The Heretic's Apprentice

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.

• Brother Cadfael: He is the herbalist monk at the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul; about 63 years old in this story.
• Brother Winfrid: He is the assistant to Cadfael in the herbarium, a young monk. He was introduced in The Hermit of Eyton Forest.
• Prior Robert: Prior of the Abbey, he is a strict interpreter of doctrine in this story. He is based on the real prior of that year.^[1]
• Brother Jerome: He is clerk to Prior Robert, and a man who likes to carry tales, while currying favour with the Prior.
• Abbot Radulfus: Abbot of Shrewsbury Abbey the last four years. He is based on the real abbot of this time.^[1] He shows his calm, authoritative demeanor and quick decision making in this story.
• Brother Anselm: He is the Precentor and librarian for the Abbey. He gave books to Elave in his time in the Abbey cell.
• Brother Haluin: He is the best illuminator of manuscripts at the Abbey. He was consulted about the beautiful box and the likely meaning of the dust of gold and purple seen by Anselm and Cadfael. He was introduced in The Confession of Brother Haluin.
• Canon Gerbert: He is an Augustinian priest in service to Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury. He was waylaid in the Abbey due to his lame horse while on a mission to Earl Ranulf of Chester from King Stephen. He is rigid on points of doctrine and who is permitted to consider them – priests or the laity.
• Serlo: He is a deacon of Bishop Roger de Clinton, travelling with Canon Gerbert as guide to this area in the Bishop's see of Lichfield and Coventry. He is a meek man with the unfortunate gift of speaking up at the wrong moment.
• Elave: He is the servant and apprentice in clerking duties to William of Lythwood, who travelled with his master on seven year pilgrimage, returning with his master's corpse to home in Shrewsbury. He is now 26 years old.
• William of Lythwood: Merchant in Shrewsbury. He left seven years earlier on pilgrimage to Holy Land; on return trip, he fell ill, died at Valognes in Normandy, nearing 80 years old. He was a friend of the late Abbot Heribert, the abbot who preceded Radulfus.
• Margaret: She is the wife of Girard of Lythwood. The couple is childless, so raise William's foster child. She is in her early 40s; mistress of their home near Saint Alkmund's church in Shrewsbury.
• Girard of Lythwood: He is the nephew and heir to William of Lythwood. He manages sheep and sells the wool clip for himself and others. Head of the household, he is a cheerful and honest man.
• Jevan of Lythwood: He is the unmarried brother of Girard, who is skilled in making high quality vellum from sheepskin. He is part of the household in Shrewsbury. He is seven years younger than Girard, just past 40. He learned to read Latin as part of his trade in vellum, and is an orderly and calm man.
• Fortunata: She is the foster child of William of Lythwood, about 11 years old when he left. Girard and Margaret raised her after her own mother died. She is now an attractive young woman who speaks out clearly, with a knack for good timing as to when to speak.
• Conan: He is head shepherd in the Girard household. He is 27 years old, and fearful of telling the truth.
• Aldwin: He is a clerk in Girard's service, trained by Elave before leaving seven years prior to story. He is an insecure man, doing work at the limit of his abilities. He accuses Elave of heresy, fearing Elave will be taken back to replace him in the household, and is in his late 40s.
• Hugh Beringar: Sheriff of Shropshire in service of King Stephen. He is about 28 years old, married to Aline and father of 3 year old Giles. Hugh was introduced in One Corpse Too Many. In this novel, he is a persistent investigator, with considerable aplomb in a dangerous situation.
• Father Boniface: He is the young pastor of Holy Cross parish in the Foregate, replacement for the late Father Ailnoth (The Raven in the Foregate), and an improvement, per the judgment of Cynric the verger of Holy Cross.
• Father Elias: He is the parish priest of Saint Alkmund's church in Shrewsbury, where the family of Girard attended. He is a man of conscience on the rites of confession and death, who was introduced in One Corpse Too Many.
• Father Eadmer: He is a newly ordained priest, who served as deacon with Father Boniface, He is the nephew to Father Eadmer of Saint Eata parish of Attingham, and last confessor of Aldwin.
• Brother Rhun: He is a monk who was cured by a miracle of Saint Winifred two years earlier on the day of her translation to the Abbey. He now tends her altar. Introduced in The Pilgrim of Hate, he is about 18 years old.
• Madog of the Dead-Boat: He is a Welsh fisherman and ferry man, skilled in every turn of the Severn River, and thus finds its dead as well serving the living. He works with Cadfael and the Sheriff to reveal the mysteries of the river when used in murders.
• Bishop Roger de Clinton: He is the Bishop of the see including Lichfield, Coventry and the Shrewsbury Abbey, and a supporter of King Stephen. He is nearing 60 years old and a real person in history. He arrives at the Abbey to resolve the heresy accusations hanging over Elave. He is reasonable and decisive in this novel.

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.^[2]

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.^[3][4]

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^[5]