Eco: Foucalt's Pendulum by eco foucault (important books to read .txt) 📗

hygiene. All you need is a doctorwith a knife. How old were you when you werecircumcised?"

"Let's notnitpick."

"No, let's. Jewsnitpick."

"Nobody can prove mygrandfather wasn't Jewish."

"Of course not; he was afoundling. He could have been anything, the heir to the throne ofByzantium or a Hapsburg bastard."

"He was found near thePortico d'Ottavia, in the ghetto in Rome."

"But your grandmotherwasn't Jewish, and Jewish descent is supposed to bematrilineal..."

"And skipping registryreasons¡Xand municipal ledgers can also be read beyond theletter¡Xthere are reasons of blood. The blood in me says that mythoughts are exquisitely Talmudic, and it would be racist for youto claim that a gentile can be as exquisitely Talmudic as Iam."

He left. "Don't pay anyattention," Belbo said. "We have this argument almost every day.The fact is, Diotallevi is a devotee of the cabala. But there werealso Christian cabalists. Anyway, if Diotallevi wants to be Jewish,why should I object?"

"Why indeed. We're allliberals here."

"So we are."

He lit a cigarette. Iremembered why I had come. "You mentioned a manuscript about theTemplars," I said.

"That's right...Let'ssee. It was in a fake-leather folder..."He tried to pick amanuscript out of the middle of a pile without disturbing theothers. A hazardous operation. Part of the pile fell to the floor.Now Belbo was holding the fake-leather folder.

I looked at the table ofcontents and the introduction. "It deals with the arrest of theTemplars," I said. "In 1307, Philip the Fair decided to arrest allthe Templars in France. There's a legend that two days beforePhilip issued the arrest warrant, the ox-drawn hay wain left theenclave of the Temple in Paris for an

unknown destination.They say that hidden in the wain was a group of knights led by oneAumont. These knights supposedly escaped, took refuge in Scotland,and joined a Masonic lodge in Kilwinning. According to the legend,they became part of the society of Freemasons, who served asguardians of the secrets of the Temple of Solomon. Ah, here we are;I thought so. This writer, too, claims that the origins of Masonrylie in the Templars' escape to Scotland. A story that's beenrehashed for a couple of centuries, with no foundation to it. I cangive you at least fifty pamphlets that tell the same tale, eachcribbed from the other. Here, listen to this¡Xjust a page picked atrandom: ¡¥The proof of the Scottish expedition lies in the factthat even today, six hundred and fifty years later, there stillexist in the world secret orders that hark back to the TempleMilitia. How else is one to explain the continuity of thisheritage?' You see what I mean? How can the Marquis de Carabas notexist when Puss in Boots says he's in the marquis'sservice?"

"All right," Belbo said,"I'll throw it out. But this Templar business interests me. Foronce I have an expert handy, and I don't want to let him get away.Why is there all this talk about the Templars and nothing about theKnights of Malta? No, don't tell me now. It's late. Diotallevi andI have to go to dinner with Signor Garamond in a little while. Weshould be through by about ten-thirty. I'll try to persuadeDiotallevi to drop by Pi-lade's¡Xhe goes to bed early and usuallydoesn't drink. Will you be there?"

"Where else? I belong toa lost generation and am comfortable only in the company of otherswho are lost and lonely.''

13

Li frere, li mestre duTemple

Qu'estoient rempli etample

D'or et d'argent et derichesse

Et qui menoient telnoblesse,

Ou sont ils? que sontdevenu?

¡XChronique a la suitedu roman de Favel

Et in Arcadia ego. Thatevening Pilade's was the image of the golden age. One of thoseevenings when you feel that not only will there definitely be arevolution, but that the Association of Manufacturers will foot thebill for it. Where but at Pilade's could you watch the beardedowner of a cotton mill, wearing a parka, play hearts with a futurefugitive from justice dressed in a double-breasted jacket and tie?This was the dawn of great changes in style. Until the beginning ofthe sixties, beards were fascist, and you had to trim them, andshave your cheeks, in the style of Italo Balbo; but by ¡¥68 beardsmeant protest, and now they were becoming neutral, universal, amatter of personal preference. Beards have always been masks (youwear a fake beard to keep from being recognized), but in thoseyears, the early seventies, a real beard was also a disguise. Youcould lie while telling the truth¡Xor, rather, by making the truthelusive and enigmatic. A man's politics could no longer be guessedfrom his beard. That evening, beards seemed to hover onclean-shaven faces whose very lack of hair suggesteddefiance.

I digress. Belbo andDiotallevi arrived tense, exchanging harsh whispers about thedinner they had just come from. Only later did I learn what SignerGaramond's dinners were.

Belbo went straight tohis favorite distillations; Diotallevi, after pondering at length,decided on tonic water. We found a little table in the back. Twotram drivers who had to get up early the next morning wereleaving.

"Now then," Diotallevisaid, "these Templars..."

"But, really, you canread about the Templars anywhere..."

"We prefer the oraltradition," Belbo said.

"It's more mystical,"Diotallevi said. "God created the world by speaking, He didn't senda telegram."

"Fiat lux, stop," Belbosaid.

"Epistle follows," Isaid.

"The Templars, then?"Belbo asked.

"Very well," I said. "Tobegin with..."

"You should never beginwith ¡¥To begin with,' " Diotallevi objected.

"To begin with, there'sthe First Crusade. Godefroy worships at the Holy Sepulcher andfulfills his vow. Baudouin becomes the first king of Jerusalem. AChristian kingdom in the Holy Land. But holding Jerusalem is onething; quite another, to conquer the rest of Palestine. TheSaracens are down but not out. Life's not easy for the newoccupiers, and not easy for the pilgrims either. And then in 1118,during the reign of Baudouin II, nine young men led by a fellownamed Hugues de Payns arrive and set up the nucleus of an order ofthe Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Jesus Christ: a monastic order, butwith sword and shield. The three classic vows of poverty, chastity,and obedience, plus a fourth: defense of pilgrims. The king, thebishop, everyone in Jerusalem contributes money, offers the knightslodging, and finally sets them up in the cloister of the old Templeof Solomon. From then on they are known as the Knights of theTemple."

"But what were theyreally?"

"Hugues and the originaleight others were