TRIP AMONG TWO WORLDS

21

7 October of 1472.

The Spaniard began the story. The man was directed and incisive, without preambles you/he/she said: "Monk Carlo, my name is not Armanio, on the contrary Armand… so my father called me, they are not of French origin Spanish as I have pronounced thin to today, but there are motives important back these choices to conceal the truth. Departed big part of my life near Chateauroux, where I studied the Latin language, that Greek fret and some rudiments of the language of the infidels, I drew near me to the texts of the fathers of the Church and I appreciated Agostino and all of his/her scholasticism. The library which I entered also preserved manuscripts of pagan authors as Cicero and Seneca and works of Greek philosophers, among which, with intellectual wonder, I could appreciate Plato and Aristotle… " This was a declaration that shaken monk Carlo. Who had in front of itself? He/she thought. And he/she asked him: "Which I/you/they are the motives that you have for concealing your identity, who are really? " He/she asked Charles stunned by those words: "I understand that I/you/he/she am absurd but I have good motives, make to tell me everything since the beginning and you will understand, perhaps, my forced choice… I am indeed however a religious" "Forgive me… continuous… your words have disorientated me, but looking at your eyes I have the feeling that you have not done anything wicked to hide your identity" The monk Spanish resumptions the word: "I was submitted to the cares of the you circumstantiate of Citeaux in 1453, following the death of my father. Famous to have entertained St. Bernando of Chiaravalle, the monastery was risen imposing on a steep fortress from the distant 1098, eve of the conquest of the City Saint. The prior was Conrad of Avignone, man from the penetrating and severe look, endowed with extraordinary acumen. The cares of the crypt I was submitted to, where I could admire the treasures guarded ivi. My mind you/he/she can never cancel the memory of the mirabilia which I was from now on me and of which was personal person responsible. I saw a fragment of the Saint Cross on which Jesus found the death, I saw a shred of the tunic of St. Joseph and the dish engraved in the wood of the peace, used by Jesus Cristo during the last supper and a lock of hair of Giovanni Battista. For 8 long years, my assignment was that to hold in order the shrines and the caskets that were found in the damp crypt, taking the votes in March of 1459. One day of November of 1460, to the 21 year-old age, I had an interview with Joseph of Montefeltro, a known Italian brother during my first days of permanence to Citeaux, deep expert of the Greek philosophy with which compared our positions on the thought of Aristotle and we found us in agreement in to hold the syllogism the base of the logic. He studied on a text of the Greek philosopher of which I ignored the existence, assuring me that I would have found a good translation of it in French in the library of the monastery. Did it add sic et simpliciter that "this volume was freely accessible". Hearing that sentence I wondered me more times among' Charles, which meant they had these words, perhaps in the monastery forbidden texts existed? I set me these questions and I questioned the monk respect the access to the library, and he explained that all the present books on the shelves were consultabili in the scriptorium. When inclusive that in my words a veiled suspect insinuated him, you/he/she added that of other documents even the prior ignored the existence. I didn't want that my excessive curiosity braked its words, therefore I got further me without questioning him/it on these possible documents. I hoped in vain that the following days it returned on the matter. I wondered Me: "For which dark motive he knew of texts whose presence was ignored even from Father Conrad? " Father Armand was informed subsequently that he had been confessor of Arnoldo of Citeaux, ex-prior of the monastery, deceased in circumstances ever clarified during the fire that had involved the stalls and part of the refectory. His/her brother Joseph was informed from Arnoldo of the presence of forbidden texts, hidden in some place of the monastery. P. Armand stopped him for an instant and turning him/it look in the void. Charles, observed him/it and asked him: "And then thing happened? " This way, the Spaniard resumptions his/her story: "The plots of the tall one are often distant from the human Reason, Providence wanted that in to take in hand an ivory casket and onyx from the crypt, a candle, that fell for earth creating an effect of light unawares bumped I damage. The damp of the ground extinguished in few instants the fiammella, but I was not able not to ignore him surface of the stones of the floor that from by now four years I stamped on. You/they had always appeared to my eyes perfectly smoothed, while they were revealing him for a brief instant it engraved in way all anything else other than casual. In the complete faint light I reached the steel that I guarded in a wood cassette, and picked up the candle, I had to attend some second before the damp of the wick allowed the flame to still burn. I brought the candle on the candelabrum, but I noticed that the floor again seemed smoothed and shiny. Surprised for the game of light, I approached the candle to the ground, and the incisions finally reappeared, was invisible to my eyes for four years thanks to the talent of he who you/he/she had predisposed the candelabrum in that only point, from which the light created an optic effect that hid in amazing way the furrows of the stone. A circular plate was surrounded by smaller fragments of rock, prepared to crown, on each of they was graven of the rays that seemed to originate from the central stone, which brought a deep Croix Pattée templare." To Citeaux it made St. Bernando of Chiaravalle, he who in the year of the Lord 1128 summoned the Council of Troyes to recognize the new Militia Christi founded by Ugo of Payns ten years before and to write the rule for the order of the Poor Riders of Christ.

