"James Alan Gardner - Three Hearings on the Existence of Snakes in the Human Bloodstream" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gardner James Alan)

blood; and there are no snakes in it."
One of the toadies ventured a small gasp of horror, but even a deaf mall
could have told the sound was forced.
Prosecutor ben Jacob, trying to be helpful, said, "You must appreciate
that the snakes would be very, very small."
"That's just it," Leeuwenhoek answered with sudden enthusiasm. "I have
created a device that makes it possible to view tiny things as if they were
much larger." He turned quickly toward Septus. "Your Holiness is familiar with
the telescope? The device for viewing objects at long distances?"
The Patriarch nodded in spite of himself.
"My device," Leeuwenhoek said, "functions on a similar principle -- an
arrangement of lenses that amplify one's vision to reveal things too small to
see with the naked eye. I have examined blood in every particular; and while
it contains numerous minute animalcules I cannot identify, I swear to the
court there are no snakes. Sleeping or otherwise."
"Mm." Septus took a moment to fold his hands on the bench in front of
him. When he spoke, he did not meet the prisoner's eyes. "It is well-known
that snakes are adept at hiding, are they not? Surely it is possible that a
snake could be concealed behind... behind these other minute animalcules you
mention."
"A legion of serpents," Leeuwenhoek said stubbornly. "That's what the
text said. A legion of serpents in every drop of blood. Surely they couldn't
all find a place to hide; and I have spent hundreds of hours searching,
Your Holiness. Days and weeks and months."
"Mm."
Troublesome to admit, Septus didn't doubt the man. The Patriarch had
scanned the skies with an excellent telescope, and had seen a universe of
unexpected wonders -- mountains on the moon, hair on the sun, rings around the
planet Cronus. He could well believe Leeuwenhoek's magnifier would reveal
similar surprises... even if it didn't show serpents in the bloodstream. The
serpents were merely a parable anyway; who could doubt it? Blessed Mary often
spoke in poetic language that every educated person recognized as symbolic
rather than factual.
Unfortunately, the church was not composed of educated persons. No
matter how sophisticated the clergy might be, parishioners came from humbler
stock. Snakes in the blood? If that's what Mary said, it must be true; and
heaven help a Patriarch who took a less dogmatic stance. The bedrock of the
church was Authority: ecclesiastic authority, scriptural authority. If Septus
publicly allowed that some doctrines could be interpreted as mere symbolism --
that a fundamental teaching was metaphor, not literal fact -- well, all it
took was a single hole in a wineskin for everything to leak out.
On the other hand, truth was truth. If there were no snakes, there were
no snakes. God made the world and all the people in it; if the Creator chose
to fashion human lifeblood a certain way, it was the duty of Mother Church to
accept and praise Him for it. Clinging to a lie in order to preserve one's
authority was worse than mere cowardice; it was the most damning blasphemy.
Septus looked at Leeuwenhoek, standing handcuffed in the dock. A living
man with a living soul; and with one word, Septus could have him executed as a
purveyor of falsehood. But where did the falsehood truly he?
"This case cannot be decided today," Septus announced. "Mother Church