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Chapter 24


“At least the play is over.” Father Hell stood there, contemplating the debris on the field. “I’ll have to get the students out here to pick that mess up. Then, maybe, most of them will be moving on.”

“Why don’t you keep them?” Carlo asked.

Paolo winced. Another Here, hold my beer, moment was coming. He could see it, like…an ox cart rolling down a hill.

“Keep them?”

“There was never any logical reason for there to be a university in Ingolstadt.” Carlo grinned. “The dukes of Bavaria created it; the dukes of Bavaria supported it, financed the building complex; the dukes manufactured just about everything about it, just like they did for the new walls: a spiritual fortress to match their material fortification. Ingolstadt isn’t Bavarian any more. If the USE and SoTF have anything to say about it, it will never be Bavarian again. It’s going to be their fortress facing Bavaria; not Bavaria’s fortress facing north. Duke Albrecht’s sons don’t have any connections there; they do have connections here in Amberg. Perhaps even some fond memories. Move the university to your Collegium before Duke Albrecht can get around to thinking a thought after the USE installs him in place of Maximilian, which it probably will, and moves it to Munich; have two major institutions of learning in Amberg. Have a competitor for the USE normal school. Attract lots of Catholics.”

“But the Collegium building here is nothing but a stub,” Father Hell protested. “The one in Ingolstadt is complete. There’s no place for a major university to expand in Amberg.”

Paolo though of his visit there. How Ingolstadt was arranged. “Get the USE Army to buy the Collegium in Ingolstadt. It would make a decent set of barracks. The town’s still going to need a garrison and the Neues Schloss is more suited to offices. That would solve the repeated quartering of soldiers on the town’s civilians, too. The soldiers can get their exercise running back and forth from one end of town to the other.”

“I reiterate. There’s no room to expand in Amberg.”

“There might be,” Carlo repeated. “If you could find different quarters for the normal school. And had money from selling the property in Ingolstadt.”

Paolo cast his mind back to his limited experience with Amberg real estate.

“Talk to von Dalberg. Where do the land titles stand in regard to the eminent domain that Duke Maximilian exercised to get this spot for you? Didn’t he take enough for a full-sized complex? If you can get the Superior General to back you—that means, ‘send money’ or at least keep what they get for selling Ingolstadt—perhaps you could buy up the rest of it the way you came to a settlement with the Richters for this bit.”

Which led to a discussion among the Jesuits.

“The architectural plans do already exist.”

“We would want some modifications,” Balde said.

One of the Ingolstadt contingent raised his eyebrows.

“Running water, indoor plumbing, sewers, electricity…” Balde seemed prepared to go on.

“Surely not central heating!”

“We could cite the model of classical Rome. The villas of the ancients had heating pipes built into the floors. There would be no necessary reason to admit to up-time influence.”

“It’s worth writing to the Father General.”

It was also worth speaking to the secular authorities—and potential secular authorities. Count Christian received Father Hell politely; his response was terse and noncommittal, with a recommendation that the issue would be better considered after the elections.

Herr Fuchs’ reply was not encouraging.

Von Dalberg was as noncommittal as Count Christian.

“I didn’t see you at the play.”

“I did not attend.” Von Dalberg did not seem inclined to elaborate.

Father Hell waited.

“I have no wish to see another woman burned at the stake, even if that woman is a straw effigy.”

Father Hell maintained his silence.

“At one time, I was convicted by my conscience of having, by an act of omission, been party to a grave sin. In repentance, I went to my confessor, who refused to absolve me on the grounds that the…action…had not been a grave sin, but rather a righteous act pleasing to God. He saw nothing to absolve.”

Father Hell remained quiet.

“With due respect, I remain unshriven and will view no more burnings. I will go to my funeral accompanied by Seneca, Cicero, and Marcus Aurelius.”

Father Hell had nothing to say.



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Framed