The Inquisitor's Key: A Body Farm Novel

by Jefferson Bass

  Painter Simone Martini did, indisputably, paint a small portrait of Laura for Petrarch. Alas, that portrait—the world’s first commissioned portrait, say art historians—has been lost; if it could be found, it would surely fetch millions on the auction block at Sotheby’s or Christie’s. Little is known about Simone’s personal life. He married into a family of Sienese painters; he and his wife, Giovanna, moved to Avignon in 1335 or 1336, and the couple had no children. When Simone died in Avignon in 1344, he left behind surprisingly few works from his time there, besides four frescoes (now undergoing restoration) in the portal of Avignon Cathedral and the sinopia studies for two of those frescoes: the powerful portraits of Mary and Jesus, that I—like Brockton and Miranda—found myself captivated by within the Palace of the Popes.

  The Palace of the Popes, Europe’s biggest Gothic palace, was begun in 1335 by Pope Benedict XII, who—prior to becoming pope in 1334 and taking the name Benedict XII—was named Jacques Fournier. In his six years as a cardinal in Avignon, Fournier was indeed known as le Cardinal Blanc, the White Cardinal, because of the white Dominican habit he always wore, even after he was entitled to far more sumptuous vestments. Fournier is a fascinating and (to me, at least) frightening study in contrasts. Immune to most of the temptations of luxury (except, apparently, food and drink), he built the fortress-like papal palace at least partly to safeguard the 17,500,000 gold florins amassed by his shrewd predecessor, Pope John XXII.

  During Fournier’s years as a cardinal in Avignon and, earlier, as a bishop and inquisitor in southwest France, he was driven—I’d say obsessed, in fact—by the pursuit of heresy and the prosecution of heretics. Fournier became bishop of Pamiers in 1317; the following year he embarked on a systematic and thorough inquisition in the mountain village of Montaillou, whose entire population, astonishingly, had been arrested and charged with heresy a decade before, in 1308. Fournier reopened the matter and spent the next eight years interrogating villagers, shepherds, widows, and others whom he suspected of holding heretical views. He kept meticulous transcripts of his interrogations; Latin translations of those transcripts—called the “Fournier Register”—are bound in three immense volumes that are housed in the Vatican Library (Latin manuscript number 4030). Fournier judged many of Montaillou’s inhabitants to be guilty of heresy, although he condemned “only” five to be burned at the stake. One of the five was Agnes Francou, the widow who is mentioned in chapter 17; Fournier interrogated Agnes repeatedly in 1319 and 1320, and eventually condemned her for refusing to swear an oath of truthfulness (despite the fact that Agnes pointed out to him, with some scriptural authority behind her, that “God has forbidden all swearing”). Several English-language translations of Fournier’s interrogations—including his sessions with Agnes—can be found on the website of Professor Nancy Stork (http://www.sjsu.edu/people/nancy.stork/courses/c4/), a medievalist who teaches a course on Fournier at San Jose State University. A rich portrait of daily life and inquisitorial interrogation in Montaillou is presented in the book Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie (what a great name, Emmanuel Le Roy: Emmanuel means “God With Us,” and Le Roy means “The King”!). Ladurie’s book, which is considered a pioneering ethnographic study, is based on the Fournier Register: the wealth of information Fournier gleaned from the “heretical” villagers of Montaillou. I feel an obligation to be crystal clear about a key difference between historical fact and this work of fiction: Although Jacques Fournier—the inquisitor who became a pope—was obsessed with heresy, and put at least five suspected heretics to death, the medieval murder attributed to him in these pages is purely speculative.

  Many books and blogs have been written about the Shroud of Turin, Christianity’s most revered relic. I won’t attempt to summarize those here; suffice it to say that ever since its appearance in Lirey, France, in the middle of the fourteenth century, the Shroud has inspired both devotion and controversy. Those only intensified in 1898, when photographer Secondo Pia published the ghostly black-and-white photo negative he saw materialize in his photographic darkroom. That watershed moment marked the beginning of modern scientific scrutiny of the Shroud—scrutiny that culminated in 1988, when laboratories in Zurich, Oxford, and Tucson conducted independent C-14 tests to determine the age of the Shroud’s fabric. The Tucson lab put the linen’s age at 646 years, +/- 31 years; the Zurich lab, at 676 years, +/- 24 years; and the Oxford lab at 750 years, +/- 30. Averaging the three and taking the margins of uncertainty into account, the scientists responsible for the tests concluded—with 95 percent statistical confidence—that the Shroud of Turin was made sometime between 1262 and 1384. Almost immediately, die-hard believers in the Shroud’s first-century authenticity—including scientific believers—began casting doubt on the findings. One theory that was offered claimed that a “bioplastic” coating on the fibers had skewed the results. Another, more creative theory claimed that the image had been formed by a burst of radiation at the moment of Jesus’s resurrection, and that the radioactivity had skewed the quantity of C-14 level in the fabric. Still another claim held that the fabric samples had been snipped from an “invisible patch” woven into the Shroud during a sixteenth-century repair. One scientist who criticized the C-14 findings wrote, “It is simply not known how the ghostly image of a serene, bearded man was made.” In a similar vein, other believers have claimed, countless times, that there is no technique known to artists—in medieval times or even modern times—that can produce an image with all the properties of the ghostly image on the Shroud of Turin. That assertion is simply not true, as Dr. Emily Craig demonstrated nearly two decades ago.

