The Order (33 page)

Authors: Daniel Silva

BOOK: The Order

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There is perhaps no more compelling voice on this subject than John Dominic Crossan, the professor emeritus of religious studies
at DePaul University and a former ordained priest. In
Who Killed Jesus?
, he asks whether the Gospels' incendiary depiction of the tribunal before Pilate was “a scene of Roman history” or “Christian propaganda.” He answered the question, in part, with the following passage: “However explicable its origins, defensible its invectives, and understandable its motives
among Christians fighting for survival, its repetition has now become the longest lie, and, for our own integrity, we Christians must at last name it as such.”

But why revisit the tortured history of Christianity's relationship with Judaism? Because the longest hatredâthe hatred born
of the Gospels' depiction of the Crucifixionâhas risen again, violently. So, too, has a brand of racially based political
extremism that apologists refer to as “populism.” The two phenomena are undeniably linked. For proof, look no further than
the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where white nationalists protesting the removal of a Confederate
memorial chanted “Jews will not replace us!” as they marched by torchlight and snapped off stiff-armed Nazi salutes. Or the
Tree of Life Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, where a white nationalist angry over Hispanic immigration
murdered eleven Jews and wounded six more. Why did the gunman target Jews? Could it be that he was gripped by an irrational
hatred even more powerful than his resentment of brown-skinned migrants looking for a better life in America?

The brilliant economist Paul Krugman of the
New York Times
made the connection between the simultaneous rise of anti-Semitism and race-based populism in the same column that produced
the quotation that appears in the epigraph of this work. “Most of us, I think, know that whenever bigotry runs free, we're
likely to be among its victims.” Unfortunately, the outbreak of a global pandemic, coupled with a sharp economic downturn,
is likely to make matters worse. In the darkest corners of the Internet, Jews are being blamed for the pandemic, just as they
were blamed for the Black Death in the fourteenth century.

“Never forget,” Rabbi Jacob Zolli tells Gabriel during the opening scenes of
The Order
, “the unimaginable can happen.” The outbreak of a global pandemic would seem to bear that out. But even before the Covid-19
crisis, anti-Semitism in Europe had risen to a level not seen since the middle of the last century. To their credit, Western
European political leaders have roundly condemned the resurgence of anti-Semitism. So, too, has Pope Francis. He has also
questioned the morality of unfettered capitalism, called for action on climate change, defended the rights of immigrants,
and warned of the dangers posed by the rise of the European far right, which regards him as a mortal enemy. If only a prelate
like Francis had been wearing the Ring of the Fisherman in 1939. The history of the Jews, and the Roman Catholic Church, might
well have been written differently.

Acknowledgments

I am eternally grateful to my wife, Jamie Gangel, who served as my sounding board while I worked out the details and structure
of a complex plot involving the murder of a pope, the discovery of a long-suppressed gospel, and a conspiracy by the European
far right to seize control of the Roman Catholic Church. When I finished my first draft, she made three crucial suggestions
and then skillfully edited my final typescript, all while covering the impeachment of a president for CNN and caring for our
family during a global pandemic. I share many traits with my protagonist, Gabriel Allon, including the fact we are both married
to perfect women. My debt to Jamie is immeasurable, as is my love.

I had hoped to finish
The Order
in Rome but was forced to cancel my travel plans when the coronavirus ravaged Italy. Having written two previous Vatican thrillers, and several others with scenes set in or around the Vatican, I have formed many
cherished friendships with men and women who work behind the walls of the world's smallest country. I have stood in the lobby of the Swiss Guard barracks, shopped in the Vatican pharmacy and supermarket, visited the conservation labs of the Vatican Museums, opened the door of the stove in the Sistine Chapel, and attended a Mass celebrated by the Holy Father. I wish to express my gratitude to Father Mark Haydu, who was an invaluable resource throughout the writing process, and to the matchless John L. Allen, who literally wrote the book on how a conclave works. For the record, neither influenced my depiction of the anti-Jewish nature of the Gospel accounts of Jesus' death.

I am forever indebted to David Bull and Patrick Matthiesen for their advice on restoration and art history, and for their
friendship. Louis Toscano, my dear friend and longtime editor, made countless improvements to the novel, as did Kathy Crosby,
my eagle-eyed personal copy editor. Any typographical errors that slipped through their formidable gauntlet are my responsibility,
not theirs.

