World Without End

4

Brother Godwyn was hungry. He had eaten his dinner, a stew of sliced turnips with salt fish, and it had not satisfied him. The monks nearly always had fish and weak ale for dinner, even when it was not a fast day.

Not all the monks, of course: Prior Anthony had a privileged diet. He would dine especially well today, for the prioress, Mother Cecilia, was to be his guest. She was accustomed to rich food. The nuns, who always seemed to have more money than the monks, killed a pig or a sheep every few days and washed it down with Gascony wine.

It was Godwyn's job to supervise the dinner, a hard task when his own stomach was rumbling. He spoke to the monastery cook, and checked on the fat goose in the oven and the pot of apple sauce bubbling on the fire. He asked the cellarer for a jug of cider from the barrel, and got a loaf of rye bread from the bakery - stale, for there was no baking on Sunday. He took the silver platters and goblets from the locked chest and set them on the table of the hall in the prior's house.

The prior and prioress dined together once a month. The monastery and the nunnery were separate institutions, with their own premises, and different sources of income. Prior and prioress were independently responsible to the bishop of Kingsbridge. Nevertheless they shared the great cathedral and several other buildings, including the hospital, where monks worked as doctors and nuns as nurses. So there were always details to discuss: cathedral services, hospital guests and patients, town politics. Anthony often tried to get Cecilia to pay costs that should, strictly speaking, have been divided equally - glass windows for the chapter house, bedsteads for the hospital, the repainting of the cathedral's interior - and she usually agreed.

Today, however, the talk was likely to center on politics. Anthony had returned yesterday from two weeks in Gloucester, where he had assisted at the interment of King Edward II, who had lost his throne in January and his life in September. Mother Cecilia would want to hear the gossip while pretending to be above it all.

Godwyn had something else on his mind. He wanted to talk to Anthony about his future. He had been anxiously awaiting the right moment ever since the prior returned home. He had rehearsed his speech, but had not yet found the opportunity to deliver it. He hoped to get a chance this afternoon.

Anthony entered the hall as Godwyn was putting a cheese and a bowl of pears on the sideboard. The prior looked like an older version of Godwyn. Both were tall, with regular features and light brown hair, and like all the family they had greenish eyes with flecks of gold. Anthony stood by the fire - the room was cold and the old building let in freezing drafts. Godwyn poured him a cup of cider. 'Father Prior, today is my birthday,' he said as Anthony drank. 'I'm twenty-one.'

'So it is,' said Anthony. 'I remember your birth very well. I was fourteen years old. My sister, Petranilla, screamed like a boar with an arrow in its guts as she brought you into the world.' He raised his goblet in a toast, looking fondly at Godwyn. 'And now you're a man.'

Godwyn decided that this was his moment. 'I've been at the priory ten years,' he said.

'Is it that long?'

'Yes - as schoolboy, novice, and monk.'

'My goodness.'

'I hope I've been a credit to my mother and to you.'

'We're both very proud of you.'

'Thank you.' Godwyn swallowed. 'And now I want to go to Oxford.'

The city of Oxford had long been a center for masters of theology, medicine, and law. Priests and monks went there to study and debate with teachers and other students. In the last century the masters had been incorporated into a company, or university, that had royal permission to set examinations and award degrees. Kingsbridge Priory maintained a branch or cell in the city, known as Kingsbridge College, where eight monks could carry on their lives of worship and self-denial while they studied.

'Oxford!' said Anthony, and an expression of anxiety and distaste came over his face. 'Why?'

'To study. It's what monks are supposed to do.'

'I never went to Oxford - and I'm prior.'

It was true, but Anthony was sometimes at a disadvantage with his senior colleagues in consequence. The sacrist, the treasurer, and several other monastic officials, or obedientiaries, were graduates of the university, as were all the physicians. They were quick-thinking and skilled in argument, and Anthony sometimes appeared bumbling by comparison, especially in chapter, the daily meeting of all the monks. Godwyn longed to acquire the sharp logic and confident superiority he observed in the Oxford men. He did not want to be like his uncle.

But he could not say that. 'I want to learn,' he said.

'Why learn heresy?' Anthony said scornfully. 'Oxford students question the teachings of the church!'

