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Contents ( 44)
  1. DAUGHTER OF GOD
  2. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  3. CONTENTS
  4. ONE
  5. TWO
  6. THREE
  7. FOUR
  8. FIVE
  9. SIX
  10. SEVEN
  11. EIGHT
  12. NINE
  13. TEN
  14. ELEVEN
  15. TWELVE
  16. THIRTEEN
  17. FOURTEEN
  18. FIFTEEN
  19. SIXTEEN
  20. SEVENTEEN
  21. EIGHTEEN
  22. NINETEEN
  23. TWENTY
  24. TWENTY-ONE
  25. TWENTY-TWO
  26. TWENTY-THREE
  27. TWENTY-FOUR
  28. TWENTY-FIVE
  29. TWENTY-SIX
  30. TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. TWENTY-NINE
  33. THIRTY
  34. THIRTY-ONE
  35. THIRTY-TWO
  36. THIRTY-THREE
  37. THIRTY-FOUR
  38. THIRTY-FIVE
  39. THIRTY-SIX
  40. THIRTY-SEVEN
  41. THIRTY-EIGHT
  42. THIRTY-NINE
  43. EPILOGUE
  44. AUTHOR’S NOTE

The shroud and its documentation lay in the vault as, Saint Peter’s Basilica was built around it. And each Pope passed on the secret of the shroud to his successor. The discovery of the box survived the sacks of Rome by the Visigoths in AJD. 410 and the Vandals in 455.

But the shroud’s discovery could not survive politics and degeneration. As the end of the Christian Church’s first millennium approached, the Popes and the people around them grew to resemble the intemperate and profligate early emperors of the Roman empire. Greed, sexual excess, and debauchery abounded in the Vatican, with tastes in perversion often rivaling Caligula’s. The secret of Sophia’s Passion began to slip past the lips of drunken and licentious Popes. And this, more than the debauchery, galvanized the church hierarchy to action.

In 1045, Gregory VI bribed his predecessor—Benedict IX—to resign from the papacy. But the abdication inflamed rather than soothed church tensions. One faction convinced Benedict IX to retract his abdication, and thus there were two Popes claiming the throne of Saint Peter. Efforts to negotiate the exit of one or the other of the Popes failed, so a third faction of the church met to select a compromise Pope—Sylvester HI—to replace them both. But the choice of Sylvester was satisfactory to neither of the other two groups, so by the end of 1045 there were three Popes all battling for control of the hearts and minds of the Christian world, and not incidentally, the considerable wealth and power of the church.

While the three Popes battled one another, more levelheaded bureaucrats within the church removed the golden box with Sophia’s Shroud, along with other priceless relics, to hidden places within the labyrinthine corridors of the Vatican, so that none could be stolen or used by the pretenders.

These same bureaucrats sent emissaries to Heinrich HI, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, asking him to intercede. In 1046, Heinrich HI replaced all three rival Popes with a fourth, Clement II. The emperor backed up his decisions with his army.

An unsteady balance prevailed for a decade until Heinrich III’s death in 1056. He was succeeded by his son, Heinrich IV, who was six years old at the time of his father’s death.

The American closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. How in everlasting hell could any Pope ever claim infallibility? Bestiality, necrophilia, orgies that would put the Romans to shame; greed, avarice, a lust for power. There was nothing that could be done that hadn’t been done by a Pope. And to believe they were infallible made it necessary to believe that God had sanctioned it all.

Opening his eyes, the American returned to his scrawled notes. The words had begun to swim beneath his eyes. Sleep would come soon.

In 1061, Pope Nicholas II died and was succeeded by Alexander II. Alexander II was unpopular with the bishops of Heinrich IV’s court and through a technicality—all Popes at that time had to be approved by the emperor—the Imperial Synod at Basel declared Alexander II’s election void and appointed instead its own Pope, Honorius II.