Civilizations

by Laurent Binet

  But while she stood proudly, provocatively, before him, a defiant smile on her lips, the spectators crying out in anger and dismay or watching admiringly, a few even laughing, Luther insolently pointed his avenging finger at the naked Cuban and barked: ‘Men have wide shoulders and narrow hips. They are blessed with intelligence. Women have narrow shoulders and wide hips, so that they may have children and stay at home.’

  The meeting was adjourned.

  56. The Dilemma

  ‘Kill him,’ said Higuénamota.

  But it wasn’t that simple.

  Eliminating Luther would mean fulfilling his part of the bargain agreed with Fugger and thus ensuring that the banker would furnish him with the hundreds of thousands of florins necessary to buy the votes of the two protestant electors. But it would also mean alienating those same electors, and with them all the princes who supported the rebel monk, grouped together in the Schmalkaldic League.

  He did not have the military resources on hand to defeat that coalition: Quizquiz had remained in Spain with one-third of his army, to repel any surprise attacks by Suleiman or Ferdinand, and another third had been left behind to look after Belgium and western Germany.

  But neither could he guarantee his election through peaceful means, since it was dependent upon both the death and the agreement of Luther.

  While Atahualpa thought about this, crowds converged on Wittenberg. Throughout the country, an immense optimism was growing around the meeting between Luther and the Inca. Of course, the people had not forgotten Luther’s betrayal when he renounced Thomas Müntzer and incited the princes to massacre the rebellious peasants, but they were all tantalised by thoughts of the Alsatian peasantry’s twelve articles: they hoped that Emperor Atahualpa would extend his laws through the whole of Germany. The market square and the streets of the little town were soon filled with men, women, children, and hope.

  Meanwhile, Chalco Chimac had returned to Melanchthon’s house to drink more beer and try to save the accord.

  As a precondition to further talks the red-bearded little man had persuaded his friend Luther to apologise.

  One important point of debate was the status of this religion of the Sun. For obvious political reasons, there could be no question of considering it heresy or like the religion of the false prophet Mohammed. Atahualpa’s victories proved that God was on his side. In fact, the defeat inflicted on the kingdoms of the Fifth Quarter was undoubtedly God’s punishment for their corruption, demonstrating once again the truthfulness of Luther’s theories. That was why Luther, in his wisdom, considered Atahualpa to be an envoy of God, not of the devil, and, after reflection, would agree to see the Inca religion as a metaphor or a version of the Gospel designed for the world beyond the seas, just as the Old Testament was – according to followers of the nailed god – a collection of tales that heralded and prefigured the New.

  ‘Like a rough draft?’ the general asked.

  ‘More like an interpretation of the same theme,’ his host replied.

  In that case, Chalco Chimac said, what were they to make of Luther’s speech about the Jews?

  Melanchthon swept the question away with the back of his hand. ‘Nothing. As he’s got older, he’s grown obsessed with that subject. But it is merely an old man’s folly and should not interfere with these debates. You just have to let him talk.’

  They decided that the next meeting would take place in the castle church. Chalco Chimac returned from his visit reassured and even mildly enthusiastic. Then again, he had drunk quite a lot of beer. He faithfully reported Melanchthon’s advice to his master: ‘Let him talk, and agree with as much of it as you can. Then you’ll have your accord.’

  57. The Castle Church

  Rumour had it that the great amauta Erasmus himself had made the journey, despite the fact that news of his death – in Basel, where he’d taken refuge long before to escape religious persecution – had been widely known for several harvests. That was a measure of the historical importance attached to this meeting between the century’s two great reformers. But nobody could guess what its outcome might be, and throughout Germany, throughout the Fifth Quarter, even in Rome, the world held its breath.

  Meanwhile, Wittenberg was in uproar. Printed sheets were passed from hand to hand: the twelve articles, with engravings and portraits of Atahualpa, Müntzer, Little Johan. The walls were covered with drawings of lace-up shoes. Pamphlets denounced Luther as ‘the Stupid and Lazy Meat of Wittenberg’. Huge numbers of peasants continued to arrive. They set up camp at the gates of the city, scaring the elector John Frederick into calling up regiments of landsknechts as reinforcements, to prevent things getting out of hand. Rainbow banners fluttered in the wind next to the flag of Saxony.

  In the castle church, however, everyone was on his best behaviour. Luther apologised publicly to Higuénamota. He said that the religion of the Sun could be tolerated as a metaphor for the Gospel. True, he excoriated the sectarians and fanatics outside who wanted to subvert God’s order, and demanded that all participants join him in condemning their calls for violence. Without naming them, though, he made clear allusions to the twelve articles. He was ready to recognise the legitimacy of certain claims. (‘At last!’ thought some. ‘A bit late,’ said others.) He asked the princes to examine their consciences, and to yield what they could. He spent less time cursing the Jews.