'In order to understand them better.'

'Pointless and dangerous.'

Godwyn asked himself why Anthony was making this fuss. The prior had never appeared concerned about heresy before, and Godwyn was not in the least interested in challenging accepted doctrines. He frowned. 'I thought you and my mother had ambitions for me,' he said. 'Don't you want me to advance, and become an obedientiary, and perhaps one day prior?'

'Eventually, yes. But you don't have to leave Kingsbridge to achieve that.'

You don't want me to advance too fast, in case I outstrip you; and you don't want me to leave town, in case you lose control of me, Godwyn thought in a flash of insight. He wished he had anticipated this resistance to his plans. 'I don't want to study theology,' he said.

'What, then?'

'Medicine. It's such an important part of our work here.'

Anthony pursed his lips. Godwyn had seen the same disapproving expression on his mother's face. 'The monastery can't afford to pay for you,' Anthony said. 'Do you realize that just one book costs at least fourteen shillings?'

Godwyn was taken by surprise. Students could hire books by the page, he knew; but that was not the main point. 'What about the students already there?' he said. 'Who pays for them?'

'Two are supported by their families, and one by the nuns. The priory pays for the other three, but we can't afford any more. In fact there are two places vacant in the college for lack of funds.'

Godwyn knew the priory was in financial difficulties. On the other hand, it had vast resources: thousands of acres of land; mills and fishponds and woodland; and the enormous income from Kingsbridge market. He could not believe his uncle was refusing him the money to go to Oxford. He felt betrayed. Anthony was his mentor as well as a relative. He had always favored Godwyn over other young monks. But now he was trying to hold Godwyn back.

'Physicians bring money into the priory,' he argued. 'If you don't train young men, eventually the old ones will die and the priory will be poorer.'

'God will provide.'

This infuriating platitude was always Anthony's answer. For some years the priory's income from the annual Fleece Fair had been declining. The townspeople had urged Anthony to invest in better facilities for the wool traders - tents, booths, latrines, even a wool exchange building - but he always refused, pleading poverty. And when his brother, Edmund, told him the fair would eventually decline to nothing, he said: 'God will provide.'

Godwyn said: 'Well, then, perhaps he will provide the money for me to go to Oxford.'

'Perhaps he will.'

Godwyn felt painfully disappointed. He had an urge to get away from his hometown and breathe a different air. At Kingsbridge College he would be subject to the same monastic discipline, of course - but nevertheless he would be far from his uncle and his mother, and that prospect was alluring.

He was not yet ready to give up the argument. 'My mother will be very disappointed if I don't go.'

Anthony looked uneasy. He did not want to incur the wrath of his formidable sister. 'Then let her pray for the money to be found.'

'I may be able to get it elsewhere,' Godwyn said, extemporizing.

'How would you do that?'

He cast about for an answer, and found inspiration. 'I could do what you do, and ask Mother Cecilia.' It was possible. Cecilia made him nervous - she could be as intimidating as Petranilla - but she was more susceptible to his boyish charm. She might be persuaded to pay for a bright young monk's education.

The suggestion took Anthony by surprise. Godwyn could see him trying to think of an objection. But he had been arguing as if money were the main consideration, and it was difficult now for him to shift his ground.

While Anthony hesitated, Cecilia came in.

She wore a heavy cloak of fine wool, her only indulgence - she hated to be cold. After greeting the prior, she turned to Godwyn. 'Your aunt Rose is gravely ill,' she said. Her voice was musically precise. 'She may not last the night.'

'May God be with her.' Godwyn felt a pang of pity. In a family where everyone was a leader, Rose was the only follower. Her petals seemed the more fragile for being surrounded by brambles. 'It's not a shock,' he added. 'But my cousins, Alice and Caris, will be sad.'

'Fortunately, they have your mother to console them.'

'Yes.' Consolation was not Petranilla's strong point, Godwyn thought - she was better at stiffening your spine and preventing you from backsliding - but he did not correct the prioress. Instead he poured her a goblet of cider. 'Is it a little chilly in here, Reverend Mother?'

'Freezing,' she said bluntly.

'I'll build up the fire.'

