How we cite our quotes: Chapter, Paragraph
Quote #1
Maud, my master's wife, was saying this was exactly why we needed a dog. "And a big dog, too," she added, none of us really frightened yet. It was a time of outlaws and traveling beggars, and we were prepared for whatever Heaven brought our way. (1.7)
This establishes that these characters live with a hammer dangling over their head. They're prepared for whatever God hits them with—and since it's the king's men at the front door, they're prepared for whatever the law sends their way as well.
Quote #2
In my ignorance of the ways of God and man I had faith that I could avenge my master's injury. I certainly believed that I could run like this forever, with the Virgin's help. (1.35)
In the beginning, Edmund has a very child-like idea of justice and thinks that he can avenge Otto's death by himself (sure you can, Edmund…). As for running, Edmund's hoping Mary will lend him a hand.
Quote #3
The foulest criminal could absolve himself of wrongdoing before Heaven by joining the army of God. I envied those war pilgrims. I knew that my master was a good man, but a criminal, and that they law would consider me guilty, too. (2.18)
Whenever someone is judged in this story, they're judged on two levels, both religious and governmental. So doing bad in the criminal sense is the same as doing bad in the sinner sense—they can't be separated. So even though it seems unfair that the law would punish Edmund for Otto's crime, Edmund assumes that it's God's will as well as King Richard's. Go team?
Quote #4
"But, good Alan, you see how well he could bear a sword," said the sheriff. Even though the sheriff was uttering careful London-speech, he pronounced swurd like his fellow townsmen. "And an apprentice cannot be held accountable for his master's avarice." (3.23)
Here we have the sheriff questioning a medieval idea of justice. He's probably looking at young, scared Edmund and recognizing his innocence. He realizes that it doesn't make any sense for him to be found guilty of his master's crime and he wants to cut him a break, give him a chance to become a good man himself.
Quote #5
"Indeed you do. The law is a knot. You are mine, now, breath and bone. If I want you." (8.10)
So Edmund may have been cleared of his late master's fate, but now he's been passed onto a new boss—which means he's basically owned by another person. Nigel reminds him that the law is solid: Now that he's been given to Nigel, he's basically Nigel's property. No questions, and no turning back.
Quote #6
"I can't blame you, Hubert," Nigel said, "for nearly slaughtering a drover on your first afternoon in London. After all, you had an idle hour, why not kill a man?" (11.7)
Good thing Hubert has a boss to answer to in order to curb his impulses, right? Without fear of Nigel's judgment, who knows what Hubert would get up to…
Quote #7
Father Joseph used to say that suffering, even squalid illness, was a gift from God. I knew that this fever was sent from Heaven, a reminder that I was the apprentice of a counterfeiter, little better than a thief myself. I was an ordinary young man with no good name, unworthy of the battle for the True Cross. (21.3)
Edmund believes that he has the plague because of Otto's sin. It's kind of like he's taking all the beatings that Otto should have gotten, and he won't ever be able to escape from God's judgment. Edmund accepts this because he believes it—for him, it explains the bad things that happen in life.
Quote #8
An innkeeper-turned-soldier was caught with a pair of oxbone dice, swore he was holding them for a friend he would not incriminate, and the entire army stood watch as a muscular summoner from Ghent gave him ten lashes with a whip. (32.25)
Seems pretty harsh, right? But so it went in medieval times. You break a rule, and whoever's around to mete out punishment will be all over it.
Quote #9
A voice called out that each heathen killed was one less enemy to God. It was Father Urbino, his blond hair dark with sweat. He shook his fist, urging the pikemen at their labor.
Many knights did not enter the harvest. The few Templar men present turned away and left the rest to their work. Nigel watched with a stony gaze. When I caught his eye he let his expression shift to one of stoic distaste. When the tide of fly-carpeted blood crept close to us, Nigel kicked up a dike of dust to keep it from our feet. (33.24-25)
Even though the king has ordered all of the knights to help slaughter the prisoners, some of the knights decide to go with their own judgment and follow their own sense of justice. Nigel is one of them. It's important to realize that sometimes you have to listen to your own conscience.