In the year 711, Muslims from North Africa invaded the Iberian Peninsula, now the countries of Spain and Portugal. Although these Muslims, who called themselves the Moors, had conquered most of Iberia, they had failed to subjugate all their new real estate. Over the next eight hundred years, from tiny kingdoms in the north, the Christians of Spain began to slowly reconquer lost territories from the foreign invaders. This was recorded in history as the “Reconquista” or the Reconquest.
The rest of Christian Europe, after stopping the Moorish advance in the rest of Europe in France, did little to help their fellow Spanish Christians, viewing the Pyrenees Mountains as a sufficient physical barrier to any further potential for invasion and mischief by the Muslim North Africans. “Europe ends at the Pyrenees,” said the rest of Europe.
And so, it was that eight hundred years after the invasion commenced, the “Catholic Monarchs”, known to history today as King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile, made some fateful decisions. The confluence of history derived from the union of these royals couldn’t have been more meaningful or some of its lessons any less understood. Their achievements have been recorded in popular history as having united all of Spain under their single banner of Catholic Christendom with the final defeat of the Moors coming in late 1491. The Battle of Granada, which ended the conflict, resulted in the full capitulation from the last Moorish resistance on January 2, 1492.
Later that year, Queen Isabella I of Castile also supported a little-known Genoese merchant and adventurer named Christopher Columbus.
After the fall of Granada, the Catholic Monarchs began to reshape the landscape of Iberia in new ways, now that they were fully in control. Gone was a tolerant Moorish ruler, refined and cosmopolitan. In its place was a new dogma and new reality; Iberia was to be solely Catholic and Christian. All other religions need not apply; no others were thereafter welcome.
The Moors were expelled from Iberia. Islam was forbidden but converts to the Catholic faith were permitted to remain. These were called conversos, or, commonly, New Christians (“cristianos nuevos”). There were other faiths represented among the conversos who were also allowed to remain in Iberia, subject to terms set forth by the Spanish Royal Family and Holy Mother Church.
At the end of the Reconquista and the expulsion of the Moors, the Catholic Church and Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, took a few historically less well-known actions. In deciding how best to repay the support and financial assistance of Spanish Jews in helping to defeat the Moors over the 800-year Moorish occupation, the Catholic Monarchs did some amazing things. They decided to give Spanish Jews three incredible options. They could be put to the sword, leave Spain, or convert to Christianity. Door # 1, door # 2, or Door # 3. No door had a great prize behind it.
Many left, a smaller number died at the hands to the Church, but some remained in Spain as conversos to Catholicism. These Jewish conversos, to be distinguished from any other conversos, were given the disparaging name of Marranos, which translates in English to “pigs”.
The Catholic Monarchs had prepared for this day when, in 1478, they created the Spanish version of the Holy Office, or Inquisition. The Inquisition had been founded in 12th-century France to combat religious sectarianism, in particular in response to the Cathars and the Waldensians. It was later expanded in Europe to deal with the Protestant Reformation and other dissident Catholic factions, but nowhere did it flourish and become the terrorist organization that it eventually became as it became in Spain. And it became an important Spanish export to Europe and the New World.
The role of the Inquisition was to root out heresy, particularly among these conversos and in particular, these despicable Marranos. The Inquisition utilized the auto de fe, the outstanding features of which were conviction of guilt upon accusation, torture, and burning at the stake. In most cases, this burning was in effigy but sadly in a large number of cases it was actually real people being burned alive.
By decree the Jews of Spain were expelled from Iberia in 1492. After the failure of Jewish elders to convince the Catholic hierarchy in Portugal to permit Jews to remain, the Jews of Portugal were similarly scheduled to be expelled by decree in 1496. Expulsion was ordered by the new King of Portugal, Manual I, in order to fulfill a provision in his marriage contract with the Spanish Crown, who required it. This marriage was sought by Manual I in order to solidify his claim to the throne of Portugal.
The Jews of Portugal were given a year to leave.
However, Manual I had no intention or desire to actually expel the Jewish community in Portugal, and through a series of cruel initiatives taken to prevent departure, forced the conversion of many. Later the Inquisition took harsh action against many Jews remaining as “New Christians”, beginning in the early 1540’s. Neither the actions taken in Spain, nor in Portugal were shining moments in the history of Europe or the world.
Many Jews converted, faithfully went to Church each Sunday, and, to the Inquisition, became good Catholics under its watchful eyes. Suspicion that Marranos were worshipping in the old forbidden ways was always in the air. The suspicions were, in fact, justified and the Inquisition proceeded in their efforts to root out this heresy by locating and putting to death these hidden and secret Jews then residing in Spain.
It was also well documented that many Jewish conversos continued to practice their religion in secret, in Spain, Europe and in the New World. These Jews were later classified by historians studying the epoch as “crypto Jews”, those professing to be Christian and Catholic but who never gave up the old religion. Communities of crypto Jews continued well into the late twentieth century when they finally recommenced the practice of their Jewish faith openly, building synagogues in their local communities.
