyway,’ she added uncharitably.
    ‘He does not approve of our marriage, Fidelma.’
    ‘That is his personal choice. Thanks be to God that there is no law which demands celibacy among the religious…not even among those who give their allegiance, like Petrán, to the rules and philosophies now accepted in Rome. There are certain groups in the New Faith who argue that those who serve and give their love to the Christ cannot give their love to a single, fellow human being as well. They are misguided. If there were laws telling us to put our natural emotions in chains, the world would be so much the poorer.’
    Eadulf grimaced dourly. ‘Bishop Petrán claims that Paul of Tarsus demanded the practice of celibacy among his followers.’
    Fidelma sniffed in disapproval. ‘Then you should have quoted to him Paul’s letter to Timothy – “Some will desert from the Faith and give their minds to subversive doctrines inspired by devils, through the specious falsehoods of men whose own conscience is branded with the devil’s sign. They forbid marriage and inculcate abstinence from certain foods, though God created them to be enjoyed with thanksgiving by believers who have inward knowledge of the truth. For everything that God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected when it is taken with thanksgiving, since it is hallowed by God’s own word and by prayer.” Ask Petrán if he denies that God created man and woman and whether marriage is made an honourable estate by him.’
    ‘I don’t think Petrán was disposed to discuss the finer points of the matter with me.’
    Fidelma stretched slightly in her chair. ‘I suspect that Petrán also disapproves of many things that we of Éireann do since he has spent some years in a Frankish monastery among those advocating and practising celibacy. The only chaste men and women are those who are unable to find love with their fellows and so they wrap themselves in cloaks of chastity and pretend they love the intangible, shying away from people of real flesh and blood. If people are forced to suppress the emotion of love for their fellow human beings then they certainly can’t have love for anything else, including God. Anyway, it probably does not matter to us what Petrán thinks as he is shortly to leave on a pilgrimage to the city of Lucca, which is north of Rome, where the Blessed Fridian of Éireann was bishop about a