Now, let’s get on with this. You were
about to tell us about Lucy’s book.’
****
V ernon poured a
glass of water and took a long drink. He was rattled and felt
embarrassed. He urged himself to focus. ‘Yes, Lucy’s book.’ He’d
proofread it before she submitted it to her publisher. It wasn’t
exactly his field, but he still remembered most of it – one of the
benefits of being a research analyst. Ever since he was a kid, he’d
been able to rapidly absorb a lot of complex material, and was
often able to recall chunks of it years later. It helped that he
was genuinely fascinated by Lucy’s work.
‘ Lucy’s starting point
was an old book by an English folklorist called Jessie Weston,’ he
began. ‘Weston claimed that the Grail legends were a recasting of
old fertility rituals from ancient Egypt, Babylonia and Greece. She
went through each of the main aspects of the Grail stories and
showed how similar they were to features of myths concerning the
ancient gods Osiris, Tammuz, Adonis and Attis.
‘ Lucy agreed with
Weston about the Grail legends being a representation of something
else, but she disagreed that fertility rites were involved. Her
idea was that a particular group of people produced the Grail
stories to preserve their beliefs from an enemy they could never
defeat.’
‘ The Cathars, right?’ Gresnick interrupted.
Vernon nodded.
‘ Well,’ Harrington
intervened, ‘both of you may be experts, but all I know about the
Cathars is that they came from Languedoc in the southwest of
France, and I only know that because I once went on a weekend trip
to Carcassonne to see the walled city, and it turned out to be the
capital of Cathar country.’
‘ OK, I’ll give you my
one-minute introduction to the Cathars,’ Vernon said. ‘They were
one of the strangest sects in history. Their name comes from the
ancient Greek word katharoi meaning the
pure . The Cathars, the pure ones, were
renowned for living good, simple lives. They had few possessions,
were peace-loving, vegetarian, and frowned on sex.
‘ Lots of ordinary
Catholics looked at the ascetic lives of the Cathars and thought
they seemed much holier, much more Christ-like than most Catholics,
especially the priests and monks who were notoriously sleazy at
that time. Before long, many Catholics started converting to
Catharism.
‘ The Catholic Church
wasn’t slow to see the danger. Realising war was coming, perhaps a
war of extermination, and that their beliefs might be lost forever,
the Cathars desperately thought of how they might pass on their
religion to future generations. They had to come up with something
that communicated their beliefs without attracting the suspicions
of the Catholic Church. The legend of the Holy Grail was their
solution. On one level, it seemed like an orthodox Catholic story,
but it was the opposite – pure heresy. It’s a simple fact that
before the Grail romances appeared, there wasn’t a single mention
of anything called the Holy Grail, and no legend saying that Joseph
of Arimathea was its original keeper. Even as far back as 1260, the
legend of the Holy Grail was known not to be an authentic Christian
story.
‘ Following Otto Rahn’s
line of thought, Lucy argued that the Grail legends described in
coded form the initiation ceremonies and religious rites of the
Cathars, but now transformed into chivalrous stories. Everything
was symbolic, all of the characters in the stories carefully
chosen. Many of the troubadours, the great romantic poets of the
Middle Ages, were Cathars and they brought all their art to bear on
the creation of the legends. These were the greatest romances ever
devised, inspiring everyone who read them, and unwittingly feeding
them incredibly powerful heretical ideas.
‘ Meanwhile, relations
with the Catholic Church continued to deteriorate. Pope Innocent
III decided on drastic action. He ordered a Crusade against the
Cathars and on 24 June 1209, the feast day of John the Baptist
about to tell us about Lucy’s book.’
****
V ernon poured a
glass of water and took a long drink. He was rattled and felt
embarrassed. He urged himself to focus. ‘Yes, Lucy’s book.’ He’d
proofread it before she submitted it to her publisher. It wasn’t
exactly his field, but he still remembered most of it – one of the
benefits of being a research analyst. Ever since he was a kid, he’d
been able to rapidly absorb a lot of complex material, and was
often able to recall chunks of it years later. It helped that he
was genuinely fascinated by Lucy’s work.
‘ Lucy’s starting point
was an old book by an English folklorist called Jessie Weston,’ he
began. ‘Weston claimed that the Grail legends were a recasting of
old fertility rituals from ancient Egypt, Babylonia and Greece. She
went through each of the main aspects of the Grail stories and
showed how similar they were to features of myths concerning the
ancient gods Osiris, Tammuz, Adonis and Attis.
‘ Lucy agreed with
Weston about the Grail legends being a representation of something
else, but she disagreed that fertility rites were involved. Her
idea was that a particular group of people produced the Grail
stories to preserve their beliefs from an enemy they could never
defeat.’
‘ The Cathars, right?’ Gresnick interrupted.
Vernon nodded.
‘ Well,’ Harrington
intervened, ‘both of you may be experts, but all I know about the
Cathars is that they came from Languedoc in the southwest of
France, and I only know that because I once went on a weekend trip
to Carcassonne to see the walled city, and it turned out to be the
capital of Cathar country.’
‘ OK, I’ll give you my
one-minute introduction to the Cathars,’ Vernon said. ‘They were
one of the strangest sects in history. Their name comes from the
ancient Greek word katharoi meaning the
pure . The Cathars, the pure ones, were
renowned for living good, simple lives. They had few possessions,
were peace-loving, vegetarian, and frowned on sex.
‘ Lots of ordinary
Catholics looked at the ascetic lives of the Cathars and thought
they seemed much holier, much more Christ-like than most Catholics,
especially the priests and monks who were notoriously sleazy at
that time. Before long, many Catholics started converting to
Catharism.
‘ The Catholic Church
wasn’t slow to see the danger. Realising war was coming, perhaps a
war of extermination, and that their beliefs might be lost forever,
the Cathars desperately thought of how they might pass on their
religion to future generations. They had to come up with something
that communicated their beliefs without attracting the suspicions
of the Catholic Church. The legend of the Holy Grail was their
solution. On one level, it seemed like an orthodox Catholic story,
but it was the opposite – pure heresy. It’s a simple fact that
before the Grail romances appeared, there wasn’t a single mention
of anything called the Holy Grail, and no legend saying that Joseph
of Arimathea was its original keeper. Even as far back as 1260, the
legend of the Holy Grail was known not to be an authentic Christian
story.
‘ Following Otto Rahn’s
line of thought, Lucy argued that the Grail legends described in
coded form the initiation ceremonies and religious rites of the
Cathars, but now transformed into chivalrous stories. Everything
was symbolic, all of the characters in the stories carefully
chosen. Many of the troubadours, the great romantic poets of the
Middle Ages, were Cathars and they brought all their art to bear on
the creation of the legends. These were the greatest romances ever
devised, inspiring everyone who read them, and unwittingly feeding
them incredibly powerful heretical ideas.
‘ Meanwhile, relations
with the Catholic Church continued to deteriorate. Pope Innocent
III decided on drastic action. He ordered a Crusade against the
Cathars and on 24 June 1209, the feast day of John the Baptist
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