Then there was the matter of St. Thomas' Monastery and the Religious Fund. Since 1830, for a 34 year period, Abbot Napp's monastery had not contributed a single guilder to the Religious Fund. This assessment of 7,330 guilders should have been paid annually by the Augustinian Order into the parish of St. Thomas, and thus onto and into the coffers of Msgnr Schrattenbach. Such a debt, which now amounted to 34,000 guilders, would normally have been intolerable, but Abbot Napp had been very adroit in manipulating the Ministry of Culture and Education, and the massively increased revenues that St. Hugh was now bringing to St. Thomas' parish more than covered the debt.
Bishop Schaffgotsche, however, took a different view, and, with increasing frequency, strongly hinted to his chief financial officer that he wanted all these situations corrected; Abbot Napp had to be made to pay up, St. Thomas' had to be brought to heel, and St. Peter and St. Paul's had to have an immediate and considerable increase in revenues. This duty fell very heavily on Msgnr Schrattenbach.
Long ago, at the start of his religious career, Josef Schrattenbach had taken a hard look at his future and what would be the correct path for rapid advancement. Some Bishops, he knew, had received their promotions by excellence in pastoral duties, others by being good teachers, but the hard fact was that the best way to become a Bishop was to have worked for a Bishop.
Being part of a Bishop's chancery was the fastest route to the red hat of a Cardinal, and that was the route taken by Father Schrattenbach after his ordination and his Uncle had written a few letters. Brno had been an excellent diocese for his purposes. Bishop Schaffgotsche cared little for pastoral duties, and even less about the day-to-day running of a medium sized diocese, and had readily agreed that his new assistant, Father Schrattenbach, be made the Vicar General. In this position, Father Schrattenbach acted as the Bishop's alter ego and exercised considerable administrative responsibility, and, as the Bishop's trust in him grew, more and more power. This was especially true when it came to matters of the purse.
But even the most disconnected Bishop eventually realizes what is going on in his dominions, and that was happening now. Increasingly Bishop Schaffgotsche's topic of conversation turned to money and his concern about how and where it was being collected. He also hinted very strongly that his favorite parish was St. Peter and St. Paul, and he wanted to see revenues there increase. If this came at the cost of St. Thomas', and, indirectly put more pressure on Abbot Napp to pay his dues, so be it. Schrattenbach had seen the gleam in the Bishop's eye when he had said this, and that had been the strongest hint of all.
After considerable thought Msgnr Schrattenbach felt he had arrived at a solution to all his difficulties. But to implement this solution he needed just the right person to act as his agent. He needed someone ambitious, like himself, he needed someone intelligent enough to carry out his plans, someone just unscrupulous enough not to object, but also someone discreet enough not to reveal his methods; he needed a miracle worker.
Slowly, he moved his hand from the papers on his desk and picked up the bell. When his equerry answered the summons he said, "Show in my next appointment" and sat back in his chair. From everything he knew, this would be the man he needed. Within moments his guest arrived and Msgnr Schrattenbach got up to greet him.
"Welcome," he said, holding out his hand.
"Good evening," said Brother Timothy, and took the offer.