women from death, including the woman I now love. I have become moderately wealthy and can now help others,” said Alan thoughtfully. “The judicial killings I don’t really count as I was in effect acting as Caesar and imposing the penalties that law of the land provides, with little choice.”
“So good has come from bad, and nothing you have said is anything I would say to be evil or to endanger your immortal soul. But obviously they weigh heavily on you, more so than on any other soldier I have met, who I must say seem to be a fairly hardened lot. Why is that and why have you not felt able to be confessed by your parish priest?” asked Father Aella gently.
“I know that the Holy Bible states we must not judge others, but Brother Godwine is a nearly illiterate country priest who keeps his own mistress and probably helped my former steward steal from me. More particularly, he’s lazy and fails to provide properly for the spiritual needs of his congregation. The benefice is within my giving but I haven’t had the chance to seek a more suitable candidate,” said Alan with a frown on his brow. “As to the first part of your question, perhaps I’m not really cut out to be a soldier. I was an oblate at a monastery for several years.”
“Hmm… perhaps a warrior-priest, and by that I don’t mean in the manner of Bishop Odo! And given how busy you seem to have been committing what you think of as sins I’m not surprised that you haven’t had time to seek a more suitable priest. I think I know of a man at the priory who may be suitable as a parish priest, but whether he would consent to accept a benefice in a small country village I don’t know. Certainly he’s quite wasted doing menial work at the priory and could better do God’s work out in the community. He’s about thirty, intellectual, compassionate and warm, practical and something of an ascetic. You would be able to discuss matters of faith and theological interpretation with him- he’s much more knowledgeable than I! His name is Brother Wacian and he’s a minor assistant in the infirmary. If we go up to the priory now they’ll probably still be serving food at the refectory when we get there and then I can introduce you.
“What we seem to have is a Crisis of Faith, in that you feel overwhelmed by sin and believe that this means that you are damned to hell for all eternity. We British, including the clergy, are not as strict in our interpretations as the clerics of France. You speak in an educated manner. You say you were an oblate at a monastery?”
“Yes, at Rouen for several years before it was decided that my path lay outside the clergy. I wasn’t sufficiently devout in the observation of my duties and left before taking vows; to be more precise I was expelled.”
Father Aella gave a chuckle. “Rouen is known for the strictness of its interpretation of the scriptures. As a brief history lesson, the church here in Britain was founded by monks from Ireland, where the Faith had flourished during the Dark Times. The Blessed Columba founded the monastery at Iona in the Scottish Isles and preached Christianity to the Picts. Saint Aidan was from Ireland and established the monastery at Lindisfarne, and Saint Wilfred studied at Lindisfarne and brought the Word south to Sussex. Pope Gregory sent Saint Augustine to Canterbury, but the British clergy refused to assist him or to acknowledge his claim of supremacy over them. There was dispute between those clerics who followed the Irish rites and those who followed the Latin rites. The hand of Rome still rests lightly on her church in Britain- much more lightly than Pope Alexander would wish! Most of the bishops in Britain barely acknowledge the supremacy of the papacy.
“The position of many of the church here in Britain on the issue of sexual congress is different to that adopted in France and Italy. As you will be aware many of our clergy, including anointed priests, are married. The Ten Commandments contain no denunciation of sexual activity other than that of adultery, which you haven’t committed. The Blessed Saint Paul in his Epistles to the Corinthians wrote in Greek. He denounces fornication as a sin, and used the Greek word ‘porneia’. That word means ‘illegal sex’ or ‘illicit sex’, and usually refers to incest, bestiality and adultery. By our own mores that would now include homosexuality.
“God created the human body and made sexual congress between man and woman a pleasurable activity; he would not then be so ungenerous as to use that as a trap to damn mankind to everlasting torment in hell. The scriptures instruct man to ‘go forth and multiply’ and to marry. In addition to adultery and illegal sex, casual sex for the purpose of simple bodily pleasure is sinful. Sexual congress between a man and a woman in a committed monogamous relationship for the purpose of begetting children and with the intent that the act makes the couple one both in body and in spirit is blessed, although the formalities of marriage are preferable.
