The Wanderer and the Way 27
This is Chapter 27 of The Wanderer and the Way, now available for purchase.
Alcuin arranged for a caravan to convey Agnes to Antwerp, where a ship would be found to take her to York, carrying gifts and letters from Alcuin to Eardwulf, King of Northumbria. Theodemir wished ardently to accompany her at least as far as Antwerp, but he was discouraged from doing so by Alcuin, who reminded him that as Alphonso’s ambassador, it was now his duty to return to Asturias carrying the gifts and letters which Alcuin had entrusted to his care. Agnes, too, discouraged him from accompanying her, saying that he had surely now completed the vocation that God had given him towards her and that if any part of it should remain undone, it would be to do what he could for the sisters that she had left behind in Asturias. She would love him as a brother, she told him, for as long as she might live, but it was time now for her to return to her home and he to his. And so they parted with many tears and embraces and fond words.
Luitgard and Theodrada were also distressed to have to part with her and had to be scolded severely by Alcuin to dissuade them from summoning their retinue and setting off for Antwerp as part of Agnes’s escort. It was during this exchange, which he was embarrassed to have witnessed, that Theodemir discovered that while Theodrada was indeed the daughter of King Charles, Luitgard was actually his recently married fourth wife.
Theodemir stayed on at Marmoutier for a week after Agnes’s departure while Alcuin arranged for a caravan to escort him on his return to Asturias and the court of Alphonso the Chaste. Through this period, Alcuin would invite him to walk with him by the Loire for an hour each day, and in those walks, Theodemir revealed all the trials and tribulations that afflicted his body and his soul during his journeys. Several times he came near to tears when he spoke of the depth of his love for Agnes, but Alcuin never scolded him for this but received most of his tale in silence. On the day before the day on which he was to depart, however, Alcuin became more talkative on the last of these walks.
“Well, my boy,” Alcuin said, “you must allow me to give you a little avuncular advice. It is as much the right of an uncle to give it as it is the right of a young man to ignore it, so I shall have my say, and then you must do as you see fit. We have established that you do not have the wit to be a scholar, nor the luck to be a husband, nor the patience to be a pilgrim, nor the streak of blood in you to be a soldier, nor, I can assure you, the guile to be a man of the court, so only one option remains for a man of your station, and that is to be a bishop.”
“You are saying that men become bishops for want of aptitude for any other profession, Father Abbot?” Theodemir asked.
“Well, you do have certain aptitudes that fit you for the part. Heroic chastity. Stubborn dedication to those God has placed in your care. No interest in theological innovation. All desirable qualities in a bishop. I shall provide you with a letter that I have written to Quendulf recommending that he take you under his wing and prepare you for the duty when an episcopal see next becomes available among your people. It is, of course, up to you whether you present this letter to him or not. But contemplate the matter as you go.”
“Thank you, Father Abbot,” Theodemir said with some consternation.
“I will say that Quendulf’s project of discovering the tomb of the apostle is a worthy one,” Alcuin continued. “I would not say that it is theologically sound to suppose that St. James’s care for the church in Hispania depends on whether his grave is found or not. After all, the graves of many of the apostles are not known at all. But I think that the finding of it would do a great deal to give heart to the Christian people of Hispania in their struggle against the Moors. And it is possible that it might interest King Charles in the plight of Asturias as well.
“Christendom, as you know, is assailed on many sides,” the abbot continued. “As you have learned from the good Lady Agnes, the monastery at Lindisfarne, the richest in Northumbria, the foundation of Cuthbert, one of its greatest saints, and a place very dear to my own heart as a son of Northumbria, was lately despoiled by Northmen. This caused great despair in Northumbria. But let me read to you a portion of the letter that I sent to the church there after that terrible event.
“Your dearest fraternity,” he read, “was wont to afford me much joy. But now how different! though absent, I deeply lament the more your tribulations and calamities; the manner in which the Pagans contaminate the sanctuaries of God, and shed the blood of saints around the altar, devastating the joy of our house, and trampling on the bodies of holy men in the temple of God, as though they were treading on a dunghill in the street. But of what effect is our wailing unless we come before the altars of Christ and cry, ‘Spare me, O Lord! spare thy people, and take not thine inheritance from them;’ nor let the Pagans say, ‘Where is the God of the Christians?’ Besides who is to pacify the churches of Britain, if St. Cuthbert cannot defend them with so great a number of saints? Nevertheless do not trouble the mind about these things, for God chasteneth all the sons whom he receiveth, and therefore perhaps afflicts you the more, because he the more loveth you. Jerusalem, the delightful city of God, was lost by the Chaldean scourge; and Rome, the city of the holy Apostles and innumerable martyrs, was surrounded by the Pagans and devastated. Well nigh the whole of Europe is evacuated by the scourging sword of the Goths or the Huns. But in the same manner in which God preserved the stars to illuminate the heavens, so will He preserve the churches to ornament, and in their office to strengthen and increase the Christian religion.”
