Father Edwin - the Priest

The life of a Priest

It is hard in today's secular society to realise how important the Church was in medieval times. Heaven and Hell were as real to people as the places where they lived and it was the Church that held the keys to salvation or damnation.

It was the village priest that represented these powers for most people. Unfortunately he did not have to be greatly educated and was often put in his post by the lord of the manor and not the Church authorities.

The 14th century was a time when there was a backlash against what were seen as the financial and religious abuses of the Church.

Many of these movements who preached Church poverty and the end of the world were attacked as being heretical. It was a time of upheaval and soul searching.

Father Edwin's story...

Edwin of Canterbury was the son of a merchant who traded in Portuguese wine. Edwin spent his formative years travelling on the Christopher, a small Carocal that his father had a tenth share in and which mainly traded along the West coast of Europe.

At the age of 20 Edwin saw the light. Supported by a large donation from his father he joined the military order of St Thomas of Canterbury. His travels had given him a taste for adventure and his faith led him towards joining a military order.

As the years went by Edwin found that killing and maiming was not as fulfilling as it had once been and he returned home to England. He then left the order and went to Oxford where he began training for the clergy. It was here that he met Sir William de Caversham and after some years became his household priest.

When Edwin came to Cosmeston with the De Cavershams he became the village priest. There had been an old and well loved man of God in place, but he was given a thrashing and driven away.

Father Edwin has recently 'acquired' a trainee priest to help him with his flock. Dougal has been sent from a seminary in Kent, after his Bishop became concerned that a trip to the abbey at Cluny had left him susceptible to the heresy that was being preached by the Spiritual Franciscans of Languedoc and the millenary visions of Joachim of Fiore. The best cure for such outrageous views being a trip to darkest Wales!

To save him from himself father Edwin daily beats Dougal, for as the skin is stripped away so is the sin.

Dougal has lately taken to seating himself in a small cave by Lavernock Point overlooking the sea. Dougal claims he is admiring the wonders of the Lord, the Villagers think he is hiding!