Foucault's pendulum - Umberto Eco [244]
I didn’t know what to say. Embarrassed by my triumphal entry, I started leafing through papers. But Belbo couldn’t resist. He was like a gambler who’s been shown a pack of cards. “What the hell,” he said. “Life goes on, unfortunately. What did you find?”
“Well, Hitler goes to all that trouble with the Jews, but he accomplishes nothing. Occultists throughout the world, for centuries, have studied Hebrew, rummaged in Hebrew texts, and at most they can draw a horoscope. Why?”
“H’m....Because the Jerusalemites’ fragment of the message is still hidden somewhere. Though the Paulicians’ fragment never turned up either, as far as we know...”
“That’s an answer worthy of Aglie, not of us. I have a better one. The Jews have nothing to do with it.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Jews have nothing to do with the Plan. They can’t. Picture the situation of the Templars, first in Jerusalem, then in their commanderies in Europe. The French knights meet the Germans, the Portuguese, the Spanish, the Italians, the English: they all have contacts with the Byzantine area, and in particular they combat the Turk, an adversary with whom they fight but also maintain a gentlemanly relationship, a relationship of equals. Who were the Jews at that time, in Palestine? A religious and racial minority tolerated by the condescending Arabs but treated very badly by the Christians. We must remember that in the course of the various Crusades the ghettos were sacked as i matter of course and there were massacres all around. Is it conceivable that the Templars, snobs that they were, would exchange mystical information with the Jews? Never. And in the European commanderies, the Jews were considered usurers, were despised, people to be exploited, not trusted. We’re talking about an alliance of knights, about a spiritual knighthood: would the Templars of Provins allow second-class citizens to join that? Out of the question.”
“But what about all that Renaissance magic, and the study of cabala....?”
“That was only natural. By then we’re close to the third meeting; they’re champing at the bit, looking for shortcuts; Hebrew is a sacred and mysterious language; the cabalists have been busy on their own and to other ends. The Thirty-six scattered around the world get the idea that a mysterious language might conceal God knows what secrets. It was Pico della Mirandola who said that nulla nomina, ut significativa et in quantum nomina sunt, in magico opere virtutem habere non possunt, nisi sint Hebraica. Pico della Mirandola was a cretin.”
“Bravo! Now you’re talking!”
“Furthermore, as an Italian, he was excluded from the Plan. ATiat did he know? So much the worse for Agrippa, Reuchlin, and their pals, who fell for that red herring. I’m reconstructing the story of a red herring, a false trail: is that clear? We let ourselves be influenced by Diotallevi, who was always cabaliz-ing. He cabalized, so we put the Jews in the Plan. If he had been a scholar of Chinese culture, would we have put the Chinese in the Plan?”
“Maybe we would have.”
“Anyway, let’s not rend our garments; we were led astray by everyone. They all, from Postel on, probably, made this mistake. Two hundred years after Provins, they were convinced that the sixth group was the Jerusalemites. It wasn’t.”
“Look, Casaubon, we were the ones who revised Ardenti’s theory, we were the ones who said that the appointment at the rock didn’t mean Stonehenge but the Rock in the Mosque of Omar.”
“And we were wrong. There are other rocks. We should have thought of a place founded on rock, on a mountain, a stone, a spur, a cliff...The sixth group waits in the fortress of Ala-mut.”
103
And Kairos appeared, holding in his hand a scepter that signified royalty, and he gave it to the first created God, and he took it and said: “Your secret name shall have 36 letters.”
—Hasan as-Sabbah, Sargozasht is-Sayyidna
A bravura performance, but now explanations were in order. I provided them in the days that followed: long explanations, detailed, documented. On a table at Pilade’s I showed Belbo proof after