I consulted hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles while writing
The Order
, along with dozens of books. I would be remiss if I did not mention the following: Ann Wroe,
Pontius Pilate
; James Carroll,
Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews
; Paul Johnson,
A History of Christianity
; Paula Fredriksen,
Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews: A Jewish Life and the Emergence of Christianity
and
From Jesus to Christ: The Origins of the New Testament Images of Jesus
; John Dominic Crossan,
Who Killed Jesus?: Exposing the Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Gospel Story of the Death of Jesus
; Reza Aslan,
Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth
; Bart D. Ehrman,
How Jesus Became God: The
Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee
; Bart D. Ehrman and Zlatko PleÅ¡e,
The Apocryphal Gospels: Text and Translations
; Robert S. Wistrich,
Antisemitism: The Longest Hatred
; Daniel Jonah Goldhagen,
A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair
and
Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust
; John Cornwell,
Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII
and
A Thief in the Night: Life and Death in the Vatican
; Michael Phayer,
The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930â1965
and
Pius XII, the Holocaust, and the Cold War
; Susan Zuccotti,
Under His Very Windows: The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy
; David I. Kertzer,
The Popes Against the Jews: The Vatican's Role in the Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism
; Uki GoÃ±i,
The Real Odessa:
Smuggling the Nazis to PerÃ³n's Argentina
; John Follain,
City of Secrets: The Truth Behind the Murders at the Vatican
; Carl Bernstein and Marco Politi,
His Holiness: John Paul II and the History of Our Time
; John L. Allen Jr.,
Conclave: The Politics, Personalities, and Process of the Next Papal Election
; Thomas J. Reese,
Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church
; Frederic J. Baumgartner,
Behind Locked Doors: A History of Papal Elections
; and Gianluigi Nuzzi,
Merchants in the Temple: Inside Pope Francis's Secret Battle Against Corruption in the Vatican
.

We are blessed with family and friends who fill our lives with love and laughter at critical times during the writing year, especially Jeff Zucker, Phil Griffin, Andrew Lack, Noah Oppenheim, Susan St. James and Dick Ebersol, Elsa Walsh and Bob Woodward, Michael Gendler, Ron Meyer, Jane and Burt Bacharach, Stacey and Henry Winkler, Kitty Pilgrim and Maurice Tempelsman, Donna and Michael Bass, Virginia Moseley and Tom Nides, Nancy Dubuc and Michael Kizilbash, Susanna Aaron
and Gary Ginsburg, Cindi and Mitchell Berger, Andy Lassner, Marie Brennan and Ernie Pomerantz, and Peggy Noonan.

A heartfelt thanks to the remarkable team at HarperCollins, who managed to publish a book under circumstances no thriller
writer could have imagined. I am especially indebted to Brian Murray, Jonathan Burnham, Jennifer Barth, Doug Jones, Leah Wasielewski,
Mark Ferguson, Leslie Cohen, Robin Bilardello, Milan Bozic, Frank Albanese, Josh Marwell, David Koral, Leah Carlson-Stanisic,
Carolyn Bodkin, Chantal Restivo-Alessi, Julianna Wojcik, Mark Meneses, Sarah Ried, Beth Silfin, Lisa Erickson, and Amy Baker.

Lastly, the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus required my children, Lily and Nicholas, to once again live under the same
roof with me as I struggled to complete this novel before its deadline. For that, I am grateful, though I'm not sure they
would say the same. Like many young American professionals, they teleworked from their childhood rooms during the lockdown.
I enjoyed occasionally dropping in unannounced on their video conference calls. Their presence was a source of great comfort,
joy, and inspiration. They, too, are miracles, in more ways than one.

About the Author

Daniel Silva
is the award-winning, #1
New York Times
bestselling author of
The Unlikely Spy
,
The Mark of the Assassin
,
The Marching Season
,
The Kill Artist
,
The English Assassin
,
The Confessor
,
A Death in Vienna
,
Prince of Fire
,
The Messenger
,
The Secret Servant
,
Moscow Rules
,
The Defector
,
The Rembrandt Affair
,
Portrait of a Spy
,
The Fallen Angel
,
The English Girl
,
The Heist
,
The English Spy
,
The Black Widow
,
House of Spies
,
The Other Woman
, and
The New Girl
. He is best known for his long-running thriller series starring spy and art restorer Gabriel Allon. Silva's books are critically
acclaimed bestsellers around the world and have been translated into more than thirty languages. He resides in Florida with
his wife, television journalist Jamie Gangel, and their twins, Lily and Nicholas. For more information, visit www.danielsilvabooks.com.

Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at
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Also by Daniel Silva

The New
Girl
The Other Woman
House of Spies
The Black Widow
The English Spy
The Heist
The English Girl
The Fallen Angel
Portrait of a Spy
The Rembrandt Affair
The Defector
Moscow Rules
The Secret Servant
The Messenger
Prince of Fire
A Death in Vienna
The Confessor
The English Assassin
The Kill Artist
The Marching Season
The Mark of the Assassin
The Unlikely Spy

Copyright

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously
and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead,
is entirely coincidental.

the order
. Copyright Â© 2020 by Daniel Silva. 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 hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

first edition

Cover design by Milan Bozic

Cover photograph by Nigel Cox

Cover props by Ross MacDonald

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

Digital Edition JULY 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-283490-4

Print ISBN: 978-0-06-283484-3

About the Publisher

Australia

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Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia