Tinerants

The tinerants in SM Stirling's A Meeting At Corvallis (New York, 2007), Chapter Twenty, recall Poul Anderson's "tinerans." We expect the tinerants, like the tinerans, to have a religion different from that of the settled people that they move among and, sure enough, they turn out to be "witches." However, in the Protectorate, witchcraft must be concealed behind pretended piety. The tinerants need signed permission from a bishop and several priests to move around. My sympathies are all with the witches. In this milieu, a "coven" is not only a religious community but also a cell or unit of a foreign intelligence service. We expect some elaborate intrigue when it is time for the kidnapped Rudi Mackenzie to be rescued.