“A cheering thought for Christendom, Father Abbot,” Theodemir replied, “But perhaps a little dismaying for those of us who face these trials day by day.”
“But by these trials we build up riches in heaven,” Alcuin replied. “Be a bishop, my boy. The church has need of bishops of your caliber.”
Theodemir’s return journey was less arduous than his journey to Tours had been but devoid of the joy he had known in Agnes’s company. When he at last returned to Iria Flavia, he discovered that Witteric had been found dead in his bed with his head slashed open by the blade of an axe. Nothing was known of the man who had killed him. Quendulf had arranged for the small brown girls to enter a convent, and several of Agnes’s sisters had taken up temporary residence there with their children, while some had already found new husbands. Only two of their company were unaccounted for, the Northman’s second wife and her son. Theodemir composed a letter to Agnes, in the care of Eardwulf of Northumbria, informing her of all this and begged Alphonso’s indulgence to dispatch it to the court of York by a trusted courier.
Alphonso agreed to this, and he confirmed Theodemir in the possession of Witteric’s lands and the lordship of Iria Flavia and much besides. He did not add the additional lands he had promised, nor the hand of the high-born maiden, because, as he explained to Theodemir, it was no longer necessary to make him independent of Witteric’s influence, and his embassy, while it had achieved all that was actually achievable, had not achieved all that had been asked of it, and he could not therefore, for the sake of appearances, be granted the reward that had been promised for that success. During the time he spent in the court, Theodemir did have occasion to meet and even to have a brief discourse with the high-born maiden in question, an encounter that left both himself and the high-born maiden personally glad that Charles, King of the Franks, had been too occupied with the Avars to send aid to Asturias.
Theodemir did not present Alcuin’s letter to Quendulf at once but kept it for two years, waiting to see if Agnes would ever make way in his heart for the love of another woman. After two years in which she remained as firmly in possession of his heart as at the moment he had first spied her face at the grille in the gatehouse door, he took the letter out, walked up into the town, and presented it to Quendulf.
THE END
Historical Note
Sometime in the early ninth century (sources differ on the dates), Theodemir of Iria Flavia succeeded Bishop Quendulf as Bishop, and Pelagius the Hermit discovered the tomb of St. James the Great in the place now known as Santiago de Compostella. Bishop Theodemir confirmed the discovery, which was attended by signs and wonders, and sent a letter announcing the discovery to King Alphonso the Chaste, who set out on foot from his capital in Oviedo to visit the site, thus becoming the first pilgrim to walk what is now known as the Camino Primitivo. Of the earlier career of Theodemir of Iria Flavia, history records nothing (or nothing that I can discover). The only thing I can say with assurance is that it did not take the course described in this novel, which should not be taken as espousing any view at all about the actual character or actions of the historical Theodemir.
The route that Theodemir and Agnes take on their way to Tours is now known as the Camino Frances, the most popular route of the Camino Santiago, though it is usually traversed in the other direction. The village of Imus Pyrenaeus, where Theodemir and Agnes are nursed back to health after their harrowing passage through the Pyrenees, was a Roman camp intended to guard the pass into the province of Hispania. At some point, it was renamed Saint-Jean-le-Vieux, but I have chosen to give it its Roman name here. Saint-Jean-le-Vieux once played the role of guardian of the pass now played by the neighboring village of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, the traditional starting point of the Camino Frances. The particular piece of geography in which Theodemir and Agnes were separated from Hathus and his men is, however, a product of my imagination. I doubt any such location could be found in real life, but if you have walked the Camino and recognize the place described, please let me know.
It is often hard to determine when persons from history received the sobriquets by which they are known to us. When Alphonso came to be called the Chaste and when Charles, King of the Franks, came to be called Charlemagne is not known to me, but I have chosen to give Alphonso the name for what I trust are obvious story reasons, and to deny it to Charles, for no particular reason at all. Neither choice should be taken as historical opinion, still less as historical fact.
The letter that Alcuin reads to Theodemir is real. Alcuin was Abbot of Marmoutier and Charlemagne was fighting the Avars at this period. Luitgard and Theodrada were Charlemagne’s wife and daughter respectively, but their being present at Tours to take Agnes temporarily under their wing is pure invention on my part and, again, should not be taken as expressing an historical opinion.
Alphonso the Chaste did send at least three embassies to the court of Charlemagne during this period, requesting recognition and aid. He did eventually receive military aid which enabled him to advance into Moorish-held lands as far as Lisbon.
The Camino de Santiago, or Way of St. James, became one of the great pilgrimage routes of the Middle Ages, and its popularity has been revived in the present day.
Of the cast of characters, Theodemir, Alphonso, Quendulf, Pelagius, Alcuin, Luitgard, and Theodrada are historical personages. The rest are fictional. I have attempted to place the historical persons where they were or might reasonably have been at the time of the novel, but, except as noted above, nothing I say of their character or actions should be taken as either historical fact or historical speculation.
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