Cathedral, Hopkins -B +

         This is one of those grand, sweeping historical novels covering a century and a half in the city of Hagenburg, near the Rhine in Alsace. We begin in 1229 and meet our first two narrators, Rettich Schaeffer, a bright stonemason's apprentice, and the Bishop's Treasurer, Eugenius von Zabern, a cynical older man. Zabern's job is to continually raise money for the Bishop's varied expenses, not the least of which is funding the new cathedral. He travels around the diocese twice per year raising funds and collecting taxes. He outs various noblemen and whole villages as heretics, so the Dominicans can come in, burn them at the stake, and he can confiscate their wealth. The bishop sends Zabern to Rome in a failed attempt to improve the diocese's finances where he makes some powerful enemies. Nonetheless, he is still the Bishop's preferred successor.

        A few years later, the cathedral project has been cut back with fewer workers, masters and obviously, money. Rettich's  younger siblings are prospering. His sister Grete is a mistress in the drapers guild and his brother Emmerich is an important financial liaison to the Jewish community. They are representative of the rising merchant class that is politely challenging the church and its role as the leader of  society. They are anxious about piracy on the Rhine affecting their profits. When the Bishop finally dies, Zabern is again in Rome where his enemies attack and viciously blind him. The new Bishop, von Stahlem, is stricter; with a penchant for doing things by the book, and he re-prioritizes the cathedral project. The Bishop turns a blind eye to the piracy supported by Count Schwanenstein, a supporter, and someone displeased with the rise of the merchants and Jews. The Count's castle is besieged and falls to a catapult that turns the tide. Emmerich, who had led the fight on behalf of the merchants, and the Baron, who had provided the fighters, have a falling out, and Emmerich heads off to greener fields in Constantinople. He leaves behind a town with the Bishop becoming more autocratic and the community desiring to be free of his overbearing rule.

      The following year, 1249, sees the butchers and tanners , motivated by the Jews perceived responsibility for the plague and their petty debts to the lenders, descend on the Jewish quarter in a crazed frenzy of slaughter. Plunder follows the burning at the stake of 1,000 of the town's citizens. A decade later, Judah Rosheimer, the illegitimate son of Emmerich Shaeffer and the wife of a pious Jewish man and the leader of the community coordinates with the Rabbi an exploration of an invitation to leave the Rhineland and move to Poland. A new Bishop is about to be installed and the dynamics of the community will change. He is Walter von Kolzeck and he will reinstate the church to its appropriate place atop society. He excommunicates the city's leaders and then excommunicates the entire city. There is turmoil and war throughout the Rhineland, and the Bishop is allied with the forces opposing Rudolph von Hapsburg, who was backed by the city's merchants. The Bishop loses, takes to drink, and soon passes from this veil of tears. Once again, the future of Hagenburg is up in the air.  The aged and blind von Zabern gets the Papal nod.  Emmerich returns after a sixteen year absence and assumes the role of the Bishop's secretary. Emmerich plays a winning hand for the city and the Bishop when he favors von Hapsburg with a generous gift prior to his election to the Holy Roman Empire throne. The Bishop dies in 1273 and the now ennobled Emmerich in 1279.

     The story closes with an epilogue in 1350. The spires of the cathedral reach to the sky, but below, the city lies in near ruin. The Plague has struck.