Anthony said slyly: 'My nephew Godwyn is being attentive because he wants you to pay for him to go to Oxford.'

Godwyn glared furiously at him. Godwyn would have planned a careful speech and chosen the best time to deliver it. Now Anthony had blurted out the request in the most charmless fashion.

Cecilia said: 'I don't think we can afford to finance two more.'

It was Anthony's turn to be surprised. 'Someone else has asked you for money to go to Oxford?'

'Perhaps I shouldn't say,' Cecilia replied. 'I don't want to get anyone into trouble.'

'It's of no consequence,' Anthony said huffily; then he recollected himself and added: 'We are always grateful for your generosity.'

Godwyn put more wood on the fire then went out. The prior's house was on the north side of the cathedral. The cloisters, and all the other priory buildings, were to the south of the church. Godwyn walked shivering across the cathedral green to the monastery kitchen.

He had thought Anthony might quibble about Oxford, saying he should wait until he was older, or until one of the existing students graduated - for Anthony was a quibbler by nature. But he was Anthony's prot??g??, and he had been confident that in the end his uncle would support him. Anthony's flat opposition had left him feeling shocked.

He asked himself who else had petitioned the prioress for support. Of the twenty-six monks, six were around Godwyn's age: it could be any one of them. In the kitchen the sub-cellarer, Theodoric, was helping the cook. Could he be the rival for Cecilia's money? Godwyn watched him put the goose on a platter with a bowl of apple sauce. Theodoric had brains enough to study. He could be a contender.

Godwyn carried the dinner back to the prior's house, feeling worried. If Cecilia decided to help Theodoric, he did not know what he would do. He had no fallback plan.

He wanted to be prior of Kingsbridge one day. He felt sure he could do the job better than Anthony. And if he was a successful prior, he might rise higher: bishop, archbishop, or perhaps a royal official or counselor. He had only a vague idea of what he would do with such power, but he felt strongly that he belonged in some elevated position in life. However, there were only two routes to such heights. One was aristocratic birth; the other, education. Godwyn came from a family of wool merchants: his only hope was the university. And for that, he was going to need Cecilia's money.

He put the dinner on the table. Cecilia was saying: 'But how did the king die?'

'He suffered a fall,' Anthony said.

Godwyn carved the goose. 'May I give you some of the breast, Reverend Mother?'

'Yes, please. A fall?' she said skeptically. 'You make the king sound like a doddering old man. He was forty-three!'

'It's what his jailers say.' Having been deposed, the ex-king had been a prisoner at Berkeley Castle, a couple of days' ride from Kingsbridge.

'Ah, yes, his jailers,' Cecilia said. 'Mortimer's men.' She disapproved of Roger Mortimer, the earl of March. Not only had he led the rebellion against Edward II, he had also seduced the king's wife, Queen Isabella.

They began to eat. Godwyn wondered whether there would be any left over.

Anthony said to Cecilia: 'You sound as if you suspect something sinister.'

'Of course not - but others do. There has been talk...'

'That he was murdered? I know. But I saw the corpse, naked. There were no marks of violence on the body.'

Godwyn knew he should not interrupt, but he could not resist. 'Rumor says that when the king died his screams of agony were heard by everyone in the village of Berkeley.'

Anthony looked censorious. 'When a king dies, there are always rumors.'

'This king did not merely die,' Cecilia said. 'He was first deposed by Parliament - something that has never happened before.'

Anthony lowered his voice. 'The reasons were powerful. There were sins of impurity.'

He was being enigmatic, but Godwyn knew what he meant. Edward had had 'favorites' - young men he seemed unnaturally fond of. The first, Peter Gaveston, had been given so much power and privilege that he aroused jealousy and resentment among the barons, and in the end he had been executed for treason. But then there had been others. It was no wonder, people said, that the queen took a lover.

'I cannot believe such a thing,' said Cecilia, who was a passionate royalist. 'It may be true that outlaws in the forest give themselves up to such foul practices, but a man of royal blood could never sink so low. Is there any more of that goose?'

'Yes,' Godwyn said, concealing his disappointment. He cut the last of the meat from the bird and gave it to the prioress.

