World Without End

Godwyn arrives at St. John in the Wood, an isolated monastic cell, and receives a cold welcome from Saul Whitehead, still the prior there. Godwyn hides the stolen church relics and funds and then takes a room in the church building for himself. The brothers at St. John practice a spartan form of the Benedictine rule that guides them, especially Saul, so Godwyn’s behavior stands out. Godwyn asserts his authority that night by refusing to let Tam Hiding and a group of outlaws enter the monastery to receive aid for a man who is clearly suffering from the plague. Saul appeals to the monks’ duty to minister to the ill, even in the face a death, something no monk need fear since heaven is their reward. Godwyn uses Saul’s vow of obedience to the church to have his own way. Unfortunately, the plague is already inside the monastery.

In Kingsbridge, one of every seven have died of the plague. Without Godwyn and the monks, the main symbol of God-given order, the town descends into deeper lawlessness. Merthin is elected alderman after Elfric dies. Caris continues in her role as acting prior. The changes she instituted are no proof against what mass death does to people. Public drunkenness, sex in public, and theft from houses of the dead become common occurrences, although theft from outlaws diminishes now that so many goods and food are to be had simply by walking into the houses of the dead.

The deaths ease in January, a welcome relief since many nuns have died (but not as many in places where no one wears masks as instructed by Caris). Tam Hiding comes to the hospital to die, and he tells Caris that Godwyn is at St. John. Caris and Merthin travel there to confront him and to reclaim the church’s relics, the nuns’ property charters, and the treasury. The two of them make love while on the road, leading Caris to question even more if she should give up her vocation as a nun.

When they arrive at the monastic cell, almost everyone is dead of the plague except Godwyn and Thomas. Philemon has fled. Through reason, Caris, Merthin, and Thomas figure out that the treasure is in the grave of Saul Whitehead and Jonquil, a young monk of the monastic cell. Godwyn screams when they discover these items and falls dead into the grave of Jonquil.

Merthin and Caris arrive back in Kingsbridge, and Caris has the nuns copy all the stolen paperwork and restore the treasury. Merthin returns to building and managing a tavern Bessie, a victim of the plague and his sometime lover, left him.

Caris, meanwhile, inspects outlying priory lands and realizes that they will starve come winter if she doesn’t find laborers to plant and harvest crops. In Outhenby, she recruits Harry Plowmen, a cocky young man, to recruit laborers at two pennies a day, double the normal wage, and the promise of free tenancy (paying rent instead of owing labor and staying in place to a lord).

When she returns to Kingsbridge, she discovers a strange charter. It is a grant of rich land in Lynn by Queen Isabella in exchange for Kingsbridge accepting Thomas as a monk. Thomas has no clear relationship to the queen, so this is unusual. Caris quizzes Andrew, the bailiff of Lynn, about it, and it is clear he is hiding something. Thomas confronts Caris about her snooping and tells her it is dangerous to ask about his life before the convent. Merthin tells her about how Thomas swore him to secrecy about the letter and Thomas’s warning that talking about the letter could mean death.

Finally, Ralph shows up. He lays hands on Caris and threatens her because her willingness to pay laborers is diminishing his supply of peasant and serf labor. He tells her that what she is doing is against custom. Thomas stops Ralph from doing more harm to Caris, but the man promises he will be back with revenge.

Glenda and Wulfric now work for Ralph, who only pays them the customary wage of a penny a day. When she hears about the double wages available in Outhenby, she and Wulfric run away to Outhenby, although Gwenda claims they are headed to the town of Melcombe. Joby overhears Gwenda and Wulfric planning, however. Gwenda and Wulfric are making more money than ever before and have good food and housing for the first time. The town even sticks up for them eight days later when Ralph demands they return to his land. He has no legal right to make them return because they are not serfs, bound to the land and the lord. The other laborers know surrendering to such illegal claims will damage them all. Ralph is humiliated that these peasants and laborers had the nerve to stand up to him, so Gwenda knows he will be back for revenge.

William of Shiring dies of the plague without heirs, leaving behind his widow Lady Phillipa and teen daughter Odila, a beauty like her mother. Ralph and the landowners are overjoyed during William’s funeral service because Henri announces from the pulpit that the king and parliament have approved an Ordinance of Laborers that requires wages to be held at 1347 levels and that all laborers and peasants stay in the village to work for their lord. Ralph plans to go to Outhenby to force his laborers to return so he can regain the workforce needed to produce income from his lands. He lacks even the funds to buy a replacement for his old warhorse Griff. Longfellow asks to come with Ralph to see him take his laborers back.

Accompanied by Geoffrey Longfellow, several armed men, and Alan Fernhill, Ralph goes to Outhenby to claim Wulfric and his family as the town. Because Ralph has the law on his side and is just after Wulfric, none of the other laborers interfere. Ralph humiliates Wulfric by dragging him back into town with a rope around his neck, then begins plotting with Geoffrey Longfellow back at the Wigleigh manor house. Word of Caris’s question about Isabella’s gift of land have reached Gregory Longfellow.

