Summary and Analysis: Part 2 (Fiat Lux), Chapters 21-23
Summary
Taddeo is spending his tenth week at the abbey when a messenger brings news that Laredo has demanded that Texarkana remove its troops. The King was poisoned the night he made that demand, and Laredo and Texarkana went to war. Hannegan II, the ruler of Texarkana, has won the war. Additionally, he had Apollo tortured and killed, and the Church responded by putting Texarkana under interdict, a condition in which Texarkana citizens could not receive communion. Taddeo converses about this with Dom Paulo but warns that New Rome should not idly threaten Hannegan II. A chill settles over relations between Taddeo’s party and the abbey.
The abbey’s neighbor village, Sandy Bowitts, asks the abbey if the...
(The entire section is 1069 words.)