How does a man who as committed a heavy sin — not a crime, but a sin with terrible consequences — atone for his behaviour? What if the man is a priest of the Church of England? That is the central question of E. W. Hornung’s Peccavi (I have sinned). The Rev. Robert Carlton, rector of the rural parish of Long Stow, now finds not only his parishioners turned against him, but also his patron Wilton Gleed, for under English ecclesiastical law’s allowance of advowson, a patron (usually a notable) could in effect name a particular clergyman to a church living, or benefice, under his control. What the patron could not do, however, was to eject a rector from his church and his rectory; that was a matter for the local bishop, not him. ( Nicholas Clifford)

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