  Emily—a medical illustrator turned forensic anthropologist—is lifted straight from life and transplanted into chapter 3 of our story. In 1994, while earning her Ph.D. at the University of Tennessee, Emily and UT textile scientist Randall Bresee published a peer-reviewed article in the Journal of Imaging Science and Technology (volume 34, number 1, 1994; available online at http://www.shroud.com/pdfs/craig.pdf) titled “Image Formation and the Shroud of Turin.” That article explained and demonstrated how a simple dust-transfer technique—using materials and techniques artists have used for thousands of years—could easily have been used by an artist to produce the image during the Middle Ages, the heyday of religious relics.

  One other note on the Shroud of Turin: The passages in this book that discuss the Shroud figure’s stature and proportions are, like Emily Craig, lifted from life. If the Shroud really were a direct, life-size imprint of Jesus’ body, Christ—more than six feet tall—would have been a veritable giant back in the first century, when people were far shorter than they are today. If Jesus had been a head taller than his followers and his foes, it seems odd that none of the Gospel writers bothered to mention that detail. Also factual are the unusual, storklike proportions—the long legs and short, narrow trunk—that Dr. Brockton observes in the figure on the Shroud.

  Last but not least, Eckhart, our “zhondo”: Meister Johannes Eckhart—a prominent Dominican theologian and mystic—was indeed charged with heresy by the archbishop of Cologne around 1326. Eckhart appealed his case directly to Pope John XXII and walked 500 miles to Avignon to mount his defense. The pope put former inquisitor Jacques Fournier, le Cardinal Blanc, in charge of handling Eckhart’s case. After journeying to Avignon, Eckhart seems to have dropped from sight; all we know is that he died sometime before March 1329, when Pope John issued a papal bull criticizing a number of Eckhart’s teachings…and claiming that Eckhart repudiated his errors before dying.

  The circumstances and date of Eckhart’s death are shrouded in mystery. So are the location and fate of his remains. What’s not in doubt is this: He was a renowned teacher and beloved preacher, but he was perceived as a threat by the high priests who held the reins of power; trumped-up charges were filed against him, and he died while trying to clear his name. As Miranda says, Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose: The more things change, the more they stay the same.

/>   —Jon Jefferson

  A black-and-white, photo-negative version of the face on the Shroud of Turin. The actual image on the Shroud is a faint reddish-brown. The dramatic negative was first seen in 1898, when Italian photographer Secondo Pia noticed the haunting, lifelike quality of the image he developed in his darkroom. Far more powerful than the positive image faintly visible on the fabric, the negative has arguably supplanted the Shroud itself as the main object of devotion.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Many, many people contributed to the making of this book. Some of them—the larger-than-life historical characters who clamored to play parts in these pages—have been dead for centuries. Most, luckily, remain very much alive.

  Anthropologists Angi Christensen, Norm Sauer, Richard Jantz, and Emily Craig all helped inform the sections on the Shroud of Turin. Richard, who co-created the University of Tennessee’s ForDisc software, took measurements of the figure on the Shroud and noted the unusual, stork-like proportions. Emily, whose 1994 journal article on how the Shroud could have been created using materials and techniques readily available to medieval artists, examined our life-size, high-resolution photographic print of the entire Shroud and offered helpful insights; so did the co-author of her article, UT textile scientist Randy Bresee. Besides being smart scientists, Randy and Emily are also good sports (and brave people!), agreeing to make cameo appearances in these pages under their own names. Joe Mullins, a talented forensic facial reconstruction artist at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, likewise agreed to play himself in the book.

