The Set-up: It is the year 1144 and the civil war between those supporting King Stephen and those supporting the Empress Maude still wages. Shrewesbury Abbey seems to be caught up right in the middle of it, but mostly it is King Stephen's men riding around in the pouring rain accusing local men of treason and then having sport with them before killing them.
Into this comes the Prior from Ramsey Abbey with bad news and a brother that has had a vision. The bad news is that Maude's forces have burned the Abbey to the ground, and the vision is that the remains of St. Winifred should return with them to rebuild the Abbey.
The Prior and Brother Cadfael (Derek Jacobi) butt heads right from the beginning. When things don't go the Prior's way, he leaves in the night and the next morning the remains of St. Winifred as well as a young female singer have both been taken.
The Rest: Father Radolfus (Terrence Hudman) sends Cadfael along with the Deputy Sheriff, Hugh Beringar (Anthony Green) to find the Prior and recover the stolen relic, but they must contend with the civil war and a river at flood stage on their journey. They recover the girl who is accused of being a runaway slave, and they recover the remains, but it turns out that valuable jewels were also taken, and those they do not recover.
The brother is accused of the cart driver's murder, his guilt assured after his previous admission to stealing the relic. But he knew nothing of the slave girl, and it's her eventual change of ownership, paid for with the missing jewels that shows it be the devious, cutthroat lord where the cart was found.
Commentary: New Hugh! New Hugh! The poofy-haired chap has been replaced by a younger man with a caesar do. Further more, this Hugh is the dumbest of the lot, choosing to believe "trial by water" over simple, logical proof. Holy shit! Trial by water! I can't stop using exclamation points!
Trial by water, if you sink you're innocent, if you float you're guilty. Very convenient thing this - for capital crimes it always results in the accused's death.
By why stop with trial by water, let's have...wait for it...wait for it...Trial by Bible! Sorry, I'm getting carried away again. Whereas I am familiar with the justice meted out by water, I had never heard of the justice meted out by scripture. Each of the claimants, while blind-folded, let's the bible fall open to a seemingly random page, and then they place their finger on a random spot and the passage they are touching becomes their verdict. In this case, three are seeking the relics, so whichever verse is most about keeping things or being together or choosing wisely, etc is the winner.
Speaking of bibles, I am sure an Abbey would certainly have had one, perhaps even more than one, but would it have been in English? The year was 1144, ant it seems to me that the Abbey may not have had an English version. <<
And then there are the prayer books, which looked very much mass produced. That may very well have been a props error. Now those were portrayed as being in Latin, which is what got me thinking about the language of the bible at that time.
My "dealer" said this was the worst yet of the Cadfael Chronicles. I'm not so sure. Not counting that there are still two episodes to go and one of them may be worse than this one; I think the previous two, "St Peter's Fair" and "The Raven in the Foregate" were both worse. She did warn me at the outset that these various episodes were a good way to relax - turn off your brain and just sit back and enjoy some classic BBC drama/mystery/comedy/period shows.
The Proof: Hemlock, sheep's fat and a red thread with gold running through it.
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