The Devil's Novice

The Devil's Novice is a medieval mystery novel by Ellis Peters. It is the eighth in the Brother Cadfael series.

Plot summary

Meriet Aspley, the younger son of country nobleman Leoric Aspley, petitions Shrewsbury Abbey to become a monk. When he is informed that a novice must traditionally wait a year before taking full vows and joining the Benedictines, he appears agitated and asks whether he cannot speed up the process. Abbot Radulfus urges him to be patient. Meriet soon becomes an unsettling presence in the abbey. While he performs all his studies and assigned duties with ardour, his brooding manner makes the other novices reluctant to approach him. When he begins talking in his sleep and having terrible nightmares, the other novices whisper that he is possessed, and nickname him "The Devil's Novice."

Canon Eluard, an emissary of the Bishop of Winchester, comes to the Abbey inquiring after the whereabouts of Peter Clemence, a young cleric and one of the Bishop's favorite proteges. Clemence had been sent on a diplomatic mission to Northern England, but has disappeared. Eluard questions Meriet in particular, since Clemence was last seen as a guest at Leoric's manor before setting out on his journey.

Matters come to a head when Brother Jerome, Prior Robert's toady, searches Meriet's bed and finds a lock of a woman's hair. Declaring that personal belongings are forbidden in the Abbey, Jerome throws the hair into a fire. Meriet launches himself at Jerome and nearly strangles him to death, before Cadfael restrains him. Meriet receives a whipping for his conduct, but insists that he is still set on becoming a monk. Cadfael suggests that to separate him from the other novices, Meriet be assigned to help Cadfael's former assistant, Brother Mark, at the lazar house maintained by the Abbey at St. Giles. Abbott Radulfus approves, and in the meantime, asks Cadfael to determine Meriet's true reasons for entering the Abbey.

Cadfael visits Aspley Manor, and meets Meriet's extended family: his elder brother, Nigel, tall, handsome, and clearly the apple of his father's eye; Nigel's fiancee, Roswitha, stunningly beautiful (and she knows it), whose hair colour matches the lock in Meriet's bed; Roswitha's brother Janyn, an easygoing man and Nigel's best friend; and finally, Leoric's ward Isouda, a young heiress to two neighboring manors. Leoric, a stiff and upright man of rigid morals, refuses to discuss Meriet's choice. He insists that if his son is determined to become a monk, Leoric will not have him back. Nor can he suggest any reason for Meriet's choice in the first place.

In private conversation, Isouda reveals to Cadfael that she loves Meriet, and is set on making him love her in return. Cadfael asks whether Meriet was in love with Roswitha. Isouda allows that he was, but is confident that he will soon get over her.

Meanwhile, Brother Mark and Meriet lead an outing of the lepers at St. Giles to gather firewood in the forest. Meriet suggests that they go to a local clearing he knows that was used for making charcoal. In one of the woodstacks, they discover a charred skeleton. The remnants of jewellery and clothing near the corpse identify it as Clemence's. Soon after, a wild man is caught in the forest holding an ornate dagger that belonged to Clemence. The man, Harald, a runaway serf from a nearby estate, says he found the dagger in the forest, and swears he did not kill Clemence.

When Meriet hears rumours that Harald will be condemned for murdering Clemence, he confesses to the killing. He claims that he shot Clemence with an arrow after he left Aspley, because Clemence tried to take advantage of Roswitha. His father discovered him trying to hide the corpse, and gave him a choice: either admit his guilt and be executed, or else give up the rest of his life for penance as a monk. Cadfael does not believe Meriet's statement and proves it false by inviting him to confess to a priest, which Meriet, being a rigidly honest person, will not do (in Cadfael's words, he can lie to other men in what seems like a good cause, but draws the line at lying to God).

Leoric Aspley and his family come to the Abbey to wed Nigel and Roswitha. In private, Cadfael confronts Leoric, who admits to finding Meriet with Clemence's body, and burning it afterwards as an impromptu cremation. Cadfael points out that he must be mistaken. Meriet is incapable of cold-blooded murder, but if he has confessed he must be shielding someone else, and Nigel is the most likely suspect. Leoric refuses to believe that his favourite son could be the murderer, but Cadfael reasons that Meriet must have discovered his brother and assumed his guilt, in much the same manner that Leoric later discovered Meriet. However, Cadfael reminds Leoric that both he and Meriet have overlooked a crucial point: they both believe Clemence was killed in the evening, yet his body was found only a few miles from Aspley, meaning he must have been killed shortly after he left Leoric's house in the morning, by someone other than Nigel. They still do not know exactly who killed Clemence.