In exchange for Ralph securing the letter or finding out if Caris has it, Gregory agrees to advance Ralph to become the earl in Shiring, which will require marrying Lady Phillipa—a real problem since Ralph has Tilly as a wife already. Ralph tells Gregory that Tilly is ill (a lie), and he is excited when Gregory indicates he can use any means to secure the letter. Ralph is humiliated, however, when he is forced to sign land over to Wulfric after Nate comes in to tell him that he has to do it to get in crops. Ralph only agrees to this plan because he doesn’t want Gregory to know how petty he is. Wulfric is overjoyed when he hears the news. He ignores Gwenda’s warning that he needs to negotiate for a free tenancy.

The plague surges In Kingsbridge by Easter, killing the few remaining stalwarts helping to maintain order in the town. Murdo and penitents who whip themselves in provocative displays invade the town. Caris grants Tilly and Gerry, Ralph’s baby son, sanctuary from Ralph after Tilly claims Ralph intends to kill her. She interrupts Merthin and Caris, now essentially living together in the prior’s house, as they are kissing. Caris faints during this conversation and takes two weeks to recover from a liver infection. Ralph eventually comes to the priory to demand that Tilly return home, but he relents with such little protest that Merthin suspects he is up to something. When Thomas enters with Alan Fernhill, whom Thomas caught snooping around the nunnery, Merthin is even more sure that some plan is afoot. Ralph notices during his visit to town that sexual encounters, including ones between men, formerly illegal, are now occurring openly. 

Knowing that the disordered town will provide cover for him, Ralph leads six men in attacking the nunnery one night. The mean wear hoods, and Ralph has a mitten on to cover over his hand with just two fingers. When confronted by nuns, Ralph claims to be Tam Hiding. The men kill one sister. Ralph takes Tilly hostage, steals the nuns’ funds and legal documents from the treasury, kills Tilly, and sets fire to the treasury. He stops one of his hired men from killing Merthin, and odd act that—along with his mittened hand—gives away his identity. The survivors of the sacking put out the fire. Thomas is injured during the attack.

Using reason and the clues from that night, Caris, Merthin, and Thomas conclude that Ralph must be behind the sacking of the nunnery. Meanwhile, Ralph delivers the documents to Gregory Longfellow. He is bored as he watches the man work his way through the documents, but he refuses to leave. Gregory tells him the specific letter they need is not there, but that one of the charters sheds some light on the issue. Ralph demands his reward. Gregory seems surprised that Tilly was at the nunnery and is now dead, but he says nothing to rebuke Ralph. He tells Ralph he must woo Lady Phillipa by taking her a present.

The day of Tilly’s funeral proves to be a pivotal one for several of the characters. At the graveside service, where women are allowed to speak, Caris gives a stern sermon to ask the townspeople to build a stronger wall and re-appoint a constabulary to restore order to a town ravaged by disorder due the plague. The townspeople are moved by this, and she gains their support for her next move. At the funeral feast, she convinces Henri to support the town’s application for a borough charter that will make the town produce more revenue for the king and give the town the flexibility to thrive under the guidance of merchants rather than the conservative priors. Henri, ever pragmatic, agrees. He also agrees to allow the town to fund the building of the tallest cathedral in England. Caris then gets Gregory to agree to take the petition for the borough charter to the king. Phillipa loudly rejects Ralph’s proposal of marriage, her right as a noble widow. Caris later discovers the bishop and Claude (a canon or assistant) having sex, Caris and Claude have a fit of giggles about the encounter later. Caris makes plans with Merthin to at last build her hospital.

Philemon shows up at the priory. He manages to get Henri to give him back his subprior role and avoid punishment. He attempts to get money out of the treasury and upstage Caris, but she outsmarts him. He later lets the flagellants and Murdo into the church. Using the pope’s ruling that sanctions the acts of penitents and the force of the parish guild, Caris expels the flagellants from town. Philemon, who was receiving part of the penitents’ begging money, loses a source of income. Caris forces Philemon to return a gold candlestick not among the treasures recovered from Godwyn and realizes he has a compulsion to steal and hoard. Bishop Henri still appoints Philemon as acting prior. Henri institutes some limits to protect the church, however: the treasury will be managed by Thomas, Philemon will support the borough charter as it moves through the approval process, the cathedral will be completed, and Caris will end her relationship with Merthin. These efforts are designed to limit the damage Philemon and Caris can do to the town and the credibility of the church. Henri’s refusal to expel Caris from her role and the church is likely in response to her knowledge of his relationship with Claude. Merthin tells Caris he will move on with his life since she agrees to these terms.