  Researching Avignon was a writer’s dream assignment, partly because the city is spectacular and partly because people there were lovely and helpful. Sylvie Joly, a press liaison at the Office of Tourism, provided background information, identified experts, and arranged interviews and tours. At the monumental and magnificent Palace of the Popes, conservator Sophie Biass-Fabiani—the keeper of the keys—graciously unlocked virtually every staircase, tower, nook, and cranny. And at Lumani, Avignon’s loveliest guesthouse, Elisabeth and Jean Beraud-Hirschi (also portraying themselves in the book) went above and beyond the call of duty, offering not just hospitality but warmth, charm, and friendship.

  Fr. Michael Demkovich—a Dominican friar, teacher, and author who has found inspiration in the life and teachings of Meister Eckhart—was generous with historical context and writerly encouragement. Fr. Michael (who bears no similarities to our story’s Father Mike!) has likewise tackled the mystery surrounding Eckhart’s death; his fictional take on it can be found in his novel, The Death of Magister Aycardus.

  Art and artists figure prominently in the story. Stuart Riordan, a gifted Tallahassee artist, shared generously of her knowledge—and her books, and even her charcoal and paper, during a delightful but humbling drawing lesson. If the passages describing Simone Martini at work have any authenticity, Stuart deserves the credit.

  This is the most complex of the seven Body Farm novels so far. Dennis McCarthy, Beth McPherson, and William McPherson all read the manuscript and shared a wealth of comments and encouragement. Jane McPherson—The Amazing Jane—was a co-conspirator from the beginning, hearing (and helping shape) the earliest, vaguest ideas; dashing to Turin; delving deeply into Avignon (ah, the food and wine research!); listening to a road-trip reading of a draft; and offering myriad suggestions that made this a better book. The swift, smart, and eagle-eyed Casey Whitworth signed on late in the project and made numerous eleventh-hour contributions to the manuscript itself, to www.JeffersonBass.com, to our Facebook pages, and to JonJeffersonAuthor.blogspot.com.

  Turning an idea into a published book takes a lot of work. We appreciate all those at William Morrow who produce, promote, and sell our books, especially our editor, Lyssa Keusch; her able assistant, Wendy Lee (goodbye, and good luck with your own writing!); our production editor, Andrea Molitor; and our publicist, Danielle Bartlett. Hats off to them, and to our agent, Giles Anderson, who set the wheels in motion.

  Putting a book into a reader’s hands takes a surprising amount of work, too. Thanks to all the William Morrow sales people and booksellers who make that happen again and again, even in these lean times. A special thanks to Susan Seals and her tribe, of BoneZones.com, for putting our books out there always, and to Frank Murphy, Jennifer Alexander, and our longtime friends at WBIR’s “Alive at Five” show.

  Thanks, too, to our readers and fans. Without your interest and support, none of this would happen. What magic, to spin stories and characters out of the air and watch them take root in the minds and hearts of readers!

  Finally—in the spirit of “first shall be last, and last shall be first”—our deepest appreciation to our families for their love and encouragement.

  About the Author

  JEFFERSON BASS is the writing team of Jon Jefferson and Dr. Bill Bass. Dr. Bass, a world-renowned forensic anthropologist, founded the University of Tennessee’s Anthropology Research Facility—the Body Farm—a quarter century ago. He is the author or coauthor of more than two hundred scientific publications, as well as a critically acclaimed memoir about his career at the Body Farm, Death’s Acre. Dr. Bass is also a dedicated teacher, honored as National Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. Jon Jefferson is a veteran journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. His writings have been published in the New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today, and Popular Science, and broadcast on National Public Radio. The coauthor of Death’s Acre, he is also the writer and producer of two highly rated National Geographic documentaries about the Body Farm.

  www.JeffersonBass.com

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

  OTHER BOOKS BY JEFFERSON BASS

  Fiction

  The Bone Yard

  The Bone Thief

  Bones of Betrayal

  The Devil’s Bones

  Flesh and Bone

  Carved in Bone

  Nonfiction

  Beyond the Body Farm

  Death’s Acre

  Credits

  Cover design by Richard L. Aquan

  Cover photograph collage: key by K-Photo/Alamy; Tympanum Depicting the Saviour Blessing 1341 fresco detail see also 195591 by The Art Gallery Collection / Alamy; DNA by Science Photo Library / Alamy

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  THE INQUISITOR’S KEY. Copyright © 2012 by Jefferson Bass, LLC. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  FIRST EDITION

  ISBN 978-0-06-180679-7

  EPub Edition © MAY 2012 ISBN: 9780062099051

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