Isouda visits Meriet in his cell, and he is taken aback by how affectionate she is and how passionately she believes in his innocence. At Cadfael's behest, Isouda discreetly searches Roswitha's belongings and finds a large brooch that belonged to Clemence, but remains untouched by the fire, meaning his killer took it. At the wedding the next day, Isouda plants the brooch on Roswitha's cloak, and Canon Eluard, in attendance, instantly recognizes it. When he demands to know where she got it, she first claims that Meriet gave it to her, a lie that appalls both Nigel and Leoric. Caught in a falsehood, she admits that it was her brother, Janyn, who gave it to her. Janyn has already fled the Abbey, and at the same time a messenger from King Stephen arrives, ordering the local garrison to muster immediately; the two most powerful barons in the northern counties, the Earls of Chester and Lincoln have declared their independence from either side in the civil war and set up their own private kingdom in the north. Barely has the Abbey time to react to this news, when Roswitha cries that Nigel has also fled the grounds.

The next day, Nigel comes upon Janyn in the woods, whose horse has been lamed by an accident. Blame is traded back and forth, but Nigel says he will not abandon him, and offers to carry them both on his horse. Janyn has a better plan - he stabs Nigel and steals his horse. Nigel survives his wound and is brought back to the Abbey to recover. He confesses that he and Janyn were offered lucrative, powerful commands in the Earls' rebel army. Clemence's visit to the North was unluckily timed so that he would have stumbled on a summit meeting of the Earls and their allies. Nigel was for delaying Clemence, but Janyn shot him down in the forest. When he told Nigel what he had done, Nigel went to the forest to bury the body. Meriet discovered him, with their father close behind, and Meriet told his brother to run, knowing that Leoric would be heartbroken if Nigel was blamed, but scarcely bothered if Meriet was.

To make amends, Nigel is conscripted into the King's army, marching north to confront the rebels. Meriet and the serf, Harald, are both absolved of guilt.

Leoric, ashamed at having valued his handsome but vacuous older son over his much more honourable younger son, confesses his sins to Father Radulfus, and asks him for two additional favours: first, that Leoric be allowed to sponsor Brother Mark, who has been a true friend to Meriet in his time at the Abbey, for the priesthood; and second, that the Abbott witness a new will he will draft, leaving his manor to Meriet. (With Janyn gone, Nigel will now inherit his family's manor through Roswitha, if he makes amends.) Leoric also begs Meriet's forgiveness, and the two men reconcile.

Meriet, for his part, is chagrined for having ever loved Roswitha, an equally beautiful but vacuous girl who betrayed him without a second's thought, and for failing to notice Isouda's passion. The two of them, now clearly a couple, appear at Cadfael's workshop to say goodbye and thank him for everything.

Continuity

• The ending of the novel sets up the Battle of Lincoln that opens the following novel, Dead Man's Ransom, in which an army under Stephen marches north to confront the rebellious barons, only to have them surrender and then be confronted by an army from the Empress Maud.
• Cadfael reflects that Hugh Beringar, on his way north, will be set on making sure that Janyn is captured or killed in the coming battle, but the subsequent novel does not make clear whether this happens.

Television Adaptations

The book was adapted for BBC television, starring Derek Jacobi as Cadfael, Christien Anholt as Meriet, Julian Glover as Leoric, and Louisa Millwood-Haigh as Isouda/Isobel.

The TV adaptation is largely faithful to the book, with a few changes:

• Some proper names are changed to sound more modern: "Nigel" becomes Tristan (Patrick Toomey); "Roswitha" becomes Rosanna (Chloe Annett) and "Isouda" becomes Isobel; the name of Meriet's family and his father's manor is changed from "Aspley" to Ashby.
• There is an extended prologue showing Clemence's (Ian Reddington) overnight stay at Aspley, where he alienates everyone with his arrogant and patronizing manner, except Rosanna, who flirts with him shamelessly.
• Brother Mark's role in the novel is fulfilled by Cadfael's earnest assistant, Brother Oswin (Mark Charnock).
• Hugh Beringar (Eoin McCarthy) travels out of Shrewsbury, leaving his less-subtle deputy, Sergeant Warden (Albie Woodington), in charge, who repeatedly clashes with Cadfael over the solution to Clemence's murder. Under pressure from Canon Eluard (Ian McNeice), Warden is all too eager to condemn first Harald (John Dallimore), and then Meriet, for the crime.
• Janyn (Daniel Betts) is caught as he is trying to flee the Abbey, confesses, and is last seen being marched to gaol, to await execution.

Notes