  Atahualpa, for his part, had agreed to reverse their roles: he had taken his place among the front row of the faithful, on a wooden bench, beside Higuénamota (who had graciously accepted Luther’s apology), and they had let Luther climb into the pulpit. In other words, he was addressing them from a position that looked down on Atahualpa, an arrangement that under normal circumstances would never have been allowed. The Empire is worth a Mass, he’d said, laughing, to the elector. Chalco Chimac and Melanchthon glanced at each other uneasily when Luther began raging at the Jews again, but taken within the context of the entire speech, such mutterings were no more than a few insignificant dregs at the bottom of a glass of good beer.

  The essential thing was that the principle of an agreement based on the Seville Edict seemed to be in the bag. When the meeting was over, they congratulated one another. The two electors John Frederick of Saxony and Joachim II Hector of Brandenburg were already negotiating the price of their votes with Atahualpa. (They wanted a hundred thousand florins, which the Inca did not have, for a very good reason.) Melanchthon and Chalco Chimac chatted between themselves. It seemed reasonable, just then, to hope that a text could be quickly written and signed.

  We know, today, that that is not what transpired.

  58. The Church Doors

  On the morning of the fifth day, crows flew above the tower. Outside the entrance to the temple, where the parties were due to meet once again to hammer out the final agreement, a crowd had gathered, curious and excited. For the second time in twenty-five harvests, a list of theses had been nailed to the wooden doors, and these were being read aloud, and gradually passed on to those behind, so that a vague echo spread throughout the whole city. (The text was in German.)

  Then the man appeared, preceded by a murmur, and everyone made way for him. He was a paunchy monk in a black beret; his jowly face was severe but weary, his gaze less piercing than it once was, his step less lively, but he was still an imposing man. In his presence, everyone felt a little smaller.

  As the murmurs grew louder, he approached the doors that he had, for a long time, and not without reason, thought of as his. And everyone in the crowd watched as the monk’s face turned crimson.

  59. The Ninety-Five Theses of the Sun

  1.   The Sun is not an allegory of God the creator.

  2.   He is God the creator and the source of all life.

  3.   Viracocha is his father or his son, and father or son of the Moon.

  4.   The Inca is the Sun’s representative on earth.

  5.   The Inca is descended from Manco Capac, the founding father, and his sist
er Mama Ocllo, both of them children of the Sun.

  6.   The Inca belongs to this lineage: that is why he is considered the son of the Sun.

  7.   The Inca belongs to the younger branch of the Sun’s family, because Manco Capac was the younger brother or the grandson of Viracocha.

  8.   Consequently, the authority of the Pope, representative of the old religion, cannot be applied to the Inca, or to his vassals, or to any followers of the religion of the Sun.

  9.   The year 1531 of the old era is the first year of the new era, since it marks the coming of the Inca, over the Ocean Sea.

  10. The earth trembled and Lisbon opened a door to the son of the Sun that nobody here will ever close.

  11. The Holy Trinity imagined by Tertullian at the beginning of the old era is the imperfect allegorical representation of the Sun, the Moon and the Thunder.

  12. This representation is imperfect because the Virgin Mary ought to take her place in the Holy Trinity, as an allegory of the Moon, and not the Holy Spirit. Or, if one had wished to add the Thunder to the three principal divinities, then it should have been called the Quaternity.

  13. It is true that the god of Thunder can strike the earth with his hammer, but his power is far from equal to that of the Sun, to whom he owes allegiance.

  14. The Holy Family is no more acceptable as an allegory of the true gods of the Sun, the Moon and their son-father, Viracocha, since in the old religion Joseph is not considered a god but simply a man who is the adoptive father of the false messiah Jesus.

  15. The virginal conception of the false messiah Jesus is a fable, probably invented to justify Mary’s untimely pregnancy, since Joseph, her husband, was an impotent old man.

  17. The Sun fertilised the Moon to create Viracocha, his brother Manco Capac and the earth Pachamama.

  18. Those who claim that the Moon is an allegory of Mary, and not vice versa, must not persist in this error, because if that had been the case, the God of the Christians would not have permitted the Inca’s arrival or his victories. Whereas we can see that the Inca has conquered this part of the world with the blessing of the god Sun and the goddess Moon, his ancestors, and that we were wrong about our false idols and our false messiah.

  19. The true Jerusalem is not in Jerusalem but in Cuzco, beyond the Ocean Sea, situated at the navel of the world.

  20. Neither the Pope nor his representatives can demand money for the redemption of sins because they do not have the authority.

  21. The dying pay all debts when they die.

  22. So the preachers are wrong who say that if a man buys indulgences from the Pope, he is relieved of all pain and is saved.

  23. Christians must learn that to give to the poor or lend to those in need is better than to buy indulgences.

  24. Christians must learn that one who sees a poor man and, ignoring him, spends his money on indulgences, will earn not the indulgence of the Pope but the wrath of Viracocha.

  25. Christians must learn that, unless they have far more than they need, they should save their money instead of wasting it on indulgences.

