World Without End

For churchmen like Godwyn, the plague “has been sent by God to punish us for our sins” (671), making the plague a symbol of God’s response to moral disorder; each death restores the moral order by destroying sinners. When Godwyn interprets the plague as a sign of God’s disfavor, however, his primary aim is to battle for political power over Caris, a person he assumes should not have any power because she is a woman. His later sermons in the pulpit discourage members of the church and town community from wearing masks. In his case, the plague is a symbol of the corruption of the church and its failure to exercise leadership in the community.

In her role as the religious leader of Kingsbridge, Caris observes that the “plague was not just a physical sickness” (718). For Caris, the plague represents the anarchy that the high mortality rate unleashes on the town. She uses the secular authority of the parish guild to rein in the worst of the excesses and attempts to treat the physical symptoms in the church hospital. These efforts meet with indifferent success, making the plague a symbol of the church’s ineffective leadership in a time of crisis. After she renounces her vows and becomes patron of the Hospital of St. Elizabeth on Leper Island, Caris addresses the plague more effectively and has the secular authorities behind her when she advises that they shut the town to trade. The plague becomes a deadly but manageable crisis, one that shows the ascendance of secular authority once the authority of the church erodes.

The bridge into the town of Kingsbridge serves as an important conduit for trade and pilgrims to the cathedral, making it a symbol for the connection between the town and the world, and between the town and the priory at Kingsbridge. The bridge goes through several iterations, the first of which is as an inadequate thoroughfare that is a bottleneck for people entering the town. The trade guilds and the church contend over who has the right and responsibility to maintain the bridge and collect rents, a contest that shows the power struggle developing between secular and religious authorities. When the bridge collapses, it symbolizes the cost of ineffective leadership by the church.

The town struggles to create a strong bridge despite assuming more control because the town chooses Elfric Builder to complete the work instead of Merthin. This decision shows that secular authorities like the parish guild are so committed to the status quo that they are not ready to meet the challenges of a more mobile world. Merthin repairs the cracks to the bridge, signaling the town’s willingness to try new things to survive. The newly strengthened bridge, created mostly as a result of groundwork laid by Caris and Merthin, helps the town become an economic center with enough power to extract a borough charter—the right to self-governance—from the king. The bridge is a testament to the rise of the merchant class during this historical period.