Old Earth (36 page)

“You have your numbers down,” McCauley observed.

“Chalk it up to my share of sabbaticals,” Eccleston laughed.

Katrina chimed in, “We live for them, too.”

Once the wine was served, Eccleston proposed a simple toast. “To our finding the answers we seek.”

“I’ll drink to that.” Quinn reached for the bottle to see what it was. “Verdicchio?”

“Yes, I think you’ll like this,” he said.

The priest held up his glass to the lamp light and examined its luster. “So beautiful. From a magnificent yellow-green grape. See how the final product embraces and expands upon the original hues. Much like our conversation tonight.”

His guests examined it in the same way.

“Now, take in the floral aroma.”

They brought their wine glasses to their nose and acknowledged the scent.

“This Verdicchio hasn’t changed since the fourteenth century. It’s from Le Marche region, still produced by Brothers at Verdicchio del Castelli di Jesi.”

“Quite a tradition, Father,” Alpert said. “I really like this.”

“I’ll tell you someone who enjoyed the Verdicchio in Le Marche.”

The priest captivated Katrina. “Oh?”

“Galileo Galilei.”

“When?” McCauley asked.

“In the early 1600s he came to Le Marche to do experiments on a new invention—the thermometer.” Father Eccleston exhaled deeply.

“The thermoscope,” Alpert remarked.

“Quite right, Dr. Alpert. You’ve studied Galileo?”

“Some. I knew he was credited with its development along with the telescope.”

Eccleston nodded. “All and more. But there’s probably something else you don’t know. The section of Le Marche where Galileo experimented with his early thermometer is known for something other than wine.”

The priest set down his wine glass. “A year before Galileo traveled to Le Marche, Giordano Bruno, a dissident thinker, was convicted of heresy by the Holy Office. He was burned at the stake. The Pope, or those who spoke for him, put reason and science on the opposing side of the religious scale that was completely weighted in the church’s favor. Authority gave them that ability. Ability equaled right. Right equaled power. It wasn’t merely so-called radicals like Bruno who came under scrutiny of the Holy See. It was anyone whose views challenged conventional wisdom, or as history has shown us, conventional myopia.

“Galileo confronted church doctrine, though for a time he had actually worked under Papal sponsorship. He was even honored by mathematicians at Collegio Romano.”

“Mathematics,” McCauley commented. “I forgot that was his principal field of study. We all think it was astronomy.”

“Related. Inter-related,” Eccleston said. “The basis for everything.”

Eccleston’s answer reminded him of the next piece of the puzzle he wanted to discuss with the priest.
Soon
, he thought.

“When Galileo published his
Letters on Sunspots
, which offered his theory that the sun rotated on its own axis, Dominican Friar Niccolo Lorini of Florence attacked him. Lorini was a professor of ecclesiastic history. And if you think you could have spoken freely in his classes, you would have done so at your own peril.

“Galileo countered, offering his views concerning the relationship between science and Scripture. Not a particularly church-friendly idea,” Father Eccleston noted. “Lorini filed a complaint with the Roman Inquisition. He took issue with Galileo’s disregard of Ptolemy’s theory of the solar system which held that the earth was the center of all celestial bodies. This was the
geocentric
model and it fit into the strict biblical teachings. Galileo’s disregard of prevailing beliefs undermined church authority.”

“And led to his Inquisition,” Katrina observed.

“Certainly contributed to it,” the priest confirmed. “Research shows that Galileo’s stubbornness and ego didn’t help either. But it was an age of transition. It took radicals and radical ideas to move the needle, as it were. And Catholic scientists were the ones doing it. In fact, Copernicus, himself a clergyman, had developed his own interpretation that was in conflict with Ptolemy. Some right, some wrong. He set the sun as the focal point, with the earth and other planets in circular orbits. Where Galileo got into further trouble was when he neither accepted nor rejected all of Copernican theory, and as a result, was again criticized for not embracing geocentrism.