In the years following the Reconquista, the Inquisition was never idle, however, and many crypto Jews over the long years of its storied existence were found out, and subsequently put to death.
A small community of these crypto Jews found their way to the New World, particularly to Mexico, where they settled in the colonial capital of Mexico City and around Guadalajara. These ancient conversos kept to themselves and to their ancient ways without interruption for many centuries beginning in the 1500’s. They even spoke a fifteenth century version of Spanish, Ladino, which was spoken in over thirty countries and still exists even to the present day.
With the arrival of the crypto Jews to the New World also came the Inquisition.
The existence of spoken fifteenth century Spanish and the long history of these Marranos in the New World caught the attention of a young graduate school anthropologist from UC Berkeley, Ian Reginald Miller, who thought that this historical episode in the evolution of humanity should be studied before all became lost to time and historical neglect. Other researchers at fine academic institutions had discovered the existence of these crypto communities and had traced these communities to other parts of Europe. But none knew exactly how secrecy and concealment had been accomplished over such a long period of time with only isolated instances of discovery.
The young researcher had done his Ph.D. dissertation years earlier on the same topic but without the means to truly trace movements, individuals and verify supposition on how it might have been done. Others in the Jewish community, somewhat controversially, had undertaken a similar task.
Subsequently, as a tenured Professor of Anthropology at a small mid-western institution, Tesla College, he was asked to present a paper at a conference whose keynote speaker was Dr. Edward St. James. St. James gave a ground-breaking presentation at the conference: New Uses of Technology in Anthropological Research: Armchair Research Made Easy.
The good Professor had never heard of this thing called the DataLab Project nor any of the things it supposedly could do. But his interest in the DataLab Project was now fueled, and for several years he begged, pleaded, cajoled and pressed at every opportunity for Dr. St. James to allow him to spend time in the DL Main so he could comp
lete the project that would become his life’s work.
Finally, four years ago, Dr. Miller was given full permission and access to the DL Main. Even Dr. Edward St. James and his prickly son Dr. Adam St. James helped him out, with tips and even programming suggestions. Dr. Miller was given an honorarium and grant to undertake and complete his work, under scrupulous supervision, of course. The Drs. St. James were each interested in the methodology to be employed by Dr. Miller and thought the resultant programming would be useful later in any number of research projects.
The research was published in the little-known Journal of Ancient Migration, under his own name. Dr. Miller’s methodology was described in detail and a great deal of credit given to the research obtained using a fabulous new and fabulous research tool called the DL Main and the DataLab Project, an initiative funded by the United States Federal government. Somewhere, buried in an obscure footnote was a brief mention of the Victoria Institute and both Drs. St. James. In ordinary times, that information would have been buried and nobody other than certified geeks crawling through the weeds for information would have even noticed. Those guys were process, not content.
Using records digitized from public, government and private libraries, Dr. Miller was able to discover startling new evidence of historical importance that had never been known to have been recorded.
The DL Main query engine did some things that normal data mining couldn’t do. If a specific pattern was found, the search engine would also show similar research pattern results as either “related” or “unrelated” to the main line of inquiry, usually based on similarities of lexicon employed. Related patterns were noted and followed to conclusion if promising. In most cases these similarities were superficial and of no benefit.
Occasionally, something interesting emerged. Nonetheless all these potential lines of inquiry were noted and archived. If a similar query developed later, it would have a starting point. It would have been rare to follow up on these unrelated lines of research, but they were often looked at, if only by the original researcher who generally dismissed them out of hand. In this case, Dr. Miller noted a few other promising inquiries he could pursue and thought perhaps there was enough material for another Journal article sometime down the road.
Dr. Miller wanted to determine the numbers and identities, if possible, of the crypto Jewish conversos who remained in Spain, converted, but remained faithful to Judaism. In developing the programming for the project, and after analyzing the data, it became apparent that various small secret societies arose across Europe and over time in response to the Inquisition and its lethal adherents. Research showed that both crypto Jewish and Catholic societies emerged, ones for the hunted and the others the hunters. Through various archival records, a picture emerged that was as complex as it was fascinating. It was soon discovered that many famous individuals, known to be leading members of one historical group or another, were also members of less well known and secret organizations.
As the research blossomed across Europe, and later around the world, tracing the paths of crypto Jewish and expelled Jewish families, some crossover names began to show up in the data for previously unknown and unidentified organizations whose purpose and membership was yet to be fully understood. These groups and their memberships had no religious affiliation but were representative of the times and presumed to be commercial, fraternal or political groups. Most were. Some were not.
The thesis of the Ph.D. dissertation of Dr. Ian Miller was shown to be correct. The good Professor was able to trace families of expelled and crypto Jews from fifteenth century Spain all the way to the present and provide names, addresses and other vital information about a significant percentage of the progeny then still alive.
The technology of the DataLab Project was pronounced sound and Dr. Miller’s use of the DL Main a minor breakthrough in anthropological research, particularly in his area of expertise.
