The Difficult Saint: A Catherine LeVendeur Mystery
Page 36
“I don’t know.” Solomon gave Edgar a wicked look. “He’s coming to it a bit late, isn’t he? You had me on the road when I was ten.”
Edgar raised his eyebrows. “I imagine I can pick up enough to get started,” he said. “But I haven’t agreed to it, yet. I spent ten years studying the quadrivium and part of the trivium. Spending the rest of my life buying and selling seems a waste after all that.”
“Edgar,” Catherine said. “You were born a nobleman. You shouldn’t demean yourself like this, not even for me.”
“That’s right,” Solomon agreed. “Think what your father would say if he learned that you had become a common city merchant.”
Edgar did. As he imagined his father slowly turning purple with chagrin he began to smile.
“Very well, Solomon,” he said. “Consider me your new partner.”
TRIER, 1146 AD
Acknowledgments
My thanks go to the following people.
Dr. Christoph Cluse, Universität Trier, for inviting me to the Institut für Geschichte der Juden and taking time off from his own work to help me with mine.
Prof. Susan Einbinder, Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, for advice on the derash of Ephraim of Bonn’s Sefer Zekirah.
Profs. John Van Engen and Michael Signer, Notre Dame University, for organizing the colloquium; In the Shadow of the Millennium: Jew and Christians in the Twelfth Century. The papers given there are now available from Notre Dame Press.
Yoram Gordon, for reading the Hebrew for me and translating the quotations.
Prof. Dr. Alfred Haverkamp, Universität Trier, for his warm welcome and for assembling such an impressive collection of material on Jewish History in Europe in such a short time.
Annegret Holtman, Universität Trier, for advice on the Jews of Germany during the Second Crusade and for making me feel at home in a strange town.
Prof. Stephen Jaeger, University of Washington, for checking my attempts at Mittelhochdeutsch and providing me with even better expletives, and also for allowing me to use his translation of Gottfried von Strassbourg at the beginning of Chapter Twelve.
Prof. Jeffrey Russell, University of California at Santa Barbara, for Latin advice and editorial and emotional support—more than I can ever repay.
Susan Shapiro, RN, for telling me what was wrong with Hubert and what to do about it.
Prof. Kenneth Stow, University of Haifa, for guiding me to experts on Ephraim of Bonn.
Prof. Richard Unger, University of British Columbia, for always getting my characters where they should be by the best route.
Prof. Bruce Venarde, University of Pittsburgh, for dropping his own work to do emergency research for me.
Fr. Chrysogonus Waddell, Gethesemani Abbey, for reading the first draft and making sure the monks and nuns obeyed the customs of the time; and also for sending me Bernard of Clairvaux’s 1146—47 itinerary. That man traveled more than I do.
Luci Zahray, R.Ph. M.S., toxicologist, for helping out with plant studies and giving me a way to solve the mystery.
As usual, all of these people did their best to help me be as accurate as possible. Any mistakes are solely due to my own inability to transmit the knowlege properly.
By Sharan Newman from Tom Doherty Associates
CATHERINE LEVENDEUR MYSTERIES
Death Comes as Epiphany
The Devil’s Door
The Wandering Arm
Strong as Death
Cursed in the Blood
The Difficult Saint
GUINEVERE
Guinevere
The Chessboard Queen
Guinevere Evermore
Afterword
Catherine, Edgar, Solomon and their families are all imaginary characters. However, the time they lived in and the events that affected them are real. The second crusade was led by Louis VII, who left France in May of 1147. There are a number of chronicles of the events of this expedition. By the way, they weren’t called crusades at the time. The term was generally pilgrimage.
The preaching of the monk, Radulf, and the subsequent attacks on the Jews are also well substantiated in both Christian and Jewish sources. I invented a family for Simon of Trier, but the mode of his death is from Ephraim of Bonn, who was thirteen at the time. I doubt I could have made something like that up. Also from Ephraim is the story of the Jewish girl left for dead and rescued by a Christian laundress. I have adapted the story for my purpose because I was so impressed by the courage that the unnamed woman showed in saving the girl.
Bernard of Clairvaux, who moves in and out of Catherine and Edgar’s lives, was certainly a real man who had a tremendous impact on Western Europe at this time. He preached the crusade but, more important to me, he also took responsibility for the persecution of the Jews that followed and really did travel throughout Lotharingia and Germany in an effort to stop it. Bernard was well aware of the power of words. While there is no record of him being at Trier at the time I mentioned, it was on his way to Worms where he was at the beginning of November. He did visit Trier the following year.
Nicholas and Geoffrey, Bernard’s secretaries, were also real people. Nicholas will one day get his comeuppance. Geoffrey will one day become abbot of Clairvaux.
At this time, there were many popular religious movements in Europe. Some died out of their own accord, some were labeled heretical and others were incorporated peacefully into the mainstream of Christian belief. The Cathars are one of the best known. From the beginning they set themselves apart from orthodoxy and, in the next century, the crusaders were sent to destroy them.
Archbishop Albero and Heinrich of Luxembourg and Namur were at odds with each other from about 1140 on, which caused much misery to the inhabitants of the area. I thought they would figure in this book more, but I realized that, like most of us, Catherine and Edgar are not the movers and shakers, but the moved and shaken. Therefore, the deeds of the rulers of a place are only noted as they influence my characters’ lives.
Finally, anyone wishing to know more about the period and the specific sources for this book is welcome to send me a stamped, self-addressed envelope, care of the publisher. Currently, the bibliography for the first four books is on my Web site.
Once again, I thank all the readers who have followed Catherine and Edgar through the last five books. I hope that this journey is also diverting.
—Sharan
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.
THE DIFFICULT SAINT
Copyright © 1999 by Sharan Newman
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
Forge® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty
Associates, LLC.
eISBN 9781466817210
First eBook Edition : April 2012
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Newman, Sharan.
The difficult saint / Sharan Newman.—1st. ed. p. cm.
“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”
ISBN 0-312-86966-5 (acid-free paper)
I. Title.
PS3564.E926D5 1999
813’.54—dc21
99-26644
CIP
First Edition: October 1999