The Pillars of the Earth (Kingsbridge, #1)

by Ken Follett

When he thought about how he had been slighted, condescended to, manipulated and deceived, he became angry. Obedience was a monastic virtue, but outside the cloisters it had its drawbacks, he thought bitterly. The world of power and property required that a man be suspicious, demanding, and insistent.

He had finished being manipulated. From now on he would do the manipulating.

The first casualty of a civil war was justice, Philip had realized.

Monks spent half their lives putting themselves through pain and discomfort that they could easily avoid, and the other half muttering meaningless mumbo jumbo in empty churches at all hours of the day and night. They deliberately shunned anything good—girls, sports, feasting and family life.

He looked at Philip with reluctant admiration. “You never stop, do you?”

“You never know,” Jack said speculatively. “There may come a time when savages like William Hamleigh aren’t in power; when the laws protect the ordinary people instead of enslaving them; when the king makes peace instead of war. Think of that—a time when towns in England don’t need walls!”

Francis shook his head. “It’s hard to understand.” “I think I do understand it. They’d been frightened, and could only exorcise their fear by shedding the blood of the people who had scared them. I saw that in the eyes of the men who killed our mother and father. They killed because they were scared. But what can take away their fear?” Francis sighed. “Peace, justice, prosperity ... Hard things to achieve.”

His eyes widened suddenly and he said: “God, it hurts.” She wished he would just hurry up and die. His eyes closed. “That’s it,” Richard said. Alfred stopped breathing. Aliena stood up. “I’m a widow,” she said.

Yay!

Aliena watched him with incredulity. He was so evil it was hard to believe. Poor Alfred, whom they had just buried, had done much wrong through small-mindedness and weakness of character: his badness was more tragic than anything else. But William was a real servant of the devil. Aliena thought: When will we be rid of this monster?

Just got 9% of the novel left for him to go... hopefully close to as painfully as he deserves. Also, sure Alfred isn't as terrible as the truly depraved William, but he was a truly evil character at the time of his death.

He was the worst kind of Christian, Philip realized: he embraced all of the negatives, enforced every proscription, insisted on all forms of denial, and demanded strict punishment for every offense; yet he ignored all the compassion of Christianity, denied its mercy, flagrantly disobeyed its ethic of love, and openly flouted the gentle laws of Jesus. That’s what the Pharisees were like, Philip thought; no wonder the Lord preferred to eat with publicans and sinners.

“Don’t worry about that,” Waleran said. “I’ll give you absolution.”

Aliena stared aghast. Even at the height of her rage and hatred she had not wished a death like this on him.

“He’s a broken man,” Jonathan said. “He’s got no position, no power and no friends. He’s realized that God doesn’t want him to be a great and powerful bishop. He’s seen the error of his ways. He came here, on foot, and begged to be admitted as a humble monk, to spend the rest of his days asking God’s forgiveness for his sins.” “I find that hard to believe,” said Jack.

Yeah, I'm with you, Jack.

“But in the end I realized that he has always been a genuinely God-fearing man.” Jack looked skeptical.

Nope.