“When he pushed, and I mean pushed
heliocentrism
on society and the church, he raised the most ire. This thinking placed our solar system within a larger universe, with the earth and the other planets traveling around the sun in elliptical orbits. It was as far from biblical interpretation as imaginable, thus controversial and ultimately heretical.”

“And the reason for his excommunication,” Katrina added.

“He was never excommunicated. As a religious man, he feared he might be. It was possibly one of the reasons he recanted before the Inquisition. But who knows. Anyway, we’re skipping some of the history. In 1616, the situation worsened for Galileo. A powerful cardinal named Bellarmine issued a decree that expressly prohibited teaching, discussing, writing or defending Copernican theory. Galileo thought he had tiptoed around the strictures of the edict in writing his
Discourse on Comets
and
The Assayer
. He had not. His publications further fanned the flames of the Inquisition fires.

“Seven years later, he was granted six audiences with newly elected Pope Urban VIII. The Holy See declared that Galileo could discuss Copernican theory as long as he presented it solely as theory.”

“Like evolution,” McCauley noted somewhat uncomfortably before the priest. “Everything old is new again. But what does all this have to do with Gap Theory?”

“I’m coming around to that,” Eccleston said. “Galileo continued to explore science as he saw it, but not as indiscreetly as the Vatican wanted. He wrote a new work as a conversation, a debate. He called it
Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
. Not a good idea on his part. The Pope banned its distribution.

“According to Papal history, this is what ultimately led to Galileo being summoned to appear before the Roman Inquisition.”

Eccleston became more intent in his account. His eyes took on a glow. “However, it’s been rumored there was another essay written by Galileo Galilei thirty years earlier. This work was given to Pope Paul V who, after reading it, ordered it destroyed. Rumors mind you, but who’s to say?”

“About?”

“No one knows, but there are whispers to this day that it was so controversial, so explosive that it threatened the very fabric of the Church and its history.”

Alpert and McCauley instinctively moved closer.

“In late 1632, Galileo was summoned to appear before the Inquisition. A few months later a very sick Galileo traveled to Rome for his trial. A particularly malicious opponent, Father Vincenzo Maculano da Firenzuola, utterly broke him down in the formal tribunal and again, according to whispers, in private conversations. We only have the record of some encounters, not all.”

The ticking of the kitchen clock a room away was the only sound for the next few moments.

“Father Eccleston, you started a thought, but didn’t complete it before,” Katrina recalled. “Something else Le Marche is known for?”

“Oh, yes. Perhaps a vital detail, not to be overlooked.” The priest smiled. “Le Marche is famous for its caves.”

As the words settled in, McCauley’s enthusiasm grew more. “Can we…”

“Ah, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Eccleston cautioned. “Tomorrow we’ll delve into the Vatican Secret Archives. I’ve done extensive research, but never in relation to Le Marche. Perhaps there’s something in Galileo’s own hand. We can also see about dear Fr. Emilianov.”

“And if there isn’t anything?” Katrina aptly followed up. “Then what?”

The reply came naturally to McCauley; an echo, like his own voice in the Montana cave. “The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.”

Seventy-one

JUNE 22, 1633
ROME

They sat in judgment. The Reverend Father Vincenzo Maculano was at the center of the table. Flanked on either side were Fr. Cardinal de Ascoli, Fr. Cardinal Gessi, Fr. Cardinal Bentivoglio, Fr. Cardinal Verospi, Fr. Cardinal Ginetti, Fr. D. Cardinal de Cremona, Fr. Cardinal Barberini, Fr. Cardinal Borgia, Fr. Ant. s Cardinal de. S. Onofrio, Fr. Cardinal Laudivio Zacchia and Reverend Fr. Carlo Sinceri. Chief Inquisitor Sinceri spoke.

