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

the mass arrest of the Templars and theconfiscation of their property. A month went by between the issuingof this order and the arrest on October 13. But the Templarssuspected nothing. On that October morning they all fell into thetrap and¡Xanother enigma¡Xgave themselves up without a fight. Infact, in the days before the arrests, using the most feebleexcuses, the king's men, wanting to make sure that nothing wouldescape confiscation, had conducted a kind of inventory of theTemple's possessions throughput the country. And still the Templarsdid nothing. Come right in, my dear bailiff, take a look around,make yourself at home.

When he learned what hadhappened, the pope hazarded a protest, but it was too late. Theroyal investigators had already brought out their irons and ropes,and many Knights had begun to confess under torture. When theyconfessed, they were handed over to inquisitors, who had methods oftheir own, even though they were not yet burning people at thestake. The Knights confirmed their confessions.

This is the thirdmystery. Granted, there was torture, and it must have beenvigorous, since thirty-six Knights died in the course of it. Butnot a single one of these men of iron, seasoned by their battleswith the cruel Tlirk, resisted arrest. In Paris only four Knightsout of a hundred and thirty-eight refused to confess. All theothers did, including Jacques de Molay.

"What did they confess?"Belbo asked.

"They confessed exactlywhat was charged in the arrest warrant. There was hardly anyvariation in the testimony, at least not in France and Italy. InEngland, where nobody really wanted to go through with the trial,the usual accusations appeared in the depositions, but they wereattributed to witnesses outside the order, whose testimony washearsay. In other words, the Templars confessed only when asked to,and then only to what was charged."

"Same old inquisitionalstuff. We've seen it often," Belbo remarked.

"Yet the behavior of theaccused was odd. The charges were that during their initiationrites the Templars denied Christ three times, spat on the crucifix,and were stripped and kissed in posteriori parte spine dorsi, inother words, on the behind, then on the navel and the mouth, inhumane dignitatis opprobrium. That they then engaged in mutualfornication. That they were then shown the head of a bearded idol,which they had to worship. Now, how did the accused respond tothese charges? Geoffroy de Charnay, who was later burned at thestake with Molay, said that, yes, it had happened to him; he haddenied Christ, but with his mouth, not his heart; he didn't recallwhether he spat on the crucifix, because they had been in such ahurry that night. As for the kiss on the behind, that also hadhappened to him, and he had heard the preceptor of Auvergne saythat, after all, it was better to couple with brothers than to bebefouled by a woman, but he personally had not committed carnalsins with other Knights. In other words: Yes, it's all true, but itwas only a game, nobody really believed in it, and anyway it wasthe others who did it, I just went along to be polite. Jacques deMolay¡Xthe grand master himself¡Xsaid that when they gave him thecrucifix, he only pretended to spit on it and spat on the groundinstead. He admitted that the initiation ceremonies were more orless as described, but¡Xto tell the truth¡Xhe couldn't say forsure, because he had initiated very few brothers in the course ofhis career. Another Knight said that he had kissed the master, butonly on the mouth, not the behind; it was the master who kissed himon the behind. Some did confess to more than was necessary, sayingthat they had not only denied Christ but also called Him acriminal, and they had denied the virginity of Mary, and they hadurinated on the crucifix, not only on the day of their initiation,but during Holy Week as well. They didn't believe in thesacraments, they said, and they worshiped not only Ba-phomet butalso the Devil in the form of a cat..."

Equally grotesque,though not as incredible, is the pas de deux that now beginsbetween the king and the pope. The pope wants to take charge of thecase; the king insists on seeing the trial through to itsconclusion. The pope suggests a temporary suspension of the order:the guilty will be sentenced, then the Temple will be revived inits original purity. The king wants the scandal to spread, wants itto involve the entire order. This will lead to the order's completedissolution¡Xpolitically, religiously, and, most of all,financially.

At one point a documentis produced that's a pure masterpiece. Some doctors of theologyargue that in order to prevent them from retracting theirconfessions, the accused should be denied any defense. Since theyhave already confessed, there is no need for a trial. A trial isrequired only if some doubt about the case exists, and here thereis no doubt. "Why allow them a defense, whose only purpose would beto shield them from the consequences of their admitted errors? Theevidence renders their punishment inescapable."

But there is still arisk that the pope might take control of the trial, so the king andNogaret set up a sensational case involving the bishop of Troyes,who is accused of witchcraft by the secret testimony of amysterious conspirator named Noffo Dei. It will be discovered laterthat Dei lied¡Xand he will be hanged for his trouble¡Xbut in themeantime the poor bishop is publicly accused of sodomy, sacrilege,and usury; the same crimes as the Templars. Perhaps the king istrying to show the sons of France that the Church has no right tosit in judgment on the Templars, since it is itself not untouchedby their sins; or perhaps he is simply giving the pope a warning tostay away. It's all very murky, a crisscrossing of various policeforces and secret services, mutual infiltrations and anonymousaccusations. The pope is now cornered, and he agrees to interrogateseventy-two Templars, who repeat the confessions they made undertorture. But the pope observes that they have repented, and usestheir abjuration¡Xa trump card¡Xas an excuse to pardonthem.

And here something elsehappens¡Xit was a problem I had to resolve in my thesis, but I wastorn between contradictory sources. Just when the pope has finallywon jurisdiction over the knights, he