Chapter 39 Chapter Thirty-Seven

The "Bois de Bois de Boulogne" is a shady park with many nicknames, and the Parisians call it "the paradise on earth".In fact, it has nothing to do with such compliments.Anyone who has seen Bosch's oil painting of the same name will understand the irony of the title: that decadent painting, like the woods, is a dark and twisted scene of freaks and pretense. people.At night, on the winding paths through the woods, hundreds of naked and half-naked people waited to satisfy the most unspeakable desires of the flesh—men, women, and neither. Just as Langdon was about to tell Sophie about the Priory of Sion, the taxi drove through the wooden gate of the park and began to drive west on the cobbled path.At this point, Langdon couldn't concentrate anymore, as a group of park "night ghosts" jumped out of the bushes to show off their tricks in the light of their headlights.In front, two girls with bare breasts and breasts were casting provocative glances into the car.Behind them, a black man covered in oil and tied at his crotch with a strip of cloth turned around and twisted his hips.Beside him, there's an alluring blonde lifting up her miniskirt to show that she's not actually a woman.

My goodness! Langdon quickly turned his gaze into the car and took a deep breath. "Tell me about the Priory of Sion," Sophie urged. Langdon nodded, thinking: What a perfect setting for this.He didn't know where to start.The Priory has a history of more than a century... There are secrets, blackmail, betrayal, and even torture in the pope's anger. He began: "In 1099 a king named Gofti captured Jerusalem and founded the Priory of Sion there." Sophie nodded, listening intently. "It is said that King Gofty has inherited a powerful secret—a secret that has been handed down in his family since the time of Christ. The king was afraid that the secret would be lost after his death, so he appointed a secret church organization— - the Priory of Sion - to keep the secret. While in Jerusalem, the Priory learned that there were documents buried under the ruins of the Temple of Herod, which was in the ruins of the Temple of Solomon As far as they know, these documents can be used to confirm the powerful secret of King Gofty, and because of this, the Catholic Church will spare no effort to get it." Sophie was dubious.

"The Priory swore that no matter how long it took, they would unearth these documents and keep them alive forever. In order to protect the documents in the ruins, they formed an armed team - the 'Temple of Christ and Solomon' composed of nine knights The Knights of the Order'." Langdon paused, then continued, "It is known as the Order of the Templars." Sophie looked at Langdon in surprise. She had indeed heard about this before. Langdon often gave lectures on The Temple, so he knew almost everyone would have heard of it.In academic circles, the history of the "Templar Order" is almost a forbidden area of ​​research, because the fact, theory and myth in this area are intertwined, making it impossible to ascertain the truth.Now, Langdon didn't even want to mention the "Templar Order" in his lectures, because that would inevitably lead to endless questions from the audience around those ulterior theories.

Sophie looked confused: "You mean the Priory of Mount Sion established the 'Templar Order' to protect secret documents? I originally thought the 'Templar Order' was to protect the Holy Land." "It's a common misconception. The 'Templars' are doing their job in the name of protecting the pilgrims. Their real goal is to retrieve documents buried under the ruins of the temple." "Did they find the papers?" Langdon sneered, "No one knows, but scholars agree that the Warriors found something under the ruins... This discovery made them extremely rich and powerful."

Langdon began to brief Sophie on the history of the Order of the Templars in a quick, academic manner.He explained that the order of warriors participated in the Second Holy War, and they told King Baldwin II that they were protecting traveling pilgrims.They did not take a penny, but made a basic request to the king, asking the king to allow them to live in the stables in the ruins of the temple.King Baldwin agreed to their request, so the warrior group lived in the deserted temple. It was no accident, Langdon explained, that the Order had chosen such a strange location.The order of knights believed that the documents the Priory was seeking lay buried deep beneath the ruins—in a sacred sanctuary beneath the Holy Site, which is both the seat of God and the central sanctuary of Judaism.Nine knights lived in the ruins for nearly a decade, secretly digging through the hard stone for documents.

Sophie looked at Langdon. "You said what they found?" "They did find something," Langdon finished, explaining that it had taken the knights nine years to finally find what they were looking for.They took the treasure they found to Europe, where they became famous overnight. I don't know if it was the Knights who blackmailed the Vatican City-State, or the Catholic Church wanted to buy them off, Pope Innocent VIII immediately issued a circular, endowing the "Templar Knights" with supreme power, declaring that "their will is the law", the king, No priest can interfere with this independent army by religious or political means.Such an announcement is unprecedented.

With such new proclamations, the Order of the Knights rapidly increased in number, political power, and possessions in many countries.They began to borrow money from the bankrupt royal family and nobles, and profited from it.In this way, they not only created the modern banking industry, but also further strengthened their own strength. By the 13th century, the Vatican's circular had provided great help to the expansion of the Knights, which made Pope Clement V determined to take some measures to curb it.Together with King Philip IV of France, he planned a series of actions to suppress the warrior order and limit the expansion of its wealth, so as to control the secrets in the hands of the Vatican City State.During a secret military exercise, Pope Clement V issued an order.The order was sealed beforehand, and soldiers across Europe had to wait until Friday, October 13, 1307, to unseal it.

On the morning of the thirteenth, the soldiers unsealed the orders and read the horrific contents.Pope Clermont claimed he dreamed of God who warned him that the "Templars" were heretics who worshiped the devil, homosexuals who defiled crosses, and committed sodomy and other blasphemy.God asked Pope Clement to clean up the world, round up the warriors and torture them for blasphemy against God.Pope Clement's plot went according to plan.On that day, countless members of the samurai were arrested, tortured, and then burned at the stake as heretics.That tragedy has left its mark on modern culture: Friday and Thirteen are considered unlucky to this day.

Sophie was full of doubts: "Has the 'Templar Order' been revoked? Isn't there still a Brotherhood of Knights now?" "Yes, they still exist under various names. Although Pope Clement fabricated their crimes and tried his best to eradicate them, the Knights have powerful allies, some of whom escaped the massacre of the Vatican. Warriors The powerful documents in the possession of the regiment - the source of their power - were what Pope Clement really wanted, but slipped through his fingers. The founder of the regiment, the Priory of Sion, kept it in custody, and the mystery of the Priory of Sion made it safe from the massacre in the Vatican. When the Vatican was closed, the Priory secretly shipped it to La Rochelle.

" "Where did the files go after that?" Langdon shrugged and said, "Only the Priory of Sion knows the answer to this mystery. Because to this day, people are still investigating and speculating about the whereabouts of these documents, and it is generally believed that these documents have been transferred and re-hidden for many years. times. Now they are probably hidden somewhere in the UK." Sophie looked a little uneasy. Langdon continued: "The legend of this secret has been passed down for thousands of years. All the documents, and the power they have, and the secrets they contain are related to one thing - the Holy Grail (Sangreal). There are hundreds of books on the Holy Grail. It is also of great interest to historians."

"Holy grail? Is the word related to the French and Spanish words 'sang' and 'sangre' for 'blood'?" Langdon nodded.The Holy Grail was inseparable from blood, but that was not the relationship Sophie imagined. "The legend is complex, but above all the Priory guards the secret and waits for an opportune historical moment to reveal the truth." "What truth? Is that secret really powerful?" Langdon took a deep breath and looked out the window at the most embarrassing sight of Paris. "Sophie, Sangreal is an ancient word. Over time, it has evolved into another word—a more modern name." He paused, "If I told you its modern name, would you You realize that you are familiar with it. In fact, almost everyone has heard the story of the Holy Grail." Sophie couldn't believe it: "I've never heard of it." "You must have." Langdon said with a smile, "The name you're used to hearing is the Holy Grail."