1989 novel by Ellis Peters
The Heretic's Apprentice is a medieval mystery novel by Ellis Peters set in June 1143. It is the 16th novel in the Cadfael Chronicles and was first published in 1989.
A returning pilgrim from the Holy Land brings a dowry gift and mind fresh with ideas, leading to charges of heresy and a murder in his household, at the time for celebrating the translation of Saint Winifred's bones to Shrewsbury Abbey. Brother Cadfael, Abbot Radulfus, and Sheriff Hugh Beringar work together to find the murderer, and more difficult, the motive for murder. Bishop Roger de Clinton and an Augustinian canon of the Archbishop of Canterbury bring out the challenge of deciphering true religious belief from heresy, on the border with Wales in the midsummer days of 1143.
Plot summary.
The story takes place from 19 to 27 June 1143.
Just across the Channel, so close to home, William of Lythwood dies after a seven-year pilgrimage to the Holy Land. His servant Elave carries his master's body back home to Shrewsbury, straight to the Abbey where the funeral will take place. Elave shares the sad news with William's wool- and vellum-trading household in town, and delivers the dowry gift meant for Fortunata, his foster daughter. Not all the household is happy to see Elave return to town. Aldwin, his insecure replacement for the clerking work, charges Elave with heresy, charges taken all too seriously by a visiting Augustinian canon from the Archbishop of Canterbury. Abbot Radulfus handles this issue with due seriousness, but with a cooler head than the peremptory canon.
Once aware that his job is in no way threatened by Elave, Aldwin leaves to recant his charges at the Abbey. His body is found in the river next morning by Cadfael. Sheriff Hugh Beringar and Madog of the Dead Boat join to hunt for the killer. Elave is surprised by Fortunata, grown beautiful while he was away. Others in the household are taken more by the new dowry unseen in a magnificent box. Fortunata, drawn into the testimony about the supposed heresies, is drawn also to Elave. For his safety from the canon, Elave is held in a solitary cell in the Abbey, now a suspect of both heresy and murder.
Girard of Lythwood returns home, gone just a week to get the local wool clip ready to sell, to learn all the changes at once: his uncle home from his pilgrimage but dead and buried; his clerk murdered; his head shepherd Conan taken by the Sheriff; Elave home and suspected. He opens the box with Fortunata's dowry, finding 570 silver pennies. Father Elias will not bury Aldwin until he knows he confessed and was absolved. Aldwin confessed to Father Eadmer, replacing Father Boniface on the festival day; this settles his burial in blessed ground, and removes guilt of his murder from Elave due to the time of Aldwin's encounter with Father Eadmer, during Vespers.
The beautiful old box comes to the Abbey in a failed appeal to use its contents as bail for Elave. Brother Anselm examines the box, noting its likely use to hold a valuable book. Elave and Brother Cadfael have their first chance to hear and hold it since Elave arrived five days earlier, both aware it has changed in sound and weight. Cadfael and Hugh ask Conan more questions about the night before William's funeral before Hugh releases him, free of suspicion of Aldwin's murder. Cadfael seeks a motive for the murder of Aldwin. Fortunata gives her Uncle Jevan the box, in hopes she will learn the original contents. Cadfael and Hugh seek Fortunata, fearing for her safety. Jevan heads to his workshop near Frankwell when he notices the key to it is missing at home. Fortunata is searching his workshop for the missing box, thoroughly but without success.
Jevan faces Fortunata, slowly confessing how he killed Aldwin, believing (wrongly) that Aldwin had seen the contents of the box, as Jevan had, before Girard returned. He covets that ancient book. But he loves his niece; he is frozen in indecision, while Fortunata believes he will not kill her. Hugh and Cadfael arrive. Hugh calls to Jevan, with his good news of Conan. Jevan slips a knife up his sleeve as he grabs Fortunata close to him. Hugh sees it, as does Elave, arriving by foot from the Abbey. With tensions high, all in this scene act as normal, to part Jevan and his niece.
Unseen by the others, Elave sets fire to the workshop to make Jevan free Fortunata. Jevan runs into the blaze to fetch his prize from the thatched roof. On fire himself, he runs to the river, but cannot swim, holding the box with both hands.
Bishop Roger de Clinton arrives at the Abbey to resolve Elave's case. It is heard the next morning. Though not to Canon Gerbert's satisfaction, the Bishop calmly questions Elave, deciding that there is no heretic before him. The canon proceeds on his errand to Earl Ranulf, now home again in Chester.
Hugh arrives to tell them Jevan's body was found, and lays the well-wrapped package on the table in front of Anselm. Fortunata wishes it opened before witnesses. The beautiful box and its contents are unharmed by fire or river. The true dowry for Fortunata is a psalter, a gift from Otto I to his son's wife Theofanu in honour of their marriage in 972, nearly two centuries earlier, a magnificent melding of art styles from the East and the West. Diarmaid, an Irish monk of Saint Gall, inscribed it. In awe of the beauty of its images of King David, illuminations, and colours, all declare it beyond price. Fortunata considers her dowry gift carefully, choosing to give it to her Bishop, Roger de Clinton, for the diocesan library. He says he cannot pay her near its value. She has money for it already, and the best gift that William sent her was Elave.
The Bishop returns to Coventry with his gift. The bereaved family of Girard of Lythwood begins to heal its wounds and start life anew.
Reviews.
Kirkus Reviews had strong praise for the literary style of the writing, as well as the plot's base in daily life and human ways.
