A returning pilgrim from the Holy Land brings a dowry gift and mind fresh with ideas, leading to charges of heresy and a murder in his household, at the time for celebrating the translation of Saint Winifred's bones to Shrewsbury Abbey.

Bishop Roger de Clinton and an Augustinian canon of the Archbishop of Canterbury bring out the challenge of deciphering true religious belief from heresy, on the border with Wales in the midsummer days of 1143.

His servant Elave carries his master's body back home to Shrewsbury, straight to the Abbey where the funeral will take place.

Elave shares the sad news with William's wool- and vellum-trading household in town, and delivers the dowry gift meant for Fortunata, his foster daughter.

Hugh arrives to tell them Jevan's body was found, and lays the well-wrapped package on the table in front of Anselm.

The true dowry for Fortunata is a psalter, a gift from Otto I to his son's wife Theofanu in honour of their marriage in 972, nearly two centuries earlier, a magnificent melding of art styles from the East and the West.

Fortunata considers her dowry gift carefully, choosing to give it to her Bishop, Roger de Clinton, for the diocesan library.

Kirkus Reviews had strong praise for the literary style of the writing, as well as the plot's base in daily life and human ways.

It's the summer of 1143 in Shrewsbury, England, and, at its Benedictine Abbey, Brother Cadfael, one-time adventurer, continues to tend his herbarium and bring his worldliness, warmth, and detecting skills to bear when needed (The Rose Rent, etc.).

The old man is buried at the Abbey, as he wished, after some doubts about his worthiness are raised by Canon Gerbert, an important visiting cleric with rigid views on church dogma.

In the meantime, Elave finds William's household much as he left it, with nephew Girard in charge of his uncle's sheepherding and wool-trading interests; the vellum workshop run by nephew Jevan; the bookkeeping, once done by Elave, now in the hands of slower-witted Aldwin; domestic chores done by Girard's wife Margaret and Fortunata, grown into handsome womanhood.

Within days, Aldwin's baseless fears for his job and home escalate some careless talk by Elave into a charge of heresy brought before the Abbey hierarchy.

Sheriff Hugh Beringer and Cadfael work hard to find proof of Elave's innocence, and they succeed, uncovering too a forceful motive for the murder, connected with Fortunata's dowry.

The major elements in the steady stream of Peters' novels don't change—plots that make psychological sense; a vivid window on the everyday life of another age; a touch of romance; a happy ending with justice served, and a fine, literate style.

[2]Publishers Weekly finds this one of the best in the series: Brother Cadfael, 12th-century herbalist, sleuth and sometime cupid, outdoes himself in this, his 16th chronicle, in which Peters imbues the familiar territory of murder, young love and odious villainry with fresh vigor and new subtleties.

Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.[3][4]Magill Book Reviews is positive towards the novel, in particular how it weaves the elements of twelfth century life for historical fiction at its best: Elave plays into the hands of his enemies when he reveals in an unguarded moment religious convictions which appear to verge on heresy.

With the help of Hugh Beringer, the local sheriff, the identity of the murderer is revealed, justice is properly rendered, the charge of heresy is disproved, and Fortunata and Elave are engaged to marry.Ellis Peters is quite familiar with the circumstances of twelfth century England.

That is a real place about four miles to the southeast of Shrewsbury, near Attingham Park, not far from Wroxeter (mentioned in The Hermit of Eyton Forest, an earlier novel in the series).

In 1143, fighting was not near Shrewsbury; but King Stephen was acting to strengthen his connections with the border lords like Earl Ranulf of Chester.

Young Henry Plantagenet, son of Empress Maud with her second husband, Geoffery of Anjou was in Bristol, age 10, taking lessons and spending time with his mother and uncle.

Geoffrey spent his time keeping the holdings in Anjou and Normandy, never joining his wife to gain her the crown of England.

A map of the Holy Land between the First and Second Crusades (in 1135) shows Edessa and the county of Tripoli, on either side of Antioch, and north of Jerusalem.

They stayed in monasteries as many nights as they could, including the priory of Saint Marcel near Chalon-sur-Saône, a daughter house of the Cluny Abbey when he first became ill.

They encountered other pilgrims and heard the monks discuss religious ideas of the day, including Peter Abélard in his last months.

[11] Although the rules of Benedict guided most monasteries, with cloistered life the aim, other monastic houses also increased in number, including Cluniac and Cistercian, all of whom welcomed pilgrims.

Gerbert is an Augustinian canon,[15] Abbot Radulfus is head of an essentially independent Benedictine monastery with a cloister,[16] and Bishop Roger de Clinton established a Cistercian house in his see, Buildwas Abbey.

Elave on his return after seven years away must first bear accusations that his master, William of Lythwood, spoke heresy and took the pilgrimage as penance, which were not true.

Fourth, that he rejects what Saint Augustine wrote of predestination, that the number of the elect is already chosen and cannot be changed, and all others are doomed to reprobation.

"[19] True to form, Gerbert reacts harshly to the countering lines in the Bible and the writings of Saint Augustine spoken by the Bishop, saying "These are mysteries for the wise to ponder, if anyone dare".

Brother Cadfael speculates at the close of the story that in other hands than Bishop Roger de Clinton, Elave's fate could have been "anathema".