“Taking a mistress to assuage your lust was sinful, as was any other casual carnal relations you may have had. A joining with a woman on a permanent basis is not sinful, even though in the absence of the marriage rites it may be slightly premature. Do you know the Anglo-Saxon civil law regarding unlawful sexual activity?” Alan nodded in reply. “Then you know that the plaint must be brought by the man who claims to ‘own’ the woman and who claims to have suffered loss by her unavailability. The penalty is payment of bot or compensation to that man. Not even a fine.
“Even fornication with a nun brings a penalty of payment of bot to the bishop and diocese who have lost her service when she is driven out for breach of her vows! I would not condemn your priest who has taken a woman as a mistress, if he intends to have that as a permanent relationship and does not do so merely out of lust. When he was ordained he is unlikely to have taken a vow of chastity. Where I see the fault is in him treating this in a surreptitious manner and not giving her the respect that she deserves as his spouse. Brother Godwine may well have wished to marry the woman and formalise her position, but to do that he would require the permission of his bishop. You are from south of here? Then his bishop will be William, Bishop of London, who is a Norman appointed by Edward and who holds to the belief that clergy must be unmarried and celibate. If he sought approval for marriage it would certainly be refused. In those circumstances Brother Godwine may have deemed it better not to ask!
“But as you have sinned we must determine your penance. As I have said I do not view your sinning as great. I would give you as penance the requirement to provide something of spiritual value to your parish. I will leave what that is to you, as you will know its needs better than I. Now, let us away to the priory!”
They walked quickly up Brook Street and when they reached Carr Street Alan asked Father Aella to wait for a moment as he hurried to Orvin’s house to get a rolled parchment from his room before returning quickly to the waiting Father Aella.
They entered the priory refectory just as the monks were starting to clear the meal away, and each obtained a plate of tough roasted meat, gravy and vegetables, fresh rye bread and cheese, which they ate at a bare scrubbed wooden table, before Father Aella took Alan to the infirmary. To some extent it was like a home-coming to Alan, reminding him of his time in Rouen.
They asked the Infirmarer for permission to speak to Brother Wacian and went outside to sit on a bench in the courtyard to talk. It transpired that, while Brother Wacian was happy in his relatively minor position at the infirmary, the prospect of working to serve the spiritual needs of a parish fired him with enthusiasm. He seemed amased at the size of the benefice he would receive and the priest’s share of the village land. In their half-hour conversation Alan questioned him closely and was satisfied that the Englishman would make a suitable rector for the parish. Father Aella and Alan then met with the prior to make the necessary arrangements, before Alan asked Father Aella to take him to the library and introduce him to Brother Eadward the librarian. After performing that duty Father Aella departed.
Alan discussed with Brother Eadward the arrangement he had with Brother Leanian, the librarian at St Botolph’s Priory at Colchester, and showed him the parchment that comprised the inventory of the library at Colchester, which Brother Eadward promised to have copied and returned to him next day. Although the priory held no copies of Hippocrates’ Corpus, it did hold several books on Brother Leanian’s wanted list and Brother Eadward undertook to correspond with Colchester to arrange a suitable exchange.
Part of the priory’s income came from copying books and one of its main stock items was a series of Bibles of varying degrees of workmanship. Alan arranged to purchase an illuminated and well-written English copy of the Bible to take with him at the end of the week in return for a payment of thirty shillings, and which he intended to give to the parish at Thorrington as his penance.
The priory bells were ringing the mid-afternoon service of Nones as Alan, feeling happy with the various outcomes of the day, arrived back at Carr Street.
Wednesday was the day of the monthly Horse Market at Ipswich, held on the Common to the south-west of the city. Alan had to insist to Anne that she join him, as she was still quite annoyed with him at his choosing the new parish priest without involving her in the discussions. She wasn’t concerned about the qualities of Brother Wacian, nor did she disagree with Alan that no priest could be much worse that Brother Godwine, but it was a
