Book Review: Heretic

The book Heretic is the third chapter in Bernard Cornwell's Grail Quest written in 2003. It continues Thomas of Hookton's adventure as an English archer during the Hundred Years War (Edwardian Phase) in search of the Holy Grail. In the last book he had assembled a team of raiders, including a Scottish warrior named Robbie Douglas and a French knight named Sir Guillame. This book continues with their raids throughout the region of Gascony (the southern-most region of France bordering Spain). Thomas seeks to search the lands of his father for the grail, while he is hunted by his cousin Guy Vexilles. The book surprisingly doesn't have any historical battles but still is loaded with great historical detail and references.

The Premise

The year is 1347 and the English have just achieved victory over the French at the Siege of Calais. Thomas is once again sent on a mission by the Earl of Northampton to continue his quest for the holy grail and bring the relic back to England. He sets off with his band of archers, his Scottish prisoner-turn-friend Robbie Douglas, and his French friend Sir Guillame. Thomas knows his cousin is in the region of Gascony, and believes he might know something about the grail's whereabouts. Thus they decide to lay siege on the French fortress of Castillon d'Arbazon. Thomas is able to gain entry disguised as a monk, where he then opens the gates to let his soldiers enter and easily take the fortress.

While there Thomas quickly assumes command of the fortress and discovers a beautiful heretic named Genevieve who is sentenced to burn at the stake. She is deemed to be a beghard who practice mysticism and free-spirited living against the church's doctrines. She claims to be innocent and Thomas believes her story and finds her to be quite beautiful so he decides to spare her. This quickly angers the clergy, the locals, and even many of Thomas' own soldiers (including Robbie). The situation grows even worse, when Genevie kills her torturer, Father Roubard with a crossbow thru his throat. Thomas is excommunicated by the bishop, and loses nearly half his army because of this (including Robbie). Sir Guillame convinces Thomas to leave with Genevieve so as to avoid any further complications.

Meanwhile the Cardinal of Bessieres (near Toulouse) has organized a new campaign for the grail lead by Guy Vexilles. Guy seeks to find the grail so as to empower the church, and believe Thomas knows where it is. However Thomas believes Guy knows where it is, and seeks not only the grail but vengeance against his cousin who killed his father and his wife Eleanor. Meanwhile Sir Guillame captures the French noble Joscelyn and seeks to land a large ransom for it. He later entrusts Robbie to take him back to his castle to collect the ransom which turns to be a big mistake. Feeling aggrieved by Thomas' acceptance of a heretic, Robbie decides to betray Sir Guillame and support the French noble Joscelyn instead. Joscelyn becomes the chief noble of the region, refuses to pay back his ransom, and regathers his strength to assault the Castillon d"Arbazon. Guy Vexilles also joins Joscelyn's force, with an intent to hunt for the fugitive Thomas. 

Thomas and Genevieve travel thru the woods in hiding, where they eventually come across a band of bandits (known as coredors). They are able to defend themselves, but Genevieve is badly wounded. One of the bandit leaders named Philin finds favor with Thomas and takes them to a nearby monastery where they meet Abbot Planchard. The abbot is able to administer medical treatment for Genevieve even though he knows that she is considered a heretic. Thomas and Planchard share a warm trust of one another, due to Thomas' ancestry in the region. Planchard shows him a box that is believed to have once contained the grail. Their visit however is cut short when Vexilles arrives with a hunting party and Thomas and Genevieve must hide in the catacombs. There they witness Vexilles' savagely kill the Abbot Planchard. Thomas and Genevieve are just barely able to escape with the empty box. 

Running out of options, Thomas decides to return to Castillon d'Arbazon in hopes that Sir Guillame will welcome him back. However Joscelyn has already arrived with a large cannon and army to take back the fortress. As the siege begins, Thomas recruits some of the bandits to join his assault to regain entry to the castle and aid Sir Guillame. They are able to ambush a guard post by setting fire to the building. There Thomas collects a beautiful cup of green and gold cup from one of the corpses (which unknown to his knowledge was earlier commissioned by the cardinal as an imposter to the Holy Grail). They eventually reunite with Sir Guillame who welcomes the much needed support against the ongoing assault from Joscelyn, who has now been joined by Vexille's army. Thomas later realizes the cup they discovered is a fake, but still puts it on display to fool the enemies. 

