2005-05-04 A raven is a symbol of death and wisdom

RAVEN makes play with the dual role of the abbey church as the parish church of Holy Cross, which puts the brothers in the odd position of appointing a new parish priest when an incumbent passes on. The void left by the passing of Father Adam isn't adequately filled by the title character, unfortunately, a scholar ill-suited to being a pastor. This book explores the lives of the ordinary folk of Holy Cross, and just how much damage an ill-chosen shepherd can inflict on the flock.

I recommend the audio edition narrated by Stephen Thorne. The Jacobi TV adaptation isn't the same story.

This December of 1141, papal legate Henry of Blois must for the second time in a year call a legatine council - a mirror of that in THE PILGRIM OF HATE, now that King Stephen is free and the empress has been driven from Westminster. Once again Henry has turned his coat according to the fortunes of war - small wonder that Bishop Henry seeks to reinforce his own position with his abbots.

Abbot Radulfus returns from the council with a priest from Henry's staff to fill the vacancy of Holy Cross. In his wake, Father Ailnoth brings a housekeeper and her nephew, Benet, who is assigned to Cadfael as a lay helper, Ailnoth having implied that Benet might have a vocation.

Neither Benet nor Ailnoth turns out to be what was hoped for.

Benet not only has no intention of taking vows, but is inexperienced at the kind of chores Cadfael can use him for. However, he's a hard worker and has many virtues that appeal to Cadfael if not Prior Robert. Benet is, in fact, one of the many strayed young hawks of the empress' party to cross Cadfael's path over the years - a bit of a problem, deep in the heart of King Stephen's territory.

Father Ailnoth, on the other hand, seems fine in theory - scholarly, if austere - but serious issues arise in his wake in practice. Ailnoth's hellfire sermons and violent temper with boisterous children distance parishioners from the church. (Under Father Adam's tolerant regime, by contrast, the Foregate children used to play ball outside the priest's house.) Ailnoth measures all things by the bare razor of justice, without mercy or generosity - fine for a bishop's clerk, but not a parish priest, and hard to live with even in an ordinary land-owning neighbour. He doesn't even have a knack for picking his battles, having (for example) outraged the Foregate baker with accusations of giving short weight, rather than knowing enough to mention Jordan's adultery.

Jordan leads a delegation of parishioners to Abbot Radulfus. Even one of Ailnoth's good points - that he does his job conscientiously - has a dark side: Ailnoth wouldn't interrupt his devotions even to perform an emergency baptism. By the time Ailnoth arrived, Centwin's baby son was dead - and Ailnoth then refused burial in consecrated ground. Then there's the case of Eluned, a beautiful girl who couldn't say no to men. Where old Father Adam was merciful, Ailnoth said Eiluned was *not* genuinely penitent. After Ailnoth publicly turned her out of the church, Eluned was found in the mill-pond; fortunately the next parish treated it as an accident. (Eiluned's grieving mother later says that Eiluned had also defied Ailnoth, refusing to betray the father of her newborn daughter.)

As Radulfus says privately, getting nowhere with Ailnoth, "A man with every virtue, except humility and human kindness. That is what I have brought upon the Foregate...and now what are we to do about him?" The first sign of an answer is Ailnoth's non-appearance at mass on Christmas morning. Cadfael last saw Ailnoth storming along a frost-slick street, and sure enough, searchers find Ailnoth's body trapped under the ice in the mill-pond. Cynric, the old and silent verger, must bury another parish priest.

Benet soon finds himself hunted by Hugh's sergeant's for murder. Having tried to contact Ralph Giffard, one of the empress' former supporters in the district, Benet had found someone who'd lost too much at the battle of Shrewsbury to remain on the empress' side. Giffard had told Ailnoth of Benet's approach, and Father Ailnoth would hardly take kindly to being embarrassed by a connection with the empress after Bishop Henry's experiences, any more than Giffard did. But Benet, although an easy answer, isn't the only answer.

(Hugh Beringar, who could have found 'Benet' if he wanted to, is fortunately keeping Christmas with King Stephen, since Stephen needs to decide whether to confirm Hugh as sheriff - he's only been acting sheriff since DEAD MAN'S RANSOM. Once Hugh returns, the investigation takes another turn, as the fate of the empress' liegemen in Shropshire has become a concern of the king's for his own reasons.)

Cadfael's epitaph for Ailnoth is that 'no blinking it, the man generated grudges wherever he stepped. He may well have made the most perfect of clerks, where he had to deal only with documents, charters and accounts, but he had no notion how to coax and counsel and comfort common human sinners. And what else is a parish priest for?' Radulfus, taking responsibility for installing Ailnoth, pronounces the eulogy - well worth reading. Cadfael's quest for truth here is not for the sake of justice to the dead, but for the living - including Radulfus, who feels a double guilt over inflicting Ailnoth on the Foregate and on having brought him to his death, putting him in a job to which he was never suited.