Ridiculous denoument

Oscar Wilde wrote: "The good ended happily, the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means." All the ends were neatly and satisfactorily tied up at the end of The Pillars of the Earth. No one aged very much except Prior Phillip, who looked a bit like the torturer from The Princess Bride by the end.

What I really found silly was Prior Phillip's talk to the congregation at the very end. It was so modern Anglican in style and tone that I wondered if I were suddenly watching Rev. Was Kingsbridge a sort of Brigadoon, with everyone coming to life for one day in every century?