It's the summer of 1143 in Shrewsbury, England, and, at its Benedictine Abbey, Brother Cadfael, one-time adventurer, continues to tend his herbarium and bring his worldliness, warmth, and detecting skills to bear when needed (The Rose Rent, etc.). Sturdy, sensible young Elave, attendant for seven years of pilgrimage to William of Lythwood, has come home, bringing with him William's body and a dowry for his ward, Fortunata, in the form of a locked, ornate box. The old man is buried at the Abbey, as he wished, after some doubts about his worthiness are raised by Canon Gerbert, an important visiting cleric with rigid views on church dogma. In the meantime, Elave finds William's household much as he left it, with nephew Girard in charge of his uncle's sheepherding and wool-trading interests; the vellum workshop run by nephew Jevan; the bookkeeping, once done by Elave, now in the hands of slower-witted Aldwin; domestic chores done by Girard's wife Margaret and Fortunata, grown into handsome womanhood. Within days, Aldwin's baseless fears for his job and home escalate some careless talk by Elave into a charge of heresy brought before the Abbey hierarchy. While Elave awaits a verdict, Aldwin's body is discovered, stabbed in the back, and he becomes a major suspect. Sheriff Hugh Beringer and Cadfael work hard to find proof of Elave's innocence, and they succeed, uncovering too a forceful motive for the murder, connected with Fortunata's dowry. The major elements in the steady stream of Peters' novels don't change—plots that make psychological sense; a vivid window on the everyday life of another age; a touch of romance; a happy ending with justice served, and a fine, literate style. Not for every taste, but Brother Cadfael's legion of fans will celebrate once again.
"Publishers Weekly" finds this one of the best in the series:
Brother Cadfael, 12th-century herbalist, sleuth and sometime cupid, outdoes himself in this, his 16th chronicle, in which Peters imbues the familiar territory of murder, young love and odious villainry with fresh vigor and new subtleties. Elave, young clerk to William of Lythwood, returns from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with his elderly master's body. His missions are to bury William in his home abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul, and to deliver a dowry to William's adopted daughter Fortunata. But Elave, suspected of harbouring views inimical to church doctrine, is held for ecclesiastical trial. And when Aldwin, the Lythwood family clerk hired in Elave's absence, is stabbed to death, Elave is incarcerated not only for heresy, but for murder. Fortunata's dowry, an intricately carved box with mysterious contents, holds the key to the mysteries that spring up around Elave and the Lythwood family. Shrewd and patient, Brother Cadfael is at his best here.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Magill Book Reviews is positive towards the novel, in particular how it weaves the elements of twelfth century life for historical fiction at its best:
Elave plays into the hands of his enemies when he reveals in an unguarded moment religious convictions which appear to verge on heresy. Moreover, when Aldwin is killed subsequent to laying an accusation of heresy against Elave, the young man's future seems short indeed. Brother Cadfael, however, is convinced that Elave is innocent of both heresy and murder. With the help of Hugh Beringer, the local sheriff, the identity of the murderer is revealed, justice is properly rendered, the charge of heresy is disproved, and Fortunata and Elave are engaged to marry.
Ellis Peters is quite familiar with the circumstances of twelfth century England. She is equally at home with what was then contemporary theological speculation. Accordingly, THE HERETIC'S APPRENTICE represents a fruitful marriage of a plot which could easily occur in any period with historical fiction at its best. Those familiar with Brother Cadfael will not be disappointed, and newcomers to the series would be encouraged to forage further.
(The Mysterious Press, 1990, 186 pages, $16.95).
By J.K. Sweeney
Setting in history.
The story takes place in Shrewsbury Abbey. The site past Frankwell along the River Severn is a real location. Then Frankwell was outside the walls of Shrewsbury, considered a suburb.
Brother Cadfael sought young Father Eadmer at his uncle's home in Attingham. That is a real place about four miles to the southeast of Shrewsbury, near Attingham Park, not far from Wroxeter (mentioned in "The Hermit of Eyton Forest", an earlier novel in the series).
The time was the Anarchy in England, when King Stephen was challenged by his cousin Empress Maud for the crown. In 1143, fighting was not near Shrewsbury; but King Stephen was acting to strengthen his connections with the border lords like Earl Ranulf of Chester. Young Henry Plantagenet, son of Empress Maud with her second husband, Geoffery of Anjou was in Bristol, age 10, taking lessons and spending time with his mother and uncle. That young man would become Henry II, succeeding King Stephen. Geoffrey spent his time keeping the holdings in Anjou and Normandy, never joining his wife to gain her the crown of England.
Pilgrimages and monasteries.
Travel to pilgrimage sites rose steadily through the 12th century. There were many locations on the continent and in the British isles, but the ultimate destination for the European pilgrim was the Holy Land. A map of the Holy Land between the First and Second Crusades (in 1135) shows Edessa and the county of Tripoli, on either side of Antioch, and north of Jerusalem. Antioch is where Cadfael began and ended his own stay in the Holy Land years before, and where he met Mariam.
In this novel, William of Lythwood purchased the psalter from people fleeing Edessa, who he met in Tripoli. [Near modern-day Tripoli in Lebanon, as shown on the adjacent map.]
Pilgrims walked on land. Travel across the Mediterranean Sea may have been faster, but was equally hazardous and not very comfortable. The journey of William and his servant Elave was overland to the Holy Land, then used ships for the return to the Continent and then England. They stopped at other major sites, including Rome. Their journey was seven years duration, and nearly home, in France, William became ill in April 1142 and died about a year