The devil in a nunnery, and other mediaeval tales

In Short

This collection of short stories transports the reader to the lush, bustling landscapes of fourteenth-century Buckinghamshire. Through a series of varied vignettes, it explores the lives of knights, nuns, peasants, masons, and wayward friars, all navigating the tension between medieval piety and the insistent demands of human nature. Whether depicting a dramatic exorcism, a mason’s revenge on local usurers, or the internal crisis of a scholar-friar, the prose remains grounded in the texture of daily life, offering a window into an era where the supernatural felt as close as the village square.

The Story

The narrative scope of these tales is broad, painting a picture of an England where the King’s Highway is populated by pilgrims, soldiers, and friars, all moving through a countryside defined by rich abbeys and woodland beauty. The stories are anchored in the rhythm of the liturgical calendar and the visceral reality of the era’s social hierarchies.

In one notable arc, we see the tragic, lingering presence of a nun, Sister Agnes, whose past sins—a hidden child—haunt her within the convent walls. Her story is set against the rigid decree that "virginity replenisheth Paradise," a standard that the living, breathing reality of human love constantly defies. This thematic struggle extends to the village life of the common folk, where lepers beg for alms from passing knights, and the wealthy, like the "queen of love" Lady Margot, offer fleeting pity while riding toward their own comforts.

The collection frequently pivots to the bizarre and the miraculous. A local Doctor, plagued by a shrewish wife, inadvertently summons a devil in the form of a black dog to spirit her away, only to find himself bound by a contract that forces him to wrestle with his soul’s salvation. The absurdity of this predicament is mirrored in the tale of William, a master mason who takes a sharp, artistic revenge on the local usurers by carving their likenesses into stone figures of damned souls being dragged to Hell by demons, forcing the community to confront their own hypocrisy each time they enter the church porch.

The collection also touches on the profound personal cost of religious fervor. We follow the transformation of Thomas, a humble husband and father, who, after a vision, feels compelled to abandon his family for the Crusades—a choice that leaves his wife, Katherine, in inconsolable despair. Conversely, we witness the quiet, late-life devotion of a dying woman named Meg, who is carried by her husband through deep snow to attend Easter Mass, finding her final peace in the ritual of the Sacrament.

The book culminates in the internal struggles of the scholarly Friar Gregory. After losing his faith in the "noble austerities" of academic life, he plunges into a night of drunken revelry in a churchyard, only to wake in the bitter cold of morning, feeling utterly hollowed out. His return to the academic fold is not a simple restoration of belief, but a quiet, resigned acceptance of his role, as he resumes lecturing on fate and free will, a man forever marked by the chasm between his intellect and his spirit.

How It Unfolds

The pastoral landscape The setting is established through the rolling hills of Buckinghamshire, a land of sheep-merchants, soldiers, and friars. This opening beat frames the world as a place of both physical plenty and spiritual vanity.

The haunting of the convent The narrative shifts to the cloistered life, where the presence of the supernatural and the echoes of forbidden love manifest in the lives of the sisters. Here, the tension between earthly marriage and heavenly virginity is made manifest through the tolling of the great bell.

The leper’s road The focus moves to the harsh disparity between the wealthy, armored nobility returning from France and the marginalized, suffering outcasts waiting for a silver coin. This beat highlights the raw, often callous nature of medieval social interaction.

The devil’s bargain The tone transitions into the darkly comic and the macabre, as a local doctor and two bumbling, superstitious clerics deal with the literal fallout of a demonic contract. It serves as a study in human greed and the desperate attempt to negotiate with salvation.

The artisan’s spite A master mason uses his craft to expose the sins of the village usurers, turning a church porch into a public spectacle of divine judgment. This section explores the power of art to both reveal truth and cause social disruption.

The crisis of the scholar The final beat follows Friar Gregory, whose intellectual life provides no shield against his own human weakness. His descent into despair and his eventual return to his studies offer a somber reflection on the solitary, often agonizing path of faith and philosophy.

The People

The characters are defined by their appetites and their anxieties. Sister Agnes is a figure of tragic repression, her gaunt appearance and hollowed eyes reflecting the internal toll of a secret, maternal grief that never found an outlet. William, the mason, stands in sharp contrast; he is a man of pride and creative wit, using his tools to dismantle the reputations of the powerful. The Doctor represents the folly of the self-interested, a man so vexed by his domestic life that he recklessly stakes his eternal soul for twenty years of relief. Thomas and Katherine illustrate the rupture that religious calling creates in family life, with Thomas’s quiet, set face representing an unyielding commitment that ignores the heartbreak of those who depend on him. Finally, Friar Gregory serves as the collection’s intellectual heartbeat. He is a man caught between the "noble austerities" of his books and the "gross and bestial" urges of his own nature, ultimately finding himself in a state of permanent, haunted homelessness after his brief, drunken abandonment of his vows.

In Its Own Voice

The setting is one of sensory richness and moral weight, where even the land seems to participate in the drama of the human soul.

Buckinghamshire is full of smooth round hills and woodlands of hawthorn and beech, and it is a famous country for its brooks and shaded waterways running through the low hay meadows.

The author’s prose frequently grapples with the interplay of religious doctrine and the inescapable, often messy, reality of the heart.

The great candles in the hall were burning down to their sockets; one by one they spluttered out, and a ghostly, flickering light fell upon the legend over the broad dais, ‘Connubium mundum sed virginitas paradisum complet’—‘Marriage replenisheth the World, but virginity Paradise.’

The characters often find their most profound moments of clarity in the midst of their lowest points, as seen when the Friar is confronted by the liturgy.

Friar Gregory listened, and his lips began to move in unison with the sweet words, while the tears fell down his face like rain.

What It's Really About

At its core, this book investigates the fragility of the human spirit when placed under the crushing weight of institutional religion. It asks whether a person can truly reconcile the visceral, animalistic demands of life—lust, pride, and simple conviviality—with the stern, abstract requirements of salvation. The stories suggest that "vanity" is not merely a sin to be avoided but a defining condition of existence, and that the tension between a life of "noble austerities" and a life of "painted flowers" is a conflict that no amount of prayer or study can fully resolve. It is a work that questions the nature of divine mercy in a world where the innocent and the guilty alike are subject to the same biting winters and the same inevitable, dark ending.

Why Read It Today

Readers who appreciate historical fiction that eschews sentimentality in favor of a gritty, tactile sense of the past will find much to admire here. This book does not offer a romanticized version of the Middle Ages; instead, it presents a world that is messy, superstitious, and deeply human. The language, which mirrors the cadence of the era it describes, has a formal, rhythmic beauty that demands a slower, more deliberate reading pace.

It is important to note that the book reflects the period attitudes of its subject, including a stark, sometimes harsh depiction of religious and social hierarchies that can feel jarring to a modern reader. The stories do not shy away from the cruelties of the time, nor do they offer tidy, moralizing conclusions. If you are looking for a gentle, lighthearted exploration of history, this may be too somber for your tastes. However, for those interested in the psychological underpinnings of medieval life and the timeless struggle to balance human desire with the pursuit of a higher good, the book offers a haunting, beautifully rendered experience. What stays with you long after closing the cover is the image of the snow-covered road, the echo of the bells, and the persistent, lonely figure of the Friar—a reminder that the search for meaning is a long, often difficult journey.