Anthony said: 'At least there is now no challenge to the new king.' The son of Edward II and Queen Isabella had been crowned as King Edward III.

'He is fourteen years old, and he has been put on the throne by Mortimer,' said Cecilia. 'Who will be the real ruler?'

'The nobles are glad to have stability.'

'Especially those of them who are Mortimer's cronies.'

'Such as Earl Roland of Shiring, you mean?'

'He seemed ebullient today.'

'You're not suggesting...'

'That he had something to do with the king's 'fall'? Certainly not.' The prioress ate the last of the meat. 'Such an idea would be dangerous to speak of, even among friends.'

'Indeed.'

There was a tap at the door, and Saul Whitehead came in. He was the same age as Godwyn. Could he be the rival? He was intelligent and capable, and he had the great advantage of being a distant relation of the earl of Shiring; but Godwyn doubted whether he had the ambition to go to Oxford. He was devout and shy, the kind of man for whom humility was no virtue because it came naturally. But anything was possible.

'A knight has come into the hospital with a sword wound,' Saul said.

'Interesting,' said Anthony, 'but hardly shocking enough to justify interrupting the prior and the prioress at dinner.'

Saul looked scared. 'I beg your pardon, Father Prior,' he stammered. 'But there is a disagreement about the treatment.'

Anthony sighed. 'Well, the goose is all gone,' he said, and he got to his feet.

Cecilia went with him, and Godwyn and Saul followed. They entered the cathedral by the north transept and walked through the crossing, out by the south transept, across the cloisters and into the hospital. The wounded knight lay on the bed nearest the altar, as befitted his rank.

Prior Anthony uttered an involuntary grunt of surprise. For a moment he showed shock and fear. But he recovered his composure quickly, and made his face expressionless.

However, Cecilia missed nothing. 'Do you know this man?' she asked Anthony.

'I believe I do. He is Sir Thomas Langley, one of the earl of Monmouth's men.'

He was a handsome man in his twenties, broad-shouldered and long-legged. He was naked to the waist, showing a muscular torso crisscrossed with the scars of earlier fights. He looked pale and exhausted.

'He was attacked on the road,' Saul explained. 'He managed to fight off his assailants, but then he had to drag himself a mile or more to the town. He's lost a lot of blood.'

The knight's left forearm was split from elbow to wrist, a clean cut obviously made by a sharp sword.

The monastery's senior physician, Brother Joseph, stood beside the patient. Joseph was in his thirties, a small man with a big nose and bad teeth. He said: 'The wound should be kept open and treated with an ointment to bring on a pus. That way, evil humors will be expelled and the wound will heal from the inside out.'

Anthony nodded. 'So where is the disagreement?'

'Matthew Barber has another idea.'

Matthew was a barber-surgeon from the town. He had been standing back deferentially, but now he stepped forward, holding the leather case that contained his expensive, sharp knives. He was a small, thin man with bright blue eyes and a solemn expression.

Anthony did not acknowledge Matthew, but said to Joseph: 'What's he doing here?'

'The knight knows him and sent for him.'

Anthony spoke to Thomas. 'If you want to be butchered, why did you come to the priory hospital?'

The ghost of a smile flickered across the knight's white face, but he seemed too tired to reply.

Matthew spoke up with surprising confidence, apparently undeterred by Anthony's scorn. 'I've seen many wounds like this on the battlefield, Father Prior,' he said. 'The best treatment is the simplest: wash the wound with warm wine, then stitch it closed and bandage it.' He was not as deferential as he looked.

Mother Cecilia interrupted. 'I wonder if our two young monks have opinions on the question?' she asked.

Anthony looked impatient, but Godwyn realized what she was up to. This was a test. Perhaps Saul was the rival for her money.

The answer was easy, so Godwyn got in first. 'Brother Joseph has studied the ancient masters,' he said. 'He must know best. I don't suppose Matthew can even read.'

'I can, Brother Godwyn,' Matthew protested. 'And I have a book.'

Anthony laughed. The idea of a barber with a book was silly, like a horse with a hat. 'What book?'

'The Canon of Avicenna, the great Islamic physician. Translated from Arabic into Latin. I have read it all, slowly.'

