Gratillonius, as King of Ys, wants to preserve the Ysan Temples and, as a Father in the Mystery of Mithras, wants to preserve his Mithraeum but, as Roman prefect in Ys, has to confer with Bishop Martinus to appoint a Christian minister who will try to convert the whole city to Christianity! Martinus hopes that the minister will succeed whereas Gratillonius hopes that he will fail.
However, neither of them wants to appoint the kind of man who "'...provokes the people into throwing him out...'" (Gallicenae, p. 165) especially since both of them oppose the kind of religious persecution that the Emperor Maximus would then unleash.
The qualifications for the job: they need a man who is -
devout;
learned;
civilized;
virile;
familiar with common people;
wise enough to cooperate with the King for the common good and against tyranny.
And it is Gratillonius who can name the perfect candidate. Corentinus has the additional qualification that he is an old seaman and the Ysans are a seafaring folk. They worship the sea god, Lir.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I think, even as early as this part of GALLICENAE, Gratillonius was already becoming disenchanted with the Ysan gods. Even, I think, secretly hostile to them. I have a vague recollection of Gratillonius even preferring the Ysans be Christians rather than continuing to worship Taranis, Belisama, and Lir.
Sean
Sean,
He has inwardly forsworn Them.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I remember how Gratillonius' dislike of the gods of Ys was plain by the end of GALLICENAE, but not so near the beginning of that second book of the tetralogy.
Sean
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