  26. All bishops, pastors and theologians who spread this message to the people will pay for their crimes.

  27. When Christians are asked why their God expelled the first man and the first woman from paradise, they talk much nonsense and, seeing that their arguments do not hold water, they invent allegories based on that fable of the subtle serpent and the forbidden fruit and the corrupt woman.

  28. When old Christians who eat the body and drink the blood of their own god are asked how they can practise such cannibalistic barbarity, they are surprised and do not know what to say, except for certain Lutherans who admit that their god’s presence in the ceremony is purely symbolic.

  29. As for those followers of Luther who believe that some men’s salvation is already decided, and others’ damnation likewise, with the rest of humanity doomed to wander after death in an antechamber of hell, with no account taken of their works or their actions, these men should be horrified by the cruelty and tyranny of this god who saves some men and not others, at his own whim, like the god of the Jews, whom Luther and his followers are nonetheless quick to vilify.

  30. However, Luther is right on one point, when he affirms that if a virgin believes herself superior, or even simply equal, to others, then ‘she is the virgin of Satan’, even if Satan is merely the fruit of a Christian superstition; by which we mean that virginity has no value in itself and it should not be demanded as a prerequisite for marriage.

  31. Why is it so important for followers of the nailed god that their god should be recognised to the exclusion of all others? This is a mystery that we cannot explain.

  32. The nailed god may, however, serve as an example, as did Moses and other saints. But his life remains his own and does not save men, Christian or otherwise, in any way whatsoever.

  33. The Sun does not demand the death of other gods. He does not require this to preserve his primacy or his power because none of those gods can harm him.

  35. The Sun is not jealous; he does not choose his people; he does not save a minority of men and leave the rest in darkness. He extends his benign light over all the men of the earth.

  36. In the same way, the Inca, the son of the Sun, extends his magnanimous goodness to all the men of the earth, with no exception.

  37. Many are those who teach about the nailed god only to stir up emotion, to make people love Christ, to make them hate Jews, and other childish, effeminate nonsense.

  38. Likewise, it is childish to believe that the father of the nailed god created the world and then, one day, sent his son to save men. Where was this god during the Trojan War? Was he sleeping? Why did he leave the Greeks in ignorance of his existence?

  39. Why didn’t he inform such wise men as Plato and Aristotle of his existence? Why wait so long? Were there no sinners who deserved saving, before?

  40. In truth, the ages succeed one another like destruction succeeds creation, and like creation succeeds destruction.

  41. The first age was the age of the first men who wore leaves as clothing.

  42. The second age was the age of the second human race who lived in peace. The flood put an end to that race.

  43. The third age was the age of the wild men who revered Pachacamac. They were constantly at war. It was during this period that the daughter of Thunder brought them iron.

  44. The fourth age was the age of the warriors. That was when the world was divided into four parts.

  45. The fifth age is the age of the Sun. It coincides with the reign of the Incas on earth. The world has grown bigger, with a fifth part, which is ours.

  46. Just as the old religion was cruel and iniquitous, with its arbitrary punishments and its unjust decrees, so the religion of the Sun is fair and good and balanced.

  47. Because, really, what father worthy of that name would sacrifice his son?

  48. Why give men free will if it enables them to do evil?

  49. Why make sinners, only to punish them afterwards?

  50. Children know nothing of the nailed god until a Christian tells them his story. But they meet the Sun in their very first days upon the earth. That is why worshippers of the Sun need not be baptised, whether adults or children.

  51. Paul worried that certain men might never know about the existence of his nailed god: ‘How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?’ The Sun has no need of preachers because he shines in the sky and every evening he goes to sleep in the sea and every morning he rises above the mountains.

  52. Paul again: ‘Faith comes by hearing.’ But faith in the Sun is not taught. All one must do is look up.

  53. However, Paul sensed the truth when he said: ‘The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.’ (Romans 13:12)

  54. ‘Him that is weak
in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.’ (Romans 14:1)

  55. ‘For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.’ (Romans 14:2)

  56. ‘Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.’ (Romans 14:3)

  57. For the kingdom of Viracocha is not meat or drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Sun, as revealed in Romans 14:17.

  58. Let those prophets be gone who say to the people of the nailed god: ‘death to the Antichrist!’ when, according to them, the Antichrist is everyone that they are not.

  59. The Sun supports the rights of the poor.

  60. He gave birth to the earth so that all may taste its salt.

  61. Neither the Sun nor the earth demand payment of a tithe, great or small, from anyone.

  62. The earth cannot be bought or rented or loaned at interest.

  63. The earth cannot be monopolised. It is divided according to each man’s needs.

  64. The waters are part of the earth and are free.

  65. Fish belong to the river.

  66. Game belongs to the forest.

  67. The forests belong to the earth, which belongs to the Sun.

  68. The Sun knows no serfs, he knows only men.

  69. The Inca is the Sun’s descendant on earth, but the Sun considers us all his children.

  70. Under the Sun, Cain does not kill Abel.

  71. If ever such a thing were to happen, Cain would be judged by men, his other brothers.