‘Papers?’ Rafael was surprised.
‘Parchments,’ Robin specified.
Rafael had been sent several times for parchments and papyri that the church considered important for one reason or another. Jordan, Syria, Israel, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, as well as western Europe. Sometimes as a mere courier, other times as a thief or buyer, depending on the case or who possessed them. There was a black market in manuscripts, Rafael knew well. It was more than probable that it had existed for centuries or even millennia. Given that Loyola went to Jerusalem to recover parchments for the church five hundred years ago, the idea was not unbelievable.
‘Loyola went to Jerusalem and returned shortly afterward,’ Rafael reflected.
‘It was extremely quick,’ Robin added. ‘If it were today, he would have gone and returned the same day. Considering the travel conditions in the sixteenth century, he traveled fast. He spent only twenty days in Jerusalem.’
Rafael nodded his head in agreement. ‘So what were the parchments?’
‘Parchments that mentioned parchments that talked about bones,’ Robin said cryptically.
Parchments that talked about parchments that talked about bones, Rafael repeated mentally. Nothing strange. Many of the sepulchers most visited by tourists in modern times owed their existence to information about their exact location found in ancient texts. It was customary to record in several places the locations of those who had departed this world.
‘You know as well as I do that Jewish funeral rites in Jerusalem in the first century were very different from ours,’ Robin continued.
‘I have some idea, but I’m not well versed in the subject.’
‘I understand. You’re more versed in how they put their dead in caves rather than burying them,’ Robin said a little scornfully.
Rafael said nothing. He who speaks truth does not deserve punishment.
‘In general the Jews did not bury their own as frequently as we do, or didn’t bury them completely. They put them in tombs carved in the rock. There could be one or many chambers, well carved or not, depending on the owner or how much money he had, and they were constructed for entire families, except for the women who married into other families. They washed the corpse with water, always from top to bottom, so that impurities from the feet didn’t contaminate other parts of the body. Then they applied oils and perfumes. The corpse was wrapped in a linen shroud, a sadin. Sometimes they used expensive, imported, woven cloth, but we know that He was wrapped in a new linen shroud. This whole procedure was carried out by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, according to the Holy Scriptures. The arms were stretched along the sides of the body, and the feet tied before wrapping the corpse in the shroud. There was a clear separation between the head and the body. The head was never covered by the sadin. What covered the head was called a sudarion.’
‘A burial cloth,’ Rafael repeated.
‘This way, if the dead man’ — Robin sketched quotation marks with his fingers — ‘should come back to life, he would not suffocate. There are numerous stories of relatives who found their dear departed sitting up, waiting for them inside the tomb. One of them is about Anaias, who was found waiting for his family sitting in the tomb, and went on to live more than twenty-five more years.’
‘I’ve heard of him.’
‘From this custom in antiquity, the Byzantines began to install small bells in their cemeteries connected by a cord to the coffin. It could be activated if the dead should wake up.’
Rafael knew about this custom. There was even possible evidence from very ancient European cemeteries. With advances in medicine these customs disappeared, but in Latin countries, where they interred the dead as quickly as possible, it was not rare to find on the lids of excavated coffins fingernail scratches of those who had awakened too late.
‘The Jewish custom was to keep the corpses in niches carved in stone walls in places called kokhim. Unless the death occurred from mutilation or execution, relatives always wanted to be certain their loved one was dead, and not in a kind of coma between sheol, the world of the dead, and that of the living. People were afraid of being buried alive. So they visited their dead for three days or more, not only to verify the actual death, but because this was part of the ceremony. They prostrated themselves before the corpse in respect and used lotions and potions so that the passage to sheol was made correctly. In any case, the subsequent visit to the tomb of Christ was a perfectly normal custom established in the Jewish community. The body remained in the kokhim for a year or more. Because of the geological and climatic conditions of Jerusalem, at the end of a year the body would be totally decomposed, and another ritual began. The bones were taken from the kokhim and placed in ossuaries, stone chests, normally engraved with the name or names of the dead inside. They were then deposited in another place in the tomb, another chamber or space, depending on how the tomb was constructed. No two tombs were alike. Also there were excavated trenches, the ossilegium, where the bones of previous generations reposed. It was not uncommon for the dead man to awaken during the ritual of three days’ visitation. There are even some who claim…’ Robin hesitated. Even for him it was a sacrilege to suggest such a theory.
‘That’s what happened to Lazarus,’ Rafael concluded for him.
Robin looked disdainfully at him. ‘Do you also believe this theory?’
‘I neither believe it nor disbelieve it. It makes no difference to me whether Jesus rose from the dead or never died. I’m an arm or leg, not the head or heart of the church,’ he explained coolly.
‘You’re the arm or leg because the church today doesn’t have a head. The society was always the front line and cornerstone of the Catholic Church.’
‘Perinde ac cadaver, Robin. Your oath,’ Rafael quoted with a sarcastic smile. He opened the book and leafed through it. ‘I’ll bet it’s here somewhere.’
‘Cut the shit,’ Robin swore, and got up and grabbed the Secret Monition out of Rafael’s hands. ‘Don’t give me demagogy.’
‘To obey the pope like a cadaver. Loyola’s fault. It was your idea. If it doesn’t serve you now…’ Rafael continued to provoke him.
‘You know perfectly well why it doesn’t serve us,’ Robin pointed out bitterly. ‘Ratzinger himself made his decision. You can’t blame us for that.’
‘I’m just saying you obey the pope blindly, as was proposed from the beginning, all the time, not just when it’s convenient for you.’
‘Fuck you, Santini,’ Robin said, furious. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’
Rafael controlled himself. He didn’t want Robin to lose patience completely. There were still things to explain.
‘Maybe you’re right. You’re much better informed about these things than I.’ He tried to calm their tempers.
‘The society always has the higher interest of the church in mind. History proves it,’ Robin argued, still a little irritated. ‘We went out on missions to every corner of the earth, converting more faithful than any other religious order, new people for the ranks of the church. We went where no other Christian had ever gone, and are still established there today. We preach the word of the Lord in the language the faithful understand, thinking about them, and not the costs. We invented confession, plenary indulgences, and gave the church the power of omnipresence. If the leaders of the church weaken and decide to betray us, should we continue to serve blindly?’ He paused to let his words sink in. ‘Ad maiorem Dei gloriam is what the society proclaims, and not Ad maiorem papam gloriam.’
It was not worth pursuing the argument. Rafael shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He wasn’t going to continue a one-sided discussion. It was obvious to him that the society owed respect to the pope, and once they depended on him directly, even more respect. There was a huge divide between the Holy See and the Society of Jesus, the white pope and the black pope. Which one was most powerful? He couldn’t say. His duty was to defend Ratzinger, and he would do it until the end.
‘You mentioned parchments that referred to other parchments that spoke of bones.’ Rafael returned to the subject that really interested him.
‘There were.’
‘Put it simply.’
Robin sighed. This was the most delicate subject. He’d already told Rafael too much, more than he should
