The Raven in the Foregate

Summary: A graceless priest comes to Holy Cross church in Foregate and alienates his parish and is found dead, while a young man who came with him, assigned to Cadfael, is not what he seems.

December of 1141 finds both Abbot Radulfus and Hugh Beringar on the road. The Abbot is called to Winchester for a council to reaffirm church loyalties to King Stephen, now free after an exchange in which Robert of Gloucester returned to the side of Empress Maud. He returns with a priest, formerly clerk to Bishop Henry, along with his housekeeper, Diota Hammet and her nephew Benet, an apparently simple, unskilled young man. He is assigned to help Cadfael. Shortly after, Hugh, who assumed but has never been confirmed in the office of Sheriff, goes to a show more council with Stephen, his future uncertain.

Father Ailnoth is appointed to the parish of Holy Cross in Foregate. The former priest, Father Adam has recently died and was loved by the parish for his pastoral care, particularly the mercy he showed and the light penances he gave when the people came to confess their sins. Father Ailnoth is cut of different cloth and in just the brief time before Christmas has alienated most of his parish. Passionate but believing Eluned could not resist the enticements of men but came in genuine penitence. Ailnoth refuses her absolution, penance, and communion. Cast out from the church, she throws herself in a pond. A young worker comes pleading for Ailnoth to baptize his dying infant. Ailnoth will not come until he finishes praying his office. The infant dies and then Ailnoth refuses the babe burial in consecrated ground. He strikes boys with his staff when their play near the parish house annoys him. He accuses the baker, an upright man and known for his bread, of giving short measure, He gets into a property dispute.

Meanwhile, Cadfael has taken joy getting to know the lad Benet who works hard at all the tasks he has given with cheer. He quickly realizes there is more to Benet than was apparent. He’s a quick study with the herbs, and can be trusted to look after things in Cadfael’s absence. But he wonders, who is this young man, really? He notices when Diota visits not only his affection for his aunt but the message he slips her. He also sees the visit of Sanan Berniere from the house of local noble Ralph Giffard, formerly associated with Maud, and the instant bond that forms between her and Benet, who is plainly not cut out for a monastic life.

Christmas Eve is a cold blustery night signaling the coming of winter. Cadfael is out walking when he sees Father Ailnoth rapidly walking out of town, and Giffard unhappily walking back. He also notes clues that Benet and likely Sanan had been in his workshop during the latter part of Matins. Early Christmas morning, Diota comes to the monastery. Father Ailnoth never returned home. A search is formed and his body is found, out past the mill, with a wound on the back of his head.

There are a host of suspects who had motives to kill the priest. Hugh arrives home as newly confirmed Sheriff to confront this situation. He also has a task from Stephen, to hunt down Ninian Bachilar, a supporter of Maud suspected to be in Shrewsbury. Giffard, eager to put his connections with Maud in the past, announces that Benet is Ninian, from the secret message Diota had carried, and accuses him of murdering Father Ailnoth, who had learned of the young man’s true identity from Giffard. Father Ailnoth’s hasty mission out of town was to confront Ninian, who had been supposed to meet Giffard.

Benet/Ninian, with the help of Sanan has gone into hiding, but not before telling Cadfael the truth. In fact, Cadfael at points warns the young man not to tell him certain things. Neither Cadfael nor Hugh are convinced that Ninian is Father Ailnoth’s killer and play a coy game of turning a blind eye to what each knows about the fugitive young man and the woman who loves him. The discovery of two missing articles, not found with Ailnoth’s body, hold the clues to how Ailnoth met his end, if the pieces can be put together.

Peters makes an interesting contrast in the story between the graceless Ailnoth and the ways Hugh and Cadfael approach his death, seeking truth to be sure but without jumping to graceless conclusions, seeing all those who could be suspects in their full humanity. There is a commentary here about how law is administered, both in church and society. In Cadfael, we see devotion to God and in Hugh, devotion to the king, and yet both pursue very different paths than the hapless Father Ailnoth, who never had the chance to learn mercy. show less

In this 12th Chronicle of Brother Cadfael, Ellis Peters once more explores the fine line dividing justice and mercy. She often finds the line blurred but more often than not will shy away from legalism in favor of grace.

We find the rigid legalistic viewpoint embodied in Father Ailnoth, newly appointed priest to the church of the Foregate parish. Dismayed parishioners used to the merciful ways of the late Father Adam are among the many under suspicion when the "black" priest is found drowned Christmas morning.

Brother Cadfael, herbalist and amateur sleuth at the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Shrewsbury, England is summoned to apply his shrewd powers of crime detection made difficult by a close-mouthed populace.

At the conclusion show more of the case there are decisions to be weighed in the scales of justice and grace. Abbot Radulfus eloquently sums up the attitudes of the bearers of grace to a crowd still smarting from the injustices of Father Ailnoth warning them about thinking too highly of oneself and about judging others. "The company of the saints is not to be determined by any measure within our understanding. It cannot be made up of those without sin, for who that ever wore flesh, except one, can make so high a claim? But we, all we who share the burden of sin, it behoves us not to question or fret concerning the measure dealt out to us, or try to calculate our own merit and deserving, for we have not the tools by which to measure values concerning the soul. That is God's business. Rather it behoves us to live every day as though it were our last, to the full of such truth and kindness as is within us, and to lie down every night as though the next day were to be our first, and a new and pure beginning. The day will come when all will be made plain." show less

Six-word review: Unlamented sudden death exposes many secrets.

Extended review:

Brother Cadfael's twelfth outing as a medieval sleuth in monastic robes combines familiar elements: mysterious death, misplaced suspicion, disguised aristocrats, young love, and natural justice played out against a vast political field and a very small Benedictine one. Plot predictability, almost inevitable within such a narrow setting featuring a distinctive, knowable character, is its virtue as well as its shortcoming; the writing is, as ever, deft and elegant.

I continue to enjoy this series, but I think it would also do to let a little more time elapse between episodes to offset a cloying sameness. Just what I needed at this juncture, however.

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, Booklikes & Librarything and linked at Goodreads by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Raven in the Foregate
Series: Brother Cadfael #12
Author: Ellis Peters
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 244
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

A new priest is installed in the town [as opposed to being at the abbey] when the old priest, Father Adam, dies. Where Father Adam was an easy going, accepting man who loved his flock even when they strayed and was friends with all, Father Ailnoth is a whole nother show more matter.

Moving boundary stones, calling into question whether a man is a freeman or surf, refusing to interrupt his prayers to give last rights to a dying baby and then not allowing it to be buried in the church grounds because it had not been shriven, excommunicating a young woman for her wandering ways, beating the boys who he was supposed to be teaching, Ailnoth has turned the town against him. So when Ailnoth turns up dead, there are more suspects than you can shake Father Ailnoths ebony staff at.

The war between Empress Maude and King Stephen is still going on and their vassals fortunes rise and fall according to how things are going. One young man is on Maude's side and of course gets involved in the death of Father Ailnoth while falling in love with a local girl.

Cadfael solves the mystery. The End.

My Thoughts:

This is book 12 in the series. If you've stuck around this long, this book will not dissuade you from continuing.

I am finding that I am liking the historic aspects of the novel more than the mystery, as it gets boring with somebody “dying” and then solving who/why, etc. I am not a big mystery fan, so it helps keep my interest by showing other things.

I am getting a bit tired of “young man comes to Shrewsbury, gets involved in a murder in some way and escapes with the help of a local lovely and they go off to X to get married”. This young man, Benet, showed some real promise as a Class A Donkey's Head. He was an idiot and I was hoping something terrible would happen to him. Oh well, he wasn't the one responsible for Ailnoth's death and since he's leaving, I'm hoping I won't have to read about him again.

Other than that, this is a Cadfael mystery. He does things in his little herbarium, pokes around the scene of the crime, and solves things.

★★★☆☆ show less

Another excellent story in this superb series, Cadfael is right up there with the best of the sleuths. Well written and researched atmospheric descriptive intelligent storytelling, a clever mystery with surprises aplenty. Book twelve in the series but can be read as a standalone story.
Completely and utterly recommended.

The final joke was a little bit belabored, but overall I liked this one very much. Some mystery series become more unlikely the longer they go on - how many murders can there *be* in a small place? But I never get that feeling from this series, because every incident is so different from the next.

Pleasantly slow-moving evocation of life in the middle ages. Atmospheric, but not quite atmospheric enough. A simple quickly-solved mystery, not enough every day detail or character building to satisfy. Dialog is sometimes a little off, sounding stilted or contrived.