Whereas you, Galileo, son of the late Vincenzo Galilei, Florentine, aged seventy years, were in the year 1615 denounced to this Holy Office for holding as true the false doctrine taught by some that the Sun is the center of the world and immovable and that the Earth moves, and also with a diurnal motion; for having disciples to whom you taught the same doctrine; for holding correspondence with certain mathematicians of Germany concerning the same; for having printed certain letters, entitled "On the Sunspots," wherein you developed the same doctrine as true; and for replying to the objections from the Holy Scriptures, which from time to time were urged against it, by glossing the said Scriptures according to your own meaning: and whereas there was thereupon produced the copy of a document in the form of a letter, purporting to be written by you to one formerly your disciple, and in this divers propositions are set forth, following the position of Copernicus, which are contrary to the true sense and authority of Holy Scripture:

This Holy Tribunal being therefore of intention to proceed against the disorder and mischief thence resulting, which went on increasing to the prejudice of the Holy Faith, by command of His Holiness and of the Most Eminent Lords Cardinals of this supreme and universal Inquisition, the two propositions of the stability of the Sun and the motion of the Earth were by the theological Qualifiers qualified as follows:

The proposition that the Earth is not the center of the world and immovable but that it moves, and also with a diurnal motion, is equally absurd
and false philosophically and theologically considered at least erroneous in faith.

But whereas it was desired at that time to deal leniently with you, it was decreed at the Holy Congregation held before His Holiness on the twenty-fifth of February, 1616, that his Eminence the Lord Cardinal Bellarmine should order you to abandon altogether the said false doctrine and, in the event of your refusal, that an injunction should be imposed upon you by the Commissary of the Holy Office to give up the said doctrine and not to teach it to others, not to defend it, nor even to discuss it; and your failing your acquiescence in this injunction, that you should be imprisoned.

Furthermore, in order to completely eliminate such a pernicious doctrine, and not let it creep any further to the great detriment of Catholic truth, the Holy Congregation of the Index issued a decree which prohibited books which treat of this and declaring the doctrine itself to be false and wholly contrary to the divine and Holy Scripture.

We condemn you to formal imprisonment in this Holy Office at our pleasure.

Maculano peered up from the official decree. “There are far greater offenses against you that this learned group has judged to be the most dangerous and heretical position ever contemplated. However, it is so unspeakable that posterity shall never be burdened by its knowledge.”

With this condemnation, Galileo lost all hope.

“Galileo Galilei, do you have anything to add before sentencing?”

“Preserve the record of my research on the stars. That shall be my contribution. All else can be forgotten.”

Seventy-two

FR. ECCLESTON’S APARTMENT
ROME

“Could the long arm of the Inquisition reach through to today?”

“It depends. Who are you asking? The priest or the scientist?”

McCauley got his line of thinking. “
Dr.
Eccleston…”

“In that case, unmitigated power. Everything that the cardinals employed then could have made its way to the twenty-first century, disguised, no doubt—morphed, if you will. Power like that hides and survives.”

“And does Father Eccleston believe there is still such a secret organization?”

“It would have to be dangerous and fearless,” Eccleston added, “charged with protecting great secrets.”

Quinn suddenly felt a muscle tighten in the pit of his stomach. “There’s more, Father.”

“There always is.”

“You can’t see it in the photographs. All light was absorbed, but I felt some indentations on the surface. Bumps or notches that made up a pattern of numbers. We have a drawing.”

After Eccleston studied the paper, he said, “Of course you know what this represents?”

“Yes we do,” McCauley admitted. “A prime pyramid.”

• • •

They discussed the unique quality of the numbers and their application in science and civilization This is where McCauley and Alpert learned more about Eccleston’s relationship with Robert Greene and how the American investigator had more standing than they had allowed.

“Prime numbers makes you think there’s a bigger picture,” Eccleston proposed.

“Like a higher authority?”

“Consider it an order to the universe, Dr. Alpert. One that we can actually grasp. Numbers. Undeniable. Infinite. Easily translatable. Perhaps that’s where we should leave it for tonight.”

“I think you’re right, Father.”

“Then tomorrow we’ll renew our work at the Vatican. I promise you an exciting day.”

McCauley stood and stretched. He walked to the window overlooking Via Flavia.

Jareth Eccleston soon joined him. “Typical Rome. Cars maneuvering faster than they would in American cities. Tourists examining their maps. Pedestrians talking and texting on their phones.”