The Florentine Emerald: The Secret of the Convert's Ring

by Agustín Bernaldo Palatchi

  As Mauricio thrust deep inside her, Lorena felt a pain she had never experienced before. Her womanliness felt as arid as her soul. She felt suffocated by the weight of her husband. Mauricio was drenched in sweat and breathing heavily. Lorena lay still, observing everything as if it were happening to someone else. When her husband was finally sated, she turned over and pretended to sleep. Tears moistened her cheeks. Without knowing exactly what, she felt that something was going horribly wrong.

  44

  “The illuminated Genesis you found in the former house of Tommaso Pazzi is extremely revealing,” said Lorenzo de Medici, as he handed it to Elias Levi to examine.

  Mauricio’s gaze wandered distractedly across Lorenzo’s garden. He despised himself. The way he had taken Lorena the night before had left a bitter taste in his mouth and had poisoned his body and soul. How could all those emotions and sentiments have changed in such a short space of time? How had he been capable of acting like a brutish animal with the person he most loved in this world? Mauricio drained the wine Lorenzo had offered him, but found no consolation there to dull his pain. Overcome with sadness, the passages from Genesis meant little to him. However, he tried to force himself to keep alert in front of Il Magnifico, and talking about any subject was preferable than torturing himself by brooding about his incomprehensible behavior.

  “Well, I certainly do not know how to interpret it,” he admitted. “Why does Yahweh, when he discovers that Adam and Eve have eaten from the tree of Good and Evil, exclaim ‘Behold, the man is become as one of us’? Surely there is only one God?” he asked, turning toward Lorenzo.

  “I raised that matter some time ago when I became aware that the Bible refers in various places to the elohim, in other words, to the gods. You see,” Lorenzo explained, “in accordance with our faith, angels, archangels, cherubim, thrones, powers, virtues, dominations, all exist. These non-terrestrial entities are entrusted with a multitude of duties in accordance with their rank in the hierarchy, one of which is governing space and the stars and executing the orders of the Creator. Our church and traditions acknowledge this. We deduce that God does not act directly in our universe, although he would be able to, but through the mediation of other entities with orders to fulfill this mission. We can therefore suppose that when the Lord created the universe, the stars, and the earth, he used beings who were so splendid to our eyes that the scribes of the Old Testament refer to them as elohim, in other words, the Gods. Powers, thrones, rulers or elohim … Who minds what name we give them?”

  Mauricio was struck with admiration by Il Magnifico’s reasoning. He had never thought of it in that way: the explanation had been coherent and in perfect harmony with the Christian doctrine, but there were still pieces that did not quite fit. Were they minor gods who had expelled Adam and Eve from paradise? Only in this way could one understand that after exclaiming in startled shock that humans had become “like one of us” by eating from the forbidden tree, they promptly banished them from paradise in order to deny them access to the tree of life. Was it perhaps they feared that if man increased his knowledge, with time he might surpass them? These “gods” were not what they appeared to be.

  “The children of the gods fornicated with the descendants of Adam. Therefore surely they could not be mere spiritual entities, like the elohim, but also should have possessed a physical body,” Mauricio pondered.

  “To find out, I would refer to the book of Enoch, which is the only name that appears illuminated in the vellum scroll you discovered in the house of Tommaso Pazzi. Forgive me for interrupting,” Elias Levi, the rabbi and friend of Lorenzo, apologized, “but in spite of being Jewish my opinion might also help, because I know Genesis well, being one of the five books that constitute the Torah.”

  “I know who Enoch is. He is the only patriarch before Noah, who, instead of dying, disappeared from Earth, transported by God. But I had never heard of a book being attributed to him,” confessed Mauricio.

  “The reason for this is because the book vanished after the Council of Laodicea in the third century,” explained Elias. “However, Cosimo’s envoys discovered a copy in North Africa, and he incorporated it into his private library. Thanks to Lorenzo, I have had the privilege of being able to read it. In the aforesaid book, Enoch refers to the sons of God as ‘the Watchers,’ because this was precisely their function: to keep watch over the correct development of humanity. Great must have been their power and wisdom to earn the name of ‘children of the gods.’ But by betraying their sacred mission, they did exactly the opposite of what was expected of them. They abandoned the role of observers and protectors and interfered in the natural evolution of the planet by pairing off with human females. The half-breed children they produced were the nephilim, meaning ‘giants’ because they were far taller than the average humans.”

  “What happened to them?” Mauricio asked, goaded on by curiosity.

  “According to the book of Enoch, the giants filled the earth with blood. The archangels Michael, Sariel, and Gabriel observed the world from their sanctuary in the heavens and disliked what they saw. They lacked, however, the necessary authority to intervene without superior orders. Finally, the Lord gave instructions to his servants. Gabriel was entrusted with the mission to drown the giants in a torrential deluge; Sariel warned Noah of what was about to happen and warned him that his descendants would have to re-establish a sense of humanity. Michael was given the task of chaining up the watchers in the depths of the earth until Judgment Day.”