The gunshots from the cannon are a slow-moving process and Joscelyn knows it will take nearly a week to bring down the castle. However the situation suddenly grows dire as many of the soldiers and townspeople begin to die from the Black Death plague. Joscelyn decides to abandon his siege, leave behind the dead, and return to his fortress. Vexille however is now convinced that Thomas has the true grail within the castle and gathers the remaining French soldiers for one final assault. They lead a fierce charge up the stairs to the rampart hoping to find the imposter grail. Amidst the battle many die on both sides, however Thomas is finally able to defeat his cousin Guy with multiple arrows. 

Despite achieving victory, many of Thomas' men die from the plague including Sir Guillame and the bandit leader, Philin. Thomas decides to adopt Philin's son, Galdric as his new servant and apprentice. Robbie is also badly sickened by the plague but apologizes to Thomas and is able to recover from the sickness. In the closing pages Thomas teaches Genevieve how to read from his father's book, where he discovers a significant clue regarding the grail. He then travels to his former town of Hookton with Genevieve, Robbie, and Galric to search his father's old church. There he finds a simple clay bowl of communion wafers, which fits perfectly into the empty box of the grail he gathered from Planchard. He drinks from the bowl with Genvieve believing it will redeem his excommunication than decides to throw it into the river so as to avoid any further war and conflict over it.      

The Historical Setting

Surprisingly this book is not a bloodbath of historical battles from the Hundred Years War as the previous two books. It does briefly open with some detail from the Siege of Calais (which I thought would have made up the end of book two). This was a major English victory from 1346-1347 which brought about an end to the Crecy Campaign of Northern France. The English used the fortress as a key beachhead for the next two hundred years, even long after the Hundred Years War. The French did not fully recapture the city of Calais until 1558. A brief truce in fighting occurred after this mostly due to the Black Death, however this was not the end of the Edwardian Phase of the Hundred Years War which would go on until 1360.   

I actually thought it was a nice refreshing change for the book to pull away from the historical battles and dive into some other medieval topics; such as heresy, the Black Death, and the Holy Grail. The character of Genevieve is referred to as a beghard, also known as beguines, and were considered a heretical movement by the Catholic Church. They chose a monastic lifestyle of poverty, free-living, with a heavy emphasis on mysticism. Naturally the church found this to be against their doctrine and even bordering towards a pagan practice of witchcraft. Thus they were hunted and burned as with many other forms of heretical societies throughout the 1200-1400s. However unlike the Cathars or Waldensians this was more of an independent movement without much formal structure. 

Continuing with this topic of heresy, the book also touches upon the Cathar movement (which I just recently studied here Medieval Inquisition). I have been quite intrigued by the Inquisition topic from this book series, as well as the Plague Tale video games. They were the brutal police force of the Catholic Church, and in retrospect could likely be seen as the villains. The author suggests that the Grail was collected by crusaders such as the Knights Templar who would later go on to establish the Cathar movement. The characters of Planchard, Guy Vexille, and Thomas of Hookton were ancestors of these crusaders who were eliminated during the Albigensian Crusades. 

The book is of course a historical fiction and takes much liberty with various elements primarily this notion of a Holy Grail. This of course being the cup that Jesus drank from during the last supper, and in some versions was the same cup used to collect his blood at his crucifixion. There was much belief that this relic actually existed and could bring about supernatural favor from God. The quest for this relic has been an intriguing narrative ever since the stories of King Arthur, all throughout the medieval age, and even to this day (such as in Indiana Jones III or The Da Vinci Code). However there is still no hard evidence that the cup that Jesus drank from has ever been actually discovered. It almost seems far-fetched that it could have endured hundreds of years of persecutions at the Romans hands. One thing is for sure however is that it would most likely be a simple clay or wooden bowl as depicted in this book (or Indiana Jones) rather than a golden cup of jewels. 

The last major historical event that is described in this book is that of the Black Death. I think Cornwell does well to put it at the background of everything, like a building mystery, without a name. The Abbot Planchard briefly describes it in his talking with Thomas. I think Cornwell is right-on with it's portrayal as an omen from God (as I have gathered from other studies). All the main characters, Planchard, Guillame, Robbie, Vexille, and Thomas seem to believe that this sudden deadly plague is truly the wrath of God at work. Cornwell also describes the symptoms of the red skin patches, intense fatigue, and vomiting that occurred among the victims. It was all so sudden, mysterious, and it's rapid spread must have truly made it all the more horrifying since it wasn't properly understood. I'm glad Cornwell included this aspect in what has been a very intriguing historical period.