there will be punishment for those who fall away from the faith.
Yet we are not told that error will be punished with everlasting
death. And there be places in Holy Scripture which tell us that
'whoso believeth and is baptized shall be saved;' and heretics
believe that Christ died for the world. It says, again, that those
who love the Lord are born of God; and shall they perish
everlastingly? My son, the mercies of God are very great; from end
to end of this book we are told that. Knowing so much, need we ask
more? With Him rests the judgment of all mankind. He alone can read
the heart. Let that thought be enough for us. Whether the sin of
heresy is as vile in His eyes as in those of man, He alone knows;
we do not. Let us strive for our own part to keep the unity of the
faith in the bond of peace, and leave all else to Him."

As he spoke, Brother Emmanuel gently closed the book, as though to
close the discussion likewise; and Edred, looking up and round
about him, drawing a long breath meantime, suddenly gave a start,
which attracted the attention of his preceptor.

A short distance away--how he had got there neither of the pair
knew; they had been too much engrossed in their talk to take much
heed of external impressions--was an elderly monk, clad in the same
gown and hood as Brother Emmanuel, betokening that he too was of
the Benedictine order; and his face, shrouded in its cowl, was
turned towards the pair with a very peculiar expression upon it. A
sinister smile was in the narrow beady eyes; the features, which
were coarse and somewhat bloated from luxurious living, were set in
a look of ill-concealed malice; and the salutation addressed to the
pair when he saw himself perceived had in it something of an
incongruous sound.