Brother Diggery, formerly called Jack Fox, tells us that he
was given to the monastic order of St Odo at the age of seven in 1341. For
another seven years, he is raised in innocence within the strict rules of the
community, serving the brother healer, learning herbal remedies, and playing
the hurdy gurdy.
As plague arrives in 1349, he is assigned to help care for the anticipated sick
– and immediately falls ill. The brothers seal him inside his cell, where he
suffers greatly, narrowly escaping death; however, when he recovers and forces
himself out of confinement, he discovers that everyone else has died or fled.
After filling a mass grave with the remains of his brothers, he sets out on a
picaresque series of adventures, blithely unaware that he and his fleas spread
illness wherever they go.
Like a fourteenth-century Candide, Brother Diggery’s gullibility and curiosity
lead him to discover the wonders of good food, sex, and marriage, the cruelty
of lies, theft, and wrongful imprisonment, and the corruption of the church (p.
164). He closes his account in 1352, age 18, already twice widowed, but set for
life as a lay physician and father of a young boy whom he plans to give to the
monastery of St Odo when he reaches age seven.
