“seeing that the greater part of the front of the shrine had lost its plating, and horrified by the shameful circumstances of the fire, we agreed to summon a goldsmith secretly, and we made him join the metal sheets and re-affix them to the shrine as quickly as possible to avoid public disgrace (96).”

The quote shows how the abbey has a precarious position in society. While in class we have discussed the power of the church. To maintain the face of the church the caretakers were required to call a goldsmith at night to secretly patch that were impacted by the fire. Furthermore, in order to maintain the public’s faith in the church the monks proceed to lie about how the fire started claiming it to be candles and that only a few towels were destroyed. If the true damage and cause of the fire was revealed, the abbey would most likely lose the support of the public since it would be considered that god may have struck them down. The fire shows how the supernatural and public image play a role in the terms the power dynamic between church and monarchy. If the caretakers admit the church fire had more wide spread damage than what was shown, they risk residents losing hope in the christian faith or would assume that the abbey may have been sinning and it was an act of divine punishment.