The role had been formalized by Pope Sixtus V just a year earlier, but its spirit was ancient. The Church had learned a bitter lesson in the Middle Ages, when local mobs and ambitious bishops had rushed to declare saints—including a few figures who, upon later inspection, had lived shockingly unchristian lives. Once a saint was declared, it was forever. So the Church created an office of systematic doubt.
For six months, Prospero read the friar’s letters. He found a phrase in one letter that suggested the friar believed salvation could be earned by suffering alone, bypassing Christ’s grace. He raised the objection. The friar’s supporters argued it was a copyist’s error. Prospero demanded the original manuscript. It took three months to arrive from Naples. The original read differently—the friar had been orthodox after all. Prospero noted the correction without apology. That was his duty. The Devils Advocate
His job was to kill a saint.