Gregory Longfellow returns from the king in London to tell Ralph that the king was displeased at the mess they had made of the marriage proposal. As a widow, Phillipa she has the right to refuse marriage under the law of England in the Magna Carta. The two men call on her. She essentially calls Ralph an animal and incapable of empathy in her refusal to marry Ralph. Longfellow tells her that Odila will be forced to marry Ralph if Phillipa continues to refuse Ralph. When Phillipa shows up at Ralph’s manor to concede, he assaults her by inserting his hand into her vagina as the men in his hall watch. Gwenda and Wulfric struggle to survive under Ralph’s rule. Wulfric did not negotiate a free tenancy, meaning the family must work on Ralph’s harvest instead of their own. Gwenda realizes her son Sam is just like his biological father Ralph when Sam beats Jonno, the bailiff’s son, severely and without leaving a mark. Her son’s pleasure in the act scares her.

Phillipa despises Ralph, despite submitting to brutal sex with him and her able management of his household. He hates her as well because she refuses to respond emotionally to his abuse. After she sees him cavorting with a barmaid in Kingsbridge, they come to an agreement whereby she will live with Gerry and a few servants in the nunnery. Ralph will in exchange petition for the marriage of David Caerleon, newly the earl in Monmouth, to Odila. The alliance will strengthen Ralph’s status and rid him of a woman he now dislikes, so he agrees to this arrangement. Meanwhile, the relationship between Merthin and Ralph cools considerably more: they both know that Ralph killed Tilly.

Almost a year passes. The hospital is near completion, but the cathedral is going slowly because it is more complicated to build. During the intervening time, Phillipa and Merthin have begun an affair and fallen in love. Caris becomes aware that common knowledge of the affair she had with Merthin has led people to assume she is morally lax. Merthin brusquely rejects her when she tries to caress him after a kiss from cheeky Harry Plowman inflames her. Lady Phillipa comes by later to tell her to keep her hands off Merthin since Merthin and Phillipa are in a relationship.

Caris dives into her work with the hospital. She finishes writing and begins distribution of The Kingsbridge Panacea, a practical guide to containing the plague. It is based on her observation of what worked during past surges. The nuns copying it cannot keep up with the demand. Philemon brings Austin and Sime, two Oxford-educated monk-physicians, to Kingsbridge. Sime, the elder of the two, rejects Caris’s practical knowledge as being inferior to the antique medical texts he has studied. The new monks are just one part of a wave of monks and religious officials filling roles as a result of the much-shortened training cycle. The church is desperate to fill the ranks emptied by the plague and to regain its credibility.

Philemon, eager to undercut Caris and the attention and money she gains from the hospital and the Panacea, installs Sime in the hospital to rein in Caris and the nuns. Sime asserts his authority by intermingling plague victims and people injured in a fight one day. Caris and Sime have an open argument over Sime’s actions. Bishop Henri intervenes to avoid the appearance of conflict within the church. He gives Sime charge of the church based on his degree and man’s authority over woman. Caris loses everything as a result and feels deeply discouraged.

Phillipa is pregnant by Merthin. Rather than risk being killed by Ralph, who would have the right to do so because she committed adultery, Phillipa tricks Ralph into having sex with her to create a reasonable explanation for pregnancy after a seven-month separation from her husband. Ralph not only forces her to have sex but beats her. When she returns to the nunnery, she confesses her adultery to her personal confessor and breaks off the relationship with Merthin. She feels the relationship would cheapen her and knows that Ralph will want to raise his own the child since Ralph will believe the child to be his own. Meanwhile, Merthin discovers a cache of Philemon’s stolen treasures and a love letter addressed to him from one “M.” Merthin has heard rumors of his thievery, so this is no shock.

As the year turns to fall, Caris retreats from the world, and Merthin continues his work on the cathedral. With the plague seemingly subsiding, business picks up in the town, allowing it to regain its former prosperity. Merthin has created a modified weaving machine that allows the town’s weavers to produce more cloth, especially the now famous Kingsbridge Scarlet, still thriving using the process Caris pioneered.

Madge Webber, rich with profits from the cloth making business she built with her now deceased husband, comes to Merthin with a problem one day: people have stopped attending the hospital without Caris there. They are seeing Silas Pothecary, a wise woman, or Matthew Barber because they distrust the ways of Sime. Madge warns him that now the town has its own charter, people are beginning to question the need to fund the cathedral and the priory. When Philemon hears of this, he tries to force Caris to return to the hospital, but she refuses to clean up his mess. he has no leverage over her now that he has taken everything from her. Even his threat to deprive Merthin of his cathedral is not enough to sway her.

Bishop Henri calls an emergency meeting to resolve the matter. Caris still refuses to return, and when Henri reminds her of her bow of obedience, she tells him she will renounce her vows as a nun. Merthin proposes a solution. He will donate land and labor to build a new, town-controlled hospital on Leper Island, now a prosperous commercial district thanks to his efforts. The hospital will be directed by a patron and supported by a new nunnery accountable only to the bishop. Madge tells them that Caris is their only choice for patron. Everyone agrees to this solution, and Caris is released from her vows. She realizes later when talking to Merthin that his solution was all for her sake.