  Mauricio watched the sunlight streaming into the inner courtyard. How things had changed in one year! The courtyard and the sun were the same as last summer, but everything looked different to him now. He realized that it was not things that changed but one’s perception of them. Events were succeeding one another with such speed that he was unable to assimilate them. His brain suddenly lit up with a dazzling flash from the emerald mounted in the ring.

  “But how does all this relate to the ring?” Mauricio enquired. After all, he thought, it was under the drawing of the emerald that the mysterious quotations from Genesis now being discussed were to be found.

  “Through Lucifer,” declared Lorenzo. “In those passages from Genesis there is a reference to a great rebellion. And who is behind these rebellions of men and children of the gods but Lucifer, the ‘Resplendent One.’ His beauty, power, and majesty must have had no equal, because he was able to convince a third of the celestial hierarchies to oppose the plans of God. He was probably the most brilliant of the elohim. And so,” Il Magnifico added after a pause, “the emerald in the ring, in fact, belonged to Lucifer.”

  “What?” exclaimed Mauricio, his eyes wide with amazement.

  “In accordance with tradition, when Lucifer threw himself down to earth, an emerald detached itself from his forehead. You only have to contemplate the emerald you brought to observe that its size and brilliance outshine anything ever seen before.”

  “Perhaps the luster of the gem conceals a sinister prophecy, Lorenzo. The lives of my father and his elders were marked by misfortune, as if some fatal curse had pursued them. Perhaps I should have told you this before, but until now I had not related the emerald to my family’s unfortunate past.”

  “I would not be who I am if I were to believe in curses, Mauricio, but I would be interested if you were to tell me about the secrets guarded by the ring. What did your father tell you concerning this?”

  “My father never revealed anything to me. At the base of the ring, there is an inscription that reads ‘Light, light, more light’,” remembered Mauricio. “This could be the key in code, but I have no idea of its significance.”

  “It may be vital to find out. You must be aware that the world is immersed in an invisible war. As Plato would say, we are prisoners watching the shadows passing by: shadows in the shape of conspiracies, wars and all manner of wickedness decreed by kings and heads of state. Much like the captives in the cave, we do not see who moves the strings that control the marione
ttes. Most of the dukes, condottieri, and other men who seem to be in power are mere dolls in the hands of puppeteers hiding behind the scenery. It is for this reason that Saint Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, had already warned his followers: ‘For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.’ We humans are in the midst of this war. It has been prophesied that on Judgment Day, Lucifer and his servants will be cast into Gehenna. Meanwhile, the followers of Lucifer are free to tempt and manipulate mankind on a scale which is invisible to our eyes.”

  “Why would God have permitted such a thing?” thought Mauricio out loud.

  “Maybe for something called freedom,” answered Elias. “The book of Enoch explains that God does not immediately order his deputies to do away with the watchers, but instead gives them time to rectify their conduct. This would be what is happening with the rebels headed by Lucifer. God would be conceding a certain margin of time during which they could reconsider their position.”

  “Perhaps,” added Lorenzo, “we men are capable of intervening decisively in this cosmic drama, however insignificant our condition might seem. Perhaps also, this ring did not end up in Florence purely by chance. My intuition tells me that this gem, together with the words on the ring, hold an important secret. By the same token, Mauricio, I do not believe that your forefathers obtained such an extraordinary jewel through sheer coincidence. Tell us as much as you know concerning your origins. Somewhere there must be a hidden key buried in the past of one of your distant family members that we should take into consideration.”

  Mauricio felt dizzy and wished more than anything for some strange spell that would let him disappear like water evaporating in contact with fire. The circumstances in which his father had died and the Hebrew roots of his ancestors were subjects he never talked about out of shame. But Il Magnifico’s intense gaze left no room for hesitation. Mauricio drank some more wine and began telling the story of his life, or at least the parts he knew.

  “It is an extraordinary story,” concluded Lorenzo. “But how did the emerald end up in your father’s hands?”

  “He had no time to tell me, nor did I think of asking him. I have always supposed that my Jewish ancestors must have kept the ring as a pledge for a loan that was never paid back.”

  “It is possible, but not very likely,” observed Il Magnifico, “because you do not even know for certain if one of your forefathers was a moneylender. Whoever possessed such an extraordinary emerald was no ordinary person. I doubt that the owner would have parted with it for money, even if he badly needed it. So we have to examine other avenues. Make an effort and concentrate on some small detail in the conversation with your father that you found shocking, or think of some random piece of information that does not seem to fit in with your family roots.”

  Mauricio took a deep breath. The more he brooded over his family history, the more it seemed shrouded in a mysterious fog that deformed the truths he had always believed, making them unrecognizable.

  “My father did say something I would have preferred not to hear: ‘I believe that Rabbi Abraham Abulafia has punished me for having betrayed my beliefs,’ he muttered in prison, bewildered by the bitter pill destiny had made him swallow.”

  “Abraham Abulafia? What was his connection with your father?” asked Elias.

  “According to what he told me, we are descended from his lineage,” Mauricio said with a certain amount of shame.

