The Devil’s Novice

The Devil’s Novice (1983) Ellis Peters

Set in England in 1140.

The 8th Brother Cadfael mystery beings with a discussion of taking on of two oblates–youth given by their father’s to the abbey. One youth is an infant, the other an older teen.

It’s a reminder of just how different things were that the idea of giving an infant or young child to the church without their having any say in the matter is shocking to the modern reader, but merely seen as a bad idea by brothers by Cadfael.

To be clear, this isn’t just giving a child to the church to be educated, but giving the child to be a brother, before they might have any thoughts or feelings in the matter.

“I am not easy in my mind about accepting any more such oblates, when they can have no conception of what they are being offered or, indeed, of what they are being deprived. It is joy,” said Radulfus, “to open the doors to a truly committed heart and mind, but the mind of a child barely out of nurse belongs with his toys, and the comfort of his mother’s lap.”

The young man who is taken by the abbey is soon to be discovered to be somewhat disturbed in the balance of his mind, suffering nightmares and waking those around him with his night terrors. These things lead the older brothers to be suspicious of him, and the other novice to fear him, calling him the Devil’s Novice.

Into this comes a tale of a missing a young cleric on a mission for Bishop Henry, and the young novices actions soon bring suspicious upon himself.

One of the things I particularly liked about the young novice, Meriet, is that he, in his actions, is seen to be a good man. Take this passage, from when he is sent to assist Brother Mark at Saint Giles–the hospice for lepers.

He was stooping to reach a hand to the dog-boy winding round his feet, and finding him unable to rise, and therefore unwilling to attempt it, he did not hoist the child willy-nilly, but suddenly dropped to his own nimble haunches to bring himself to a comparable level, and squatted there distressed, intent, listening.

And I still very much like Brother Mark.

One deceit partnered another deceit, both meant to some good end; and if it seemed to Brother Mark that deceit ought not to have any place in the pilgrimage after truth, yet he acknowledged the mysterious uses of all manner of improbable devices in the workings of the purposes of God, and saw the truth reflected even in lies.

I also liked this mystery–it twisted in unexpected ways and reminds you that at a time of civil war, nothing is clean or clear.
Rating: 8.5/10

Published by MysteriousPress

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