22

Monk Carlo felt to speak of the order, years before, when, his/her father, the history of the Templaris narrated him, during one of the trips that did together. In that period Charles grieved and learned far through the reading of manuscripts and stories, histories and legends of earths and men of a past, histories of sailors and a nautical paper that you/he/she reproduced the Mediterranean one, with nonexistent earths then. That that Ludovico let to his/her grandfather saw. Then his/her father, Ludovico, mentioned him of the existence of other papers in which earths had turned back beyond the Columns of Ercole, over the ocean, and the history of Plato also narrated him. However, however fascinating and mysterious, this, didn't become an obsession as for his/her father, to the search of truth and lost answers in the time. Ludovico, inevitably narrated him of some gossips that you/they were heard, of frequent in the various harbors, of a possible trip, with the help of ancient maps I pour those unknown earths and of a treasure that you/they brought them establishing himself/herself/itself away from the authority of the Church. That stories, the maps, that Charles knew, served for the more to strengthen, in every way, the convictions of Ludovico on the antiquity of the Earth. Charles interested in the convictions of his/her/their father on the originality of that documents, and fascinated by the story of the philosopher, he/she wanted to know that day, as far as possible, the history of the order of the Riders. While father Armanio was closed in long silence, Charles returned with the mind to the dialogue that had years first with his/her/their father: "Father you have made me partecipe of a lot of things, but I would like to know better the history of the Templaris, I am curious" "My child, the Templaris are a religious, ancient and powerful order, brave riders, the foundation goes up again to nine noble French in trip in Earth Saint in 1119, twenty years after the conquest and the occupation in Jerusalem from the European strengths in the 1089 first crusade. They crossed Calabria and they settled you in different periods" "I didn't imagine" "Our earth is a crossroad for many men, you don't have to marvel you! " Then resumptions: "When the nine reached Jerusalem they received a worthy reception from the cruciform king Baldovino I: they required and they got the right to use as general quartier of the mosque of Al-Aqsa, that is found on the southern side of the mountain of the Temple, where it is said that the Temple of Salomone has risen you. The mountain of the Temple also entertains a second splendid sanctuary, so it is narrated, the dome of the Rock, that the templaris also took under their control. It has a particular structure" "Qual is his/her form? " "Its plant forms a perfect octagon with all the eight sides of peer length, and the other walls raise him to sustain a splendid gold dome" And it added: "According to the Jewish tradition, Christian and Islamic, they believe that the plate of rock has constituted the original floor of the temple of Salomone" "But then it is very ancient" "Certain but there is very other" His/her father mentioned him a smile and resumptions: "On it, as the ancient Will says, once was risen the ark of the containing alliance the tables of the Ten Commandments submitted to Mosè by God. Then according to the Hebrews it is on this rock that Abramo prepared him to the sacrifice of Isacco, while for the Moslems this is the place from which the prophet Mohammed departed for the nighttime trip in heaven" "How many things know father! My admiration for you is tall! " "Thanks child, but I owe everything to the monks of Fuscaldo that made me learn these knowledges" "But now I want to tell you something in more on the Templaris" "They signalled his/her own affiliation to Christ bringing sewn on I break down him/it white of their tunics a cross red blood in the distinctive style known as croix flaps. From the moment that the dome of the Rock was octagonal, they adopted the octagon as symbol of affiliation and the croix flaps you/he/she was drawn in way that uniting all the external points of the cross was gotten an octagon with all the eight sides of peer length as the plant of the dome of the Rock" "Father but who founded the order? you have mentioned Me that there were nine men" "I know only a name, Hugh de Payens, a noble, is said, that also he was French" Then after brief break it took back: "I have come to knowledge that toward the end of 1126, Hugh de Payens left Jerusalem to the sudden one and returned in Europe, accompanied by André de Montbard, another of the founders. The nephew of de Montbard was the famous Catholic clergyman Bernard of Clairvaux or St. Bernard of Chiaravalle, ready to become some templaris supporting" "But he was... " A strong noise coming from the outside made to interrupt its thoughts. On the road, there was a wagon with six draught horses, bothered by the strong counterblow that you/they suffered, because of the breakup of axle, for the excessive weight that was transporting; trunks of trees, to cut to the arrival, probably destined to the noble families for their mobile jewels and the unusable parts for the kitchens. Many men realized for trying to clear away the road, waiting for other wagons to transfer the load.