Bernard Knight - The Grim Reaper

By the end of that week, most loose ends had been cleared up.

The Eyre of Assize went more quickly than had been expected and all the Gaol Delivery and criminal cases had been finished by Saturday, leaving de Wolfe relatively free of the court: the General Eyre, which the sheriff was dreading, had little to do with the coroner.

The Justices were subdued when it came to acknowledging their grievous error over the identity of the Gospel killer, though Archdeacon Gervase assumed a rather condescending ‘I told you so’ manner. Walter de Ralegh was gentleman enough to offer a gruff apology to John in private, but Serlo de Vallibus and Peter Peverel did their best to avoid the subject.

Richard de Revelle’s main concern was to keep his name clear of any association with the fire in Waterbeer Street, afraid that a trial might bring out some embarrassing evidence. He was therefore overjoyed to hear that Bishop Henry Marshal had exercised his right to insist on Benefit of Clergy for Adam of Dol, preventing him being dealt with by the secular courts — which in this case would have the Exeter Eyre of Assize that very week.

Meanwhile, the deranged priest of St Mary Steps was closely confined in one of the cells adjacent to the cloisters, kept for erring clerks by the proctors, the representatives of the Chapter who, with their servants, were responsible for law and order in the cathedral precinct.

As John de Alençon related to de Wolfe a few days later, Adam was first brought before the Bishop for his sins to be explored. As he was not a cathedral priest, the Chapter had no jurisdiction over him but, given the uniquely heinous nature of his crimes, a preliminary interrogation was considered necessary, before the matter went to the Consistory Court of the diocese. The Bishop led this inquisition, assisted by some senior canons. De Alençon, as Archdeacon of Exeter, was present as Adam’s immediate superior, and the Precentor, Thomas de Boterellis, with the Treasurer, John of Exeter, made up the group, along with Jordan de Brent, the archivist.

The deposed incumbent of St Mary Steps was led by two proctors into the Bishop’s audience chamber in the palace. Given Adam’s tendency to physical violence, his wrists were shackled and a pair of burly servants stood on either side of him. As if anticipating his ejection from Holy Orders, he had been dressed in a smock of drab hessian instead of his black clerical robe, but he displayed no sign of shame or contrition. On the contrary, he glared at his accusers with aggressive contempt as he stood before the Bishop’s great chair, the others hunched on stools alongside.

The cold-eyed Henry Marshal was more than equal to the challenge as he opened the proceedings. ‘Are you mad, Adam, or just evil?’ he asked quietly.

The priest’s face flushed with righteous anger. ‘Neither, Lord Bishop! I do the Lord’s work in my own way, because the efforts of you and your feeble cohorts to counter the devil and all his works are futile.’

‘You wretched man! How dare you insult your fellow labourers in the vineyard of God, they who use compassion and solicitude in place of your sadistic perversions?’

Adam continued to bluster about the need to warn their flocks of the torments that awaited sinners, but the prelate cut him off with an imperious gesture. ‘Be quiet! Your evil obsessions weary me. Do you deny that you have been killing and attacking innocent people in this city?’

Adam glowered at the faces before him. ‘I carried out the tasks that the Almighty charged me to perform.’

‘And how did he call upon you?’ cut in Canon Jordan, in his deceptively mild voice.

‘His voice came to me in the night, clearer than you are speaking to me now. Many a time, God answered my prayers for guidance, telling me how to outwit Satan.’ His voice rose. ‘He told me how to make up for the weakness of our Church, for I was his appointed disciple.’

‘Cease this arrogant blasphemy!’ snapped the Bishop. ‘You have been indulging in these abominable practices for your own depraved pleasure.’

De Alençon decided to join the inquisition. ‘These killings you admit to now, they began recently. What caused this escalation in your misdeeds?’

‘As I told you, it was the voice of God. I could see signs of wickedness going unchecked all around me in this city. I was called to bring retribution and convince those in power of the peril of neglecting their duty. I assumed that God was calling others to do the same in other places, as part of a great crusade against Lucifer, who was clearly winning the fight.’

The Archdeacon marvelled at the way in which a madman could rationalise what he was doing, to justify his indulgence in the very same sins against which he alleged that he was campaigning.

‘Did you intend to slay every whore, every moneylender, every sodomite in the city?’ enquired the Precentor in his acid tones.

Adam, who seemed to have a logical answer to every slur on his fantasies, shook his bull-like head. ‘Of course not! It was but a sign, a token of warning to those who committed similar sins. And you have interrupted my work, damn you all! God will be unforgiving when you go to judgement, though you be bishops and archdeacons all!’

Henry Marshal sighed. It was impossible to penetrate this disordered mind. He turned to John de Alençon. ‘Archdeacon, I gather you have some further information?’

De Alençon leaned forward and unrolled a parchment that he had been holding. ‘In the last few days, we have learnt that the parish priest of Topsham, one Richard Vassallus, was a secondary and a vicar at the cathedral of Wells at the same time as Adam of Dol. This was now many years ago, but Vassallus was sent for yesterday and was able to give me some pertinent facts about his old colleague.’

The others turned to him with expectant interest, but the prisoner barked his derision. ‘Vassallus was a weak-kneed fool, as well as a liar. He has hated me ever since I broke his jaw after he derided my theories about countering Satan’s wiles!’

The Archdeacon ignored the interruption. ‘This priest said that Adam had a reputation for outbursts of ungovernable violence when at Wells. He was known to consort with loose women — though we must accept that was not a unique crime, even among young clerics — and he was suspected of having been involved in the fatal mutilation of a whore in Bristol. The sheriff’s men came to make enquiries, but nothing could be proved.’

‘Liars, all of them! God had not then called me to do his bidding,’ ranted Adam, until a proctor rapped him across the neck with his rod.

‘Was there anything else?’ asked the Bishop.

‘There were two mysterious fires when he was at Wells. Part of the dormitory was burnt down and later, there was a fire in the Chapter House that damaged the scriptorium. Again, suspicion fell on Adam, but no proof was forthcoming. However, the canons had him transferred to their superior house of Bath Abbey, where it seems his dubious history was not known.’

De Alençon unrolled his scroll a little more and continued, ‘By chance, I was discussing the matter with one of the Justices now in the city, Gervase de Bosco, who, as you all know, is an archdeacon in Gloucester. He told me that almost a year ago, he was one of those holding the Eyre of Assize in Wiltshire. Two deaths were presented by the coroner there, one from Salisbury, the other from Devizes, which were never solved, no perpetrator ever being found.’

The others waited with interest upon the rest of the Archdeacon’s explanation.

‘The victims were both harlots, mutilated in an obscene way. One had also been damaged after death by fire. Other whores who frequented the same ale-houses as the dead girls told a vague story suggesting that a man with a priest’s tonsure had been the last man seen with the victims, but in the absence of any other evidence, nothing could come of the matter.’