  “Abraham Abulafia,” continued Elias, “was in my opinion one of the greatest mystics in history. His methods of reaching ecstasy, varied as they were, always avoided vain erudition and concentrated on exercises of meditation and contemplation that allowed the doors of consciousness to open and admit the divine. It was precisely in your native city, as he himself describes in his writings, that he first felt filled with the spirit of God. He was an indefatigable traveler and before reaching Barcelona, where he settled in the second half of the thirteenth century to study the Kabbalah, he journeyed across Galilee, lived for a while in Sicily, married a Greek woman, and cultivated fruitful links with oriental traditions, including Sufism. I am well acquainted with his teachings because he also travelled through Italy, where he founded a school of thought and produced some of his best works.”

  “There’s the key we needed,” proclaimed Il Magnifico, enthusiastically. “Somehow or other your learned ancestor must have acquired the emerald. Wolfram von Eschenbach mentions it in his poem ‘Parzifal’ and identifies it as lapsit exillis: the precious gem fallen from the heavens, the philosopher’s stone of the alchemists, the longed-for grail of the poets … What would a Kabbalist or anyone seeking the truth not give to have it in their possession? It was probably Abraham Abulafia himself, an Aragonese by birth, who engraved upon the ring the words: ‘Light, light, more light’ in Spanish.”

  “Family relationships could provide valuable additional clues,” suggested Il Magnifico. “Tell us, Mauricio, how did you see the bonds of affection between your father and the rest of the family?”

  Mauricio’s face grew pale. The reality he had preferred to ignore now appeared to him as clear as water from a mountain spring.

  “If truth be known, the relationship with my grandparents and paternal uncles was always cool, distant … somewhat forced, I would say, in spite of my father always talking about them with affection. Furthermore, several of his brothers left Barcelona for different reasons.”

  “If the rest of his family continued practicing Judaism in secret,” Elias pointed out, “it is possible they despised him for having embraced Christianity, but they must also have feared him, as he could have denounced them to the Inquisition. We should not forget that informers received as a prize part of the personal property confiscated from those condemned by the Holy Tribunal. This would explain why they did not want to break completely with your father, but at the same time why relations between them were stiff and strained. That mistrust they felt toward your father could have prompted some brothers to leave for distant lands where nobody could know their secret.”

  Mauricio felt as if the scales had fallen from his eyes, enabling him to see afresh the truth that had lain hidden for so long among the shadows.

  “I never wanted to recognize this, although it makes sense. It was for this reason my maternal grandparents made such a point, insistently and nearly obsessively, I realize now, of inculcating in me the Christian faith. There was always a halo of fear and distrust emanating from them as they observed my external shows of devotion. In fact, until their dying day they would not let an opportunity go by without reminding me of the terrible torments lasting all eternity that would befall those who denied Christ. This is not something I can feel proud of, but my father was probably a Jew who ended up converting to Christianity. If this were the case, what force or event pushed him to take that step?”

  “Fear or love,” answered Lorenzo confidently. “The two forces that fight for the dominion of the human soul. In your father’s case, I doubt it was fear. Someone who is able to withstand torture and still have the presence of mind to force his interrogators to concede him a last meeting with his son is a veritable hero, I can assure you. Also, if he possessed the fortitude to suffer the lack of feeling and hidden reproof of his family without you ever hearing the slightest reproach uttered by him, then we are dealing with a faultless man tempered by the flame of love.”

  “Ah, but love can also be a terrible thing, I know that only too well!” exclaimed Mauricio. “My father demonstrated this to me with his life, for he was incapable of ever overcoming the terrible pain he felt in his heart after the death of my mother. He never remarried and I never heard him talk of any other woman.”

  “It is there perhaps that we have found the real catalyst of your father’s conversion,” Lorenzo said. “If your mother was a Christian, she would never have accepted a husband who practiced Judaism in
secret. And love, Mauricio, is more sacred than any rite, belief, or social convention.”

  Mauricio thought of Lorena. He had never loved anyone as he did his wife, yet he was causing her pain. What was wrong within him? Where was the missing piece that did not fit?

  45

  Lorena opened the chest where she kept her most valued objects, took out a porcelain doll she used to play with when she was a little girl, and burst into tears.

  Nothing was turning out as she had dreamed it would. Mauricio drank too much and his behavior was erratic. He would either talk incessantly for long periods of time or sink into prolonged silences. He would switch from a false euphoria to a solemn and depressed mood with the same speed with which he drained one goblet of wine after another. Lorena was certain that when she spoke, her husband did not listen to her. How she wished she could unlock Mauricio’s heart with the same key she had used on the chest! Lorena found it impossible to read Mauricio’s thoughts, for whether he was talking or sunk in silence his head was a coffer firmly shut with seven padlocks.

  How ironic that one of the motives for not wanting to marry Galeotto Pazzi was that she considered him to be a fat drunkard! Mauricio was now drinking as much as four Galeottos put together. The shame she felt inside was immense. Although Mauricio tolerated alcohol extremely well, each day was worse than the other. Her greatest fear was that he might get inebriated in front of her family. She had dreamed this more than once, but trusted that such a humiliating nightmare would never become a reality. For the moment, however, he managed to keep his composure in social gatherings. Lorena knew only too well that her father and brother would feel a deep satisfaction if Mauricio turned out to be a failure. After all, she had dared break with family traditions and rules by following the path of her own selfish desires.