“You do not think many kings are wise?”

“Not that I have observed.”

Jacob could see that the conversation had saddened his daughter, and he was sorry for it. But he wasn’t going to lie to her.

Looking back, however, he sometimes wondered whether he’d been wrong to speak to her so frankly on that day. Had this been the start of that disillusion that was to lead to tragedy?

It might be so. But there had been no sign of it for more than a year after that.

During that time King Philip of France, as usual, had been trying to raise money. He’d tried all the usual expedients. He’d taxed the Jews. He’d even debased his own coinage. But nothing had been enough. So he’d tried another ruse, sudden and unexpected.

“We’ll tax the clergy,” he declared.

There had been an uproar. The bishops had protested. The pope himself had told King Philip to remove the tax at once.

“Why did he do it?” Naomi had asked.

“The simple answer is because the Church has so much money,” her father replied. “Perhaps a third of the entire wealth of France is owned by the Church.”

“But the Church doesn’t pay taxes?”

“The Church may make a voluntary contribution to the king. But it is exempt from the usual taxes.”

“Because the Church serves God.”

“This is the idea.” He paused. “But you must also understand that there is more at stake. It’s a question of power.”

“Please explain to me.”

“It’s been going on a long time. Essentially, because they say they represent the divine power, the Church claims that it is a heavenly kingdom, not subject to earthly kings. That’s why there are Church courts, which often let people in Holy Orders off with a light penance for crimes that might lead to execution if they were ordinary folk. We see this in Paris every day, and many people resent it.”

“The students at the university are protected in this way.”

“Exactly. And at the highest level, popes have sometimes claimed that monarchs should answer to them for their kingdoms. A pope might even try to depose a king. As you can imagine, this idea is not popular with kings, even the most pious ones.”

“I did not realize it went so far.”

“It depends on the pope. Some popes have more lust for power than others.”

“But are they not acting for God?”

“That’s the idea.” He considered. “The great cathedral of Notre Dame is a monument to God, is it not?”

“Yes, Father.”

“You know, there was a cathedral there before the present one. But the great Bishop Sully said that the old church was not big enough, and so he built it again, in the new style. It cost a fortune.”

“It is very fine.”

“Yes. But do you know that Bishop Sully also told a lie. The old church was almost the same size. But Sully wanted something more splendid, so that Paris would be proud, and men would say, ‘Look what the great Bishop Sully built.’ To the glory of God, of course.”