In the Brother Cadfael episode, what was Cadfael's view of faith and religion? How does his outlook compare to his contempories?I also need to...

In the British series, Brother
Cadfael, Derek Jacobi plays a monk in medieval England.  Like some of his
literary counterparts, Cadfael is representative of a perspective on the relationship of
faith and religion to the world.  In the Middle Ages, religion (often termed "theology")
was the "Queen of the Sciences," meaning that all other forms of inquiry was
subordinate, and also in service to it.  Much of this was reinforced by the stronly
rationalistic tendency in medieval thought.  Reason was a tool by which the works of God
could be known (to an extent). 

The series presents Brother
Cadfael as a challenger to this point of view.  That is not to say that Cadfael is
antagonistic toward the Church or the faith, but his perspective is portrayed more
broadly than that.  Cadfael, a monk with a penchant for solving crimes, is an
empiricist.  Empiricism refers to the reliance on experience for meaningful knowledge of
the world.  Rather than trusting on revelation (God revealing knowledge to him), Cadfael
actively seeks to gain knowledge directly from nature, generally in the form of clues. 
As far as faith and religion are concerned, Cadfael believes that they have their
sphere.  There are some aspects of the world where an empirical method is the more
beneficial method.

Cadfael seems much different than many
of the other characters in the series, not just in the one episode.  The
other characters serve as a foil for his investigative abilities.  His method and
abilities seem all the more impressive when there is no meaningful
(empirical) competition from those around him.  In the larger historical context,
empiricism gained ground in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.  Some of its most
important exponents were Roger Bacon, Robert Grosseteste, and Albertus Magnus, just
to name three.

The episode also reveals medieval attitudes
toward women and also what medieval societies valued in terms of character and
morality.  Women were generally viewed with a degree of distrust, specifically those
women who were not virginal - an attitude that goes back to Eve's falling to temptation
in Genesis.  In general, what Cadfael represents does not reflect what most in his life
situation as a monk would prefer to see in terms of character.  Important among them
characteristics for monks were humility and devotion.  The former tends to work against
sticking out from the crowd, and the latter tends to not play well with competing
viewpoints, empiricism in this case.