{"id":6164,"date":"2016-11-02T16:27:27","date_gmt":"2016-11-02T20:27:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=6164"},"modified":"2025-07-02T16:20:52","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T20:20:52","slug":"the-heretics-apprentice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/6164","title":{"rendered":"The Heretic’s Apprentice"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Heretic’s Apprentice<\/a><\/em> (1989) Ellis Peters<\/a><\/p>\n

\"the-heretics-apprentice\"<\/a>Set in England in 1143.<\/p>\n

William of Lythwood has returned from his pilgrimage to the Holy Land in a coffin. He died of illness on his return home, and his attendant Elave has brought his body back to his family. However, a visiting cleric raises doubts as to whether the man should be buried at the abbey when he learns that he was once chastened for heretical views.<\/p>\n

\u2018There were certain small points at issue,\u2019 Serlo said submissively, \u2018as I remember it. Two in particular, besides his doubts concerning the baptism of infants. He had difficulty in comprehending the Trinity…\u2019 <\/p>\n

Who does not! thought Cadfael. If it were comprehensible, all these interpreters of the good God would be out of an occupation. And every one of those denies the interpretation set up by every other.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These views soon reach out to tar Elave as well, and when a body appears, things begin to look at the darker for the young man.<\/p>\n

\u2018I do not deny divine grace. The grace is in the gifts he has given us, free will to choose good and refuse evil, and mount towards our own salvation, yes, and the strength to choose rightly. If we do our part, God will do the rest.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Saint Augustine, of whom Cadfael was not as fond as he might have been. There is a certain unbending rigidity about Augustine that offers little compassion to anyone with whom he disagrees. Cadfael was never going to surrender his private reservations about any reputed saint who could describe humankind as a mass of corruption and sin proceeding inevitably towards death, or one who could look upon the world, for all its imperfections, and find it irredeemably evil.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not that Cadfael doesn’t have heretical leanings himself, but he does his best for the young man, whom he believes is being unjustly persecuted.<\/p>\n

And as always, there is no black and white, no evil at the root of murder and divisiveness. <\/p>\n

Cadfael had a sudden startling insight into a mind utterly alien to his own. For the man really had, somewhere in Europe, glimpsed yawning chaos and been afraid, seen the subtleties of the devil working through the mouths of men, and the fragmentation of Christendom in the eruption of loud-voiced prophets bursting out of limbo like bubbles in the scum of a boiling pot, and the dispersion into the wilderness in the malignant excesses of their deluded followers. There was nothing false in the horror with which Gerbert looked upon the threat of heresy,<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2018I do believe we have been given free will, and can and must use it to choose between right and wrong, if we are men and not beasts. Surely it is the least of what we owe, to try and make our way towards salvation by right action. I never denied divine grace. Surely it is the greatest grace that we are given this power to choose, and the strength to make right use of it. And see, my lord, if there is a last judgement, it will not and cannot be of God\u2019s grace, but of what every man has done with it, whether he buried his talent or turned it to good profit. It is for our own actions we shall answer, when the day comes.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think I actually enjoyed the theology here even more than the mystery.
\nRating: 9\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Published by Mysterious Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Heretic’s Apprentice (1989) Ellis Peters Set in England in 1143. William of Lythwood has returned from his pilgrimage to the Holy Land in a coffin. He died of illness on his return home, and his attendant Elave has brought his body back to his family. However, a visiting cleric raises doubts as to whether […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,30,190,292,33,8,26],"tags":[120,119,549,877,878],"class_list":["post-6164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-10","category-british","category-cozy","category-ebook","category-historical","category-mystery","category-romance","tag-brother-cadfael","tag-ellis-peters","tag-high-middle-ages","tag-medieval","tag-the-anarchy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-1Bq","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24140,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24140","url_meta":{"origin":6164,"position":0},"title":"The Heretic’s Apprentice","author":"Michelle","date":"December 17, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The Heretic's Apprentice (1989) Ellis Peters (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael #16) Set in Shrewsbury, England in 1143 \u2018There is no sin unless through a man\u2019s own will, and hence the reward when we do right things also of our own will.\u2019 Let Elave commit that to memory, and he could\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Heretic's Apprentice","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/The-Heretics-Apprentice.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11671,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/11671","url_meta":{"origin":6164,"position":1},"title":"The Heretic’s Apprentice","author":"Michelle","date":"February 19, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The Heretic's Apprentice (1989) Ellis Peters Set in England in 1143. Elave has returned from the Holy Land with his Master's body--the man died while on pilgrimage, not during the Crusades--and bearing a gift for his adopted daughter. Although the gift causes problems, the first problems stem from Elave thinking\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/The-Heretics-Apprentice.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6106,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/6106","url_meta":{"origin":6164,"position":2},"title":"A Morbid Taste for Bones","author":"Michelle","date":"October 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A Morbid Taste for Bones (1977) Ellis Peters Set in England and Wales in ~1137. I picked this up on sale--and by accident. I'd confused Ellis Peters with Peter Tremayne (whose real name was Peter Berresford Ellis, so it's not that ridiculous of a mistake) and so picked up a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"a-morbid-taste-for-bones","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/A-Morbid-Taste-for-Bones.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11029,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/11029","url_meta":{"origin":6164,"position":3},"title":"The Devil’s Novice","author":"Michelle","date":"August 26, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The Devil's Novice (1983) Ellis Peters Set in England in 1140. One of the most interesting things about this story was the issue of oblates. The other two, infant oblates given to God by their parents, are already twelve and ten years old, and are settled and happy among us,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/The-Devils-Novice.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10955,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/10955","url_meta":{"origin":6164,"position":4},"title":"One Corpse Too Many","author":"Michelle","date":"July 18, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"One Corpse Too Many (1979) Ellis Peters Set in England in 1138. There is war between King Stephen and the Empress Maud, over who is the rightful ruler of England, and Stephen has come to Shrewsbury to flush out some of Maud's strongest supporters. After the battle, and the hanging\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/One-Corpse-Too-Many.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":23757,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/23757","url_meta":{"origin":6164,"position":5},"title":"The Leper of Saint Giles","author":"Michelle","date":"July 18, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The Leper of Saint Giles (1981) Ellis Peters (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael #5) Set in Shropshire England in 1139 \u201cI hope she may be beautiful,\u201d said Mark. \u201cPrior Robert would be interested to hear you say so,\u201d said Cadfael drily. blessedness is what can be snatched out of the passing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"leper of saint giles","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leper-saint-giles.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6164\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}