How we cite our quotes: Chapter, Paragraph
Quote #1
But then the startling music of splintering oak flung me out of bed. I offered a silent prayer to Saint Mark, the patron saint of those who would be brave. (1.4)
The saints that Edmund prays to act like role models. Each time he prays to them, he's invoking a different virtue—strength, wisdom, and so on. It's always easier to find inspiration when you're trying to uphold something good. Even if he doesn't actually know a lot of people he could use as role models, he is familiar with his saints.
Quote #2
One of the Exchequer's men held the white thing flat against the base of the anvil while a companion drove a spike through it, like a hand of Our Lord on the Tree. (1.23)
Edmund makes it obvious that he's grown up in a culture that's very influenced by his religion. When Otto's hand is cut off, Edmund compares it to Jesus's death on the cross. All of that imagery is very much present in his mind and imagination.
Quote #3
The Holy Father in Rome had decreed that all who fought to take Jerusalem from the heathen would obtain indulgences—forgiveness of sins. 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 the law would consider me guilty too. And so would Heaven. (2.18)
Here's an example of how the church and state were linked back then. The Pope orders a war—and gets people to join by saying their sins will be forgiven if they do. Good leverage, right? But there's more implied in this passage. Edmund admits without question that he's being judged in Heaven because of Otto's sin.