The Family - Mario Puzo [56]
“But he is also the one known as the strangler,” Cesare said.
“Yes, my son, he is called the strangler, but he is much more than that. He is an accomplished leader of troops, a ferocious warrior—and, most important, he would die protecting our family. His loyalty is as fierce as his fury. So make no mistake, he is not only a killer. He can be trusted completely.”
“And the other?” Cesare asked.
“The second man is Duarte Brandao. About his past I can tell you little, for he was captured and brought to me as a prisoner many years ago when I requested an English translator and my own was unavailable. But he had been beaten badly by our own troops, and swore he remembered nothing of his past.”
“And still you kept him?” Cesare asked.
Alexander sat, remembering. “The first I saw of him he was filthy and disheveled, as any prisoner who had been locked in the dungeons would be, but once he was bathed and given proper clothing he was brought to me again. On that day, something in his demeanor sparked a memory of one Edward Brampton, a converted Jew, who rendered great service to Edward the Fourth of England. I had seen him only once, long before, but I took note of him, for he was the first Jew ever knighted. It is said he served the king’s brother, Richard the Third, who as you know was slain by Henry Tudor’s men. Brampton fought in great land and sea battles for Edward the Fourth, and literally saved the entire English fleet for Richard the Third. That’s when Brampton disappeared from England, and about the time that Duarte Brandao was captured in Rome. The Tudors would have killed him had they caught him, and even now he is always in danger from Tudor agents.”
“And that accounts for his change of name, Father?” Cesare asked. “But is Brandao a Jew?”
Alexander said, “If so he’s a convert to the Holy Catholic Church, for I’ve seen him take Communion. And for these past seven years he has served me and the Holy Mother Church more religiously than any other man I know. He’s the most courageous and intelligent man I’ve ever met, a fine soldier and oddly enough a highly skilled seaman too.”
“I’m not objecting to him being a Jew, Father,” Cesare said, with an amused expression. “I’m just wondering what anyone else will think when they find that you, the head of the Holy Roman Catholic Church, is being advised by a man who is not even a Christian.”
Alexander smiled. “I’m glad you don’t object, my son,” he said sarcastically. Then his voice took on a more serious tone. “You know my views on the Jewish situation, Cesare. When Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain asked that I imprison, torture, and kill Jews who dared to practice their religion in secret, I refused. I told them I believed the Spanish Inquisition was an abomination, as was the treatment of Jews in their own country. After all, these people gave us the law; they gave us Jesus. Should I slaughter them because they don’t believe he’s the Son of God? I will not! I can’t always prevent our citizens or even our officials from attacking or abusing them, but it certainly is not my policy.”
Cesare knew that when Popes were elected, part of the ceremony was that the new Pope was offered the book of Hebrew laws by the head of Rome’s Jewish community. Every other Pope had taken the book and thrown it to the ground in revulsion. Only his father had not. Alexander VI, too, had rejected it—but he had handed it back, with respect.
Now Cesare asked, “What is your policy, Father?”
“I will not harm them,” the Pope said. “I will, however, tax them heavily.”
10
POPE ALEXANDER HAD been betrayed at the moment of his greatest need by Virginio Orsini, one of his papal barons, a man he trusted, and he did not suffer this betrayal lightly. The devil had claimed another soul, he reasoned, and the devil must be destroyed. The fact that Virginio himself had been captured, tortured, and killed in one of the most notorious dungeons of Naples did not rid Alexander of his need for revenge.
To the Pope, this became a very real battle between the Vicar of Christ on Earth