'And is your remedy proposed by Avicenna?'

'No, but - '

'Well, then.'

Matthew persisted. 'But I learned more about healing by traveling with armies and treating the wounded than I ever did from the book.'

Mother Cecilia said: 'Saul, what's your view?'

Godwyn expected Saul to give the same answer, so that the contest would be indecisive. But, although he looked nervous and shy, Saul contradicted Godwyn. 'The barber may be right,' he said. Godwyn was delighted. Saul went on arguing for the wrong side. 'The treatment proposed by Brother Joseph might be more suitable for crushing or hammering injuries, such as we get on building sites, where the skin and flesh all around the cut is damaged, and to close the wound prematurely might seal evil humors inside the body. This is a clean cut, and the sooner it is closed the faster it will heal.'

'Nonsense,' said Prior Anthony. 'How could a town barber be right and an educated monk be wrong?'

Godwyn smothered a triumphant grin.

The door flew open, and a young man in the robes of a priest strode in. Godwyn recognized Richard of Shiring, the younger of the two sons of Earl Roland. His nod to the prior and prioress was so perfunctory as to be impolite. He went straight to the bedside and spoke to the knight. 'What the devil has happened?' he said.

Thomas lifted a weak hand and beckoned Richard closer. The young priest leaned over the patient. Thomas whispered in his ear.

Father Richard drew away as if shocked. 'Absolutely not!' he said.

Thomas beckoned again, and the process was repeated: another whisper, another outraged reaction. This time, Richard said: 'But why?'

Thomas did not reply.

Richard said: 'You are asking for something that is not in our power to give.'

Thomas nodded firmly, as if to say: Yes, it is.

'You're giving us no choice.'

Thomas shook his head weakly from side to side.

Richard turned to Prior Anthony. 'Sir Thomas wishes to become a monk here at the priory.'

There was a moment of surprised silence. Cecilia was the first to react. 'But he's a man of violence!'

'Come on, it's not unknown,' Richard said impatiently. 'A fighting man sometimes decides to abandon his life of warfare and seek forgiveness for his sins.'

'In old age, perhaps,' Cecilia said. 'This man is not yet twenty-five. He's fleeing some danger.' She looked hard at Richard. 'Who threatens his life?'

'Curb your curiosity,' Richard said rudely. 'He wants to be a monk, not a nun, so you need not inquire further.' It was a shocking way to talk to a prioress, but the sons of earls could get away with such rudeness. He turned to Anthony. 'You must admit him.'

Anthony said: 'The priory is too poor to take on any more monks - unless there were to be a gift that would pay the costs...'

'It will be arranged.'

'It would have to be adequate to the need - '

'It will be arranged!'

'Very well.'

Cecilia was suspicious. She said to Anthony: 'Do you know more about this man than you're telling me?'

'I see no reason to turn him away.'

'What makes you think he's a genuine penitent?'

Everyone looked at Thomas. His eyes had closed.

Anthony said: 'He will have to prove his sincerity during his novitiate, like anyone else.'

She was clearly dissatisfied, but for once Anthony was not asking her for the money, so there was nothing she could do. 'We'd better get on with treating this wound,' she said.

Saul said: 'He refused Brother Joseph's treatment. That's why we had to fetch the Father Prior.'

Anthony leaned over the patient. In a loud voice, as if speaking to someone deaf, he said: 'You must have the treatment prescribed by Brother Joseph. He knows best.'

Thomas appeared unconscious.

Anthony turned to Joseph. 'He is no longer objecting.'

Matthew Barber said: 'He could lose his arm!'

'You'd better leave,' Anthony told him.

Looking angry, Matthew went out.

Anthony said to Richard: 'Perhaps you would come to the prior's house for a cup of cider.'

'Thank you.'

As they left, Anthony said to Godwyn: 'Stay here and help the Mother Prioress. Come to me before Vespers and tell me how the knight is recovering.'

Prior Anthony did not normally worry about the progress of individual patients. Clearly he had a special interest in this one.

