Church And State

The medieval church-state conflict that we saw in Part Six of Poul Anderson's Time Patrol novel, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), continues in 1307 in his last Time Patrol short story, "Death and the Knight":

"'That's a critical point in a critical timespan. Philip [of France] isn't simply wrecking the Templars, he's undermining his feudal lords, drawing more and more power to himself. The Church, too. I said he has Pope Clement in his pocket. The Babylonian Captivity of the Popes in Avignon begins in Philip's reign. They'll return to Rome eventually, but they'll never be the same. In other words, what's in embryo there is the modern, almighty state, Louis XIV, Napoleon, Stalin, IRS.' Everard considered. 'I don't say that aborting it might not be a nice idea in principle, but it's part of our history, the one the Patrol is here to preserve.'"
-Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006), p. 751.

But there is a difference between Frederick's and Philip's church-state conflicts. In the twelfth century, the feudal Emperor and the Pope contested for power whereas Philip is subordinating the feudal lords as well as the Church. As Everard indicates, he is building the modern nation-state whose power overrides feudal loyalties and especially any reverence towards land-holding bishops, abbots or religious orders. In the feudal system, the King of England ruled parts of France because the Duke of Normandy had conquered England while remaining Duke of Normandy. His French subordinates now had their King in England, not in France - although William centralized power in England by making all landholders swear fealty directly to him, not to greater lords as in the rest of the feudal system.

In timeline beta, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II's decisive defeat of the Church produced only an autocratic peasantry-exploiting empire that finally collapsed like the Roman and ancient Empires before it whereas Philip's more modern state allowed some measure of social and scientific progress.

Harfleur

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

Harfleur is the chief seaport of northwestern France and the location of Time Patrol operational headquarters in the early fouteenth century;

cargoes arrive from many places and international bargains are struck;

strangers are unremarked whereas inland there are regulations, duties, taxes, social divisions and expectations;

Boniface Reynaud of the Patrol, from nine hundred years in the future, has spent twenty years creating the career of Reinault Bodel, respectable wool dealer, choosing wife, servants, laborers and apprentices for their discretion and starting a family;

he keeps a dockside shed empty and locked for timecycles to arrive in and depart from.

The Knights Templar

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006), pp. 737-765).

Poul Anderson was asked to contribute to an anthology of original short stories about the Knights Templar. He thought that it seemed a good place for another Time Patrol story. I agree but would not have thought of that. A story about the Knights might be historical fiction or fantasy (I seem to remember that most in this anthology were the latter) but Anderson made his science fiction and made it part of an existing series and was commendably restrained in his treatment of the Knights.

He gives us a detailed history of the Knights as a secretive military religious order, pioneering banking and accumulating wealth, with a circular causality explanation of why their fleet escaped when most of the Knights were arrested. He does not make them a front for the Time Patrol. They are simply an historically important organization that the Patrol must infiltrate to gather intelligence.

He informs us that the idol that they are accused of worshiping is merely a relic believed to be Abraham's jawbone, although even this might be suspect since "'...the ancient Greeks kept the jawbones of heroes for oracles.'" (p. 755)

Religion in France, 1307, is extremely varied:

"'Everybody nowadays is superstitious. Heresy is widespread, if mostly covert; likewise witchcraft and other pagan survivals. Heterodoxy in a thousand different forms is almost universal among the illiterate majority, ignorant of orthodox theology. The Templars have long been exposed to Islam, not always in a hostile fashion, and the Muslim world is full of magicians.'" (ibid.)

Pagan survivals, Muslim influence and illiteracy causing heterodoxy: the Church used to pride itself on uniformity of doctrine throughout its membership. When betrayed by Christendom, most Knights go the Moors who disperse them among their forces. Could the dispersed Knights have influenced Christian heresies and Muslim sects (p. 749)? The Patrol must investigate. New speculations and fictions could proliferate.

In an introduction to this story, Anderson writes that The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, co-founded and co-edited by Anthony Boucher:

"...was where the Time Patrol stories got started and most of them appeared. They have been collected in two volumes, The Time Patrol and The Shield Of Time." (p. 738)

Not most in FSF but the first five of thirteen, if we count the tripartite ...Shield... as three.

Finding an Unexpected Connection by Sean M. Brooks

I recently reread (June, 2011) Poul Anderson's historical novel ROGUE SWORD. The book is set in the waning days of the Eastern Roman Empire of the early 1300's. The Catalan Grand Company of mercenaries was then ravaging the dying Empire. Because the Eastern Emperor Andronicus II had treacherously murdered the Grand Company's leader.

A secondary but important character in ROGUE SWORD is Brother Hugh de Tourneville, a knight of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem/Rhodes/Malta. Brother Hugh's name seemed familiar, and I found his surname in THE HIGH CRUSADE.

A few quotes are indicated. The protagonist is Lucas Greco, who is waiting at the beginning of Chapter I to meet a new friend: "He stood in the Augustaion, waiting for Brother Hugh de Tourneville to meet him as they had agreed." Later in the same chapter I read: "this gentle, drawling second son of a Lincolnshire baron..."

Next I found this in Chapter I of THE HIGH CRUSADE (Brother Parvus narrating): "I was born some forty years before my story begins, a younger son of Wat Brown. He was blacksmith in the little town of Ansby, which lay in northeastern Lincolnshire. The lands were enfeoffed to the Baron de Tourneville..." (Baron Roger).
I was surprised ROGUE SWORD and THE HIGH CRUSADE had a connection of any kind. For one thing, THE HIGH CRUSADE, while a serious book, is often rollicking. ROGUE SWORD, by contrast, is a fierce, grim, and bloody book.

It was the year 1306 when Lucas Greco first met Brother Hugh de Tourneville. THE HIGH CRUSADE begins in 1345. My guess is Brother Hugh was the younger brother of Baron Roger's grandfather Nevil de Tourneville (mentioned in Chapter IX of CRUSADE). The Tourneville family was also said to be descended from a bastard son of William the Conqueror.

THE HIGH CRUSADE was first published as a magazine serialization in 1959 and published as a book in 1960. ROGUE SWORD was published in 1960 and reprinted by Zebra Books in 1980.

I also thought of how, in Chapter XV of ROGUE SWORD (and various other pages) Poul Anderson seems to have accepted the hostile view of the Knights Templar spread by their enemies. However, the last Time Patrol story Anderson wrote: "Death and the Knight," gives a less starkly negative view of the Templars.