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

And one day the king's bailiff arrests him,shows him the white-hot irons, and says: ¡¥Confess, knave! Admityou stuck it up your brother's behind!"Who, me? Your irons make melaugh. I'll show you what a Templar is! I'll stick it up yourbehind, and the pope's. And King Philip's, too, if he comes withinreach!' "

"A confession! That mustbe how it happened," Belbo said. "Then it's off to the dungeon withhim, and a coat of oil every day so he'll burn better when the timecomes."

"They were just a bunchof children," Diotallevi concluded.

We were interrupted by agirl with a strawberry birthmark on her nose; she had some papersin her hand and asked if we had signed the petition for theimprisoned Argentinean comrades.' Belbo signed without reading it."They're even worse off than I am," he said to Diotallevi, who wasregarding him with a bemused expression. "He can't sign," Belbosaid to the girl. "He belongs to a small Indian sect that forbidsits members to write their own names. Many of them are in jailbecause of government persecution." The girl looked sympatheticallyat Diotallevi and passed the petition to me.

"And who are they?" Iasked.

"What do you mean, whoare they? Argentinean comrades."

"But what group do theybelong to?"

"The Tacuaras, Ithink."

"The Tacuaras arefascists," I said. As if I knew one group from theother.

"Fascist pig," the girlhissed at me. She left.

"What you are saying,then," Diotallevi asked, "is that the Templars were just poorbastards?"

"No," I said. "Perhaps Ishouldn't have tried to liven up the story. We were talking aboutthe rank and file, but from the beginning the order received hugedonations and little by little set up commanderies throughoutEurope. Alfonso of Aragon, for example, gave them a whole region.In fact, in his will he wanted to leave the kingdom to them in theevent that he died without issue. The Templars didn't trust him, sothey made a deal¡Xtook the money and ran, more or less. Except thatinstead of money it was half a dozen strongholds in Spain. The kingof Portugal gave them a forest. Since the forest happened to beoccupied by the Saracens, the Templars organized an attack, droveout the Moors, and in the process founded Coimbra. And these arejust a few episodes. The point is this: Part of the order wasfighting in Palestine, but the bulk of it stayed home. Then whathappened? Let's say someone has to go to Palestine. He needs money,and he's afraid to travel with jewels and gold, so he leaves hisfortune with the Templars in France, or in Spain, or in Italy. Theygive him a receipt, and he gets cash for it in theEast."

"A letter of credit,"Belbo said.

"That's right. Theyinvented the checking account long before the bankers of Florence.What with donations, armed conquests, and a percentage from theirfinancial operations, the Templars became a multinational. Runningan operation like that took men who knew what they were doing. Menwho could convince Innocent II to grant them exceptionalprivileges. The order was allowed to keep its booty, and whereverthey owned property, they were answerable not to the king, not tothe bishops or to the patriarch of Jerusalem, but only to the pope.They were exempted from all tithes, but they had the right toimpose their own tithes on the lands under their control...Inshort, the organization was always in the black, and nobody had theright to pry into it. You can see why the bishops and monarchsdidn't like them, though they couldn't do without them. TheCrusaders were terrible screwups. They marched off without any ideaof where they were going or what they would find when they gotthere. But the Templars knew their way around. They knew how todeal with the enemy, they were familiar with the terrain and theart of fighting. The Order of the Temple had become a seriousbusiness, even though its reputation was based on the boasting ofits assault troops."

"And the boasting wasempty?" Diotallevi asked.

"Often. Here again,what's amazing is the gulf between their political andadministrative skill on the one hand and their Green Beret style onthe other: all guts and no brains. Let's take the story ofAscalon¡X"

"Yes, let's," Belbosaid, after a moment's distraction as he greeted, with a great showof lust, a girl named Dolores.

She joined us, saying,"I must hear the story of Ascalon!"

"All right. One fine daythe king of France, the Holy Roman emperor, King Baudouin HI ofJerusalem, and the grand masters of the Templars and theHospitalers all decided to lay siege to Ascalon. They set outtogether: king, court, patriarch, priests carrying crosses andbanners, and the archbishops of Tyre, Nazareth, Caesarea. It waslike a big party, oriftammes and standards flying, tents pitchedaround the enemy city, drums beating. Ascalon was defended by onehundred and fifty towers, and the inhabitants had long beenpreparing for a siege: all the houses had slits made in the walls;they were like fortresses within the fortress. I mean, the Templarswere smart fighters, they should have known these things. But no,everybody got excited, and they built battering rams and woodentowers: you know, those constructions on wheels that you push up tothe enemy walls so you can hurl stones or firebrands or shootarrows while the catapults sling rocks from a distance. TheAscalonites tried to set fire to the towers, but the wind wasagainst them, and they burned their own walls instead, until in oneplace a wall collapsed. The attackers all charged thebreach.

"And then a strangething happened. The grand master of the Templars had a cordon setup so that only his men could enter the city. Cynics say he wastrying to make sure that only the Templars would get the booty. Akinder explanation is that he feared a trap and wanted to send hisown brave men in first. Either way, I wouldn't make him head of amilitary academy. Forty Templars ran full steam straight throughthe city, came to a screeching halt in a great cloud of dust at thewall on the other side, looked at one another, and wondered what inhell they were doing there. Then they about-faced and ran back,racing past the Saracens, who pelted them with rocks and darts,slaughtering the lot of them, grand master included. Then theyclosed the breach, hung the