Dr. Miller concluded. “This new tool, the DL Main, is the academic breakthrough we have all been waiting for. With this technology, we can now trace ancestry more rapidly and more precisely than ever before. Numerous sciences and disciplines can now benefit from this amazing technology. Starting with a single name, we can now trace the ancestry of our present population, as well as identify living relatives of our antecedents with spectacular precision and clarity.”
***
The room was silent at the conclusion of Dr. Seong’s presentation. It hadn’t been necessary to connect the dots for any of those present.
The German fellow, Merkel was the only one to speak.
“My apologies to you and your Clan, Paulo. I failed to comprehend just how active and thoughtful your leadership was. Whatever you ask of us, whatever role we can play, the resources and talents of my Clan are at your disposal. What do you recommend?”
Chapter 39
When Dr. Seong finished his presentation, he asked if there were any questions. The looks on the faces of the assembled Gens scientists told him everything he needed to know. Both he and Paulo now had their full, rapt and undivided attention and the gravity of their “hypothetical” problems had been resolved by the implications from this one solitary Journal article.
Merkel and a colleague from Australia interrupted the silence and background murmuring. “Dr. Merkel and I would like to understand how long you have been in possession of this information? Who else have you shared this with and what resources have you marshalled in response to the potentially imminent threat?”
“Now you’re interested?” said Enzo, a tinge of haughty self-satisfaction in his voice. “A minute ago, you were ready to fight me and displace my brother. Now you want our counsel? Ingrates!”
“Calm yourself, Enzo,” said Paulo, adopting a more measured and magnanimous tone. “We are all Brothers and Sisters in this room, with the same goals and desires – what’s best for our kind. What’s done is done; what’s past is past. It does us no good to ascribe blame for a situation that presently requires all our skills, knowledge and experience to resolve. This problem exists independent of whether we were previously aware of it or not; the immediacy of the threat is accelerated if we confirm that the missing Library has been uploaded to the DL Main. This is the problem about which I have warned the Gens leadership for the past several years, once the existence of the DataLab Project first came to my attention.”
“What do we do?” asked the assembled leaders. All eyes were steadfastly focused on Paulo; a few twitched nervously catching a glimpse of Enzo out of the corner of their eyes. Most Gens loved Paulo; he was calm and often generous and not given to temper or rash action. He was a good leader.
Enzo, however, was an entirely different story. Twitchy and prone to anger, and sometimes to violence, he among the Fortizi Clan was alleged to be most given to frequent transformations. It was often reported that Enzo loved the wild and all things Gens. In the wild, the Gens were on the top of the food chain and the scent of a Gens hunting pack led by a Fortizi was to be feared and avoided. Enzo retained some of his natural aggression in human form or perhaps he just got an extra boost of testosterone while transformed. He was to be scrupulously avoided if possible. Most Gens believed that even Enzo’s wife and children were happy for him to be away from home – for any reason.
“First we don’t panic. Nobody has done anything to us yet and we remain as hidden today as we ever have been. Our situation today is no better, no worse. But we do need to begin taking immediate steps beyond what we have done to date, and we now have a place to start. It has been almost a year since the Library was lost to us, though the threat posed by the DataLab Project is of a much more recent vintage. We have done some academic research nibbling around the edges of facts that would readily come to anyone’s attention had the information in the Library already been uploaded to the DL Main. We have reason to believe it has not.”
“How so?”
“First, a significant amount of the documentation in the Library, includ
ing the work we believe that Tomas di Gensarii has done, is in the Gens Common Tongue, ancient versions of it or is contained in other coded communications and manuscripts. It is possible that the person or persons responsible for the theft have abandoned the Library as being without monetary or other value. Too hard to translate; probably thinks the collection to be fakes and forgeries. This remains the most plausible scenario for us right now. After all, what human would believe anything written down in a fantastical and virtually unintelligible Library that reads like an old horror story? Humans don’t think that way. On the other hand, …”
“What?” someone asked from the back of the room.
Paulo paused, then said, “We haven’t been able to find the persons responsible for the theft, not even this fellow I spoke to on the phone in Tucson. The Human. Not a trace. And we’ve used our best Trackers, all our technology and even the DL Main itself. Nothing yet. It’s as if the Library just disappeared and never existed.”
“What are our next steps?” asked Merkel, suddenly on board with the project and interested.
“Our first job right now is to track down Dr. Miller and find out everything he knows. We must determine his connections to the DataLab Project, who helped him with his project and what those humans know about our Library if anything. Dr. Miller will lead us to our next clues, which in turn may lead us to who is behind the theft and what they intend to do with our property.”
Paulo paused, then continued.
“Our secondary goal is to prevent the uploading of the Library to the DL Main at all costs, if that is still possible. We must employ the totality of our immense global resources on this task and work quickly.”
“What else?” the chief technologist from India asked.
Paulo continued, “Finally, we must physically recover our property.”
“And? Will there be retribution for the transgressors?”
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