Godwyn watched as Brother Joseph applied ointment to the arm of the now-unconscious knight. He thought he had probably ensured Cecilia's financial support by giving the correct answer to the question, but he was keen to get her explicit agreement. When Brother Joseph had done, and Cecilia was bathing Thomas's forehead with rose water, he said: 'I hope you will consider my request favorably.'

She gave him a sharp look. 'I might as well tell you now that I have decided to give the money to Saul.'

Godwyn was shocked. 'But I gave the right answer!'

'Did you?'

'Surely you didn't agree with the barber?'

She raised her eyebrows. 'I won't be interrogated by you, Brother Godwyn.'

'I'm sorry,' he said immediately. 'I just don't understand it.'

'I know.'

If she was going to be enigmatic, there was no point in talking to her. Godwyn turned away, shaking with frustration and disappointment. She was giving the money to Saul! Was it because he was related to the earl? Godwyn thought not: she was too independent-minded. It was Saul's showy piety that had tipped the balance, he decided. But Saul would never be leader of anything. What a waste. Godwyn wondered how he was going to break this news to his mother. She would be furious - but who would she blame? Anthony? Godwyn himself? A familiar feeling of dread came over him as he pictured his mother's wrath.

As he thought of her, he saw her enter the hospital by the door at the far end, a tall woman with a prominent bust. She caught his eye and stood by the door, waiting for him to come to her. He walked slowly, trying to figure out what to say.

'Your aunt Rose is dying,' Petranilla said as soon as he was close.

'May God bless her soul. Mother Cecilia told me.'

'You look shocked - but you know how ill she is.'

'It's not Aunt Rose. I've had other bad news.' He swallowed. 'I can't go to Oxford. Uncle Anthony won't pay for it, and Mother Cecilia turned me down, too.'

She did not explode immediately, to his great relief. However, her mouth tightened into a grim line. 'But why?' she said.

'He hasn't got the money, and she is sending Saul.'

'Saul Whitehead? He'll never amount to anything.'

'Well, at least he's going to be a physician.'

She looked him in the eye, and he shriveled. 'I think you handled this badly,' she said. 'You should have discussed it with me beforehand.'

He had feared she would take this line. 'How can you say I mishandled it?' he protested.

'You should have let me speak to Anthony first. I would have softened him.'

'He still might have said no.'

'And before you approached Cecilia, you should have found out whether anyone else had asked her. Then you could have undermined Saul before speaking to her.'

'How?'

'He must have a weakness. You could have found out what it is, and made sure it was brought to her attention. Then, when she was feeling disillusioned, you could have approached her yourself.'

He saw the sense of what she was saying. 'I never thought of that,' he said. He bowed his head.

With controlled anger she said: 'You have to plan these things, the way earls plan battles.'

'I see that now,' he said, not meeting her eye. 'I'll never make the same mistake again.'

'I hope not.'

He looked at her again. 'What am I going to do?'

'I'm not giving up.' A familiar expression of determination came over her face. 'I shall provide the money,' she said.

Godwyn felt a surge of hope, but he could not imagine how his mother would fulfill such a promise. 'Where will you get it?' he asked.

'I'll give up my house, and move in with my brother Edmund.'

'Will he have you?' Edmund was a generous man, but he sometimes clashed with his sister.

'I think he will. He's going to be a widower soon, and he'll need a housekeeper. Not that Rose was ever very effective in that role.'

Godwyn shook his head. 'You'll still need money.'

'For what? Edmund will give me bed and board, and pay for the few small necessities I may require. In return, I'll manage his servants and raise his daughters. And you shall have the money I inherited from your father.'

She spoke firmly, but Godwyn could see the bitterness of regret expressed in the twist of her mouth. He knew what a sacrifice this would be for her. She was proud of her independence. She was one of the town's prominent women, the daughter of a wealthy man and the sister of the leading wool merchant, and she prized that status. She loved to invite the powerful men and women of Kingsbridge to dine with her and drink the best wine. Now she was proposing to move into her brother's house and live as a poor relation, working as a kind of servant and dependent on him for everything. It would be a terrible comedown. 'It's too much to sacrifice,' Godwyn said. 'You can't do it.'

Her face hardened, and she gave a little shake of the shoulders, as if preparing to take the weight of a heavy burden. 'Oh, yes, I can,' she said.