“So Peter had a sword… the sword,” Adriana said. “And Jesus told him that anyone who raises the sword will also die by it.”
“Right.”
Adriana stepped nearer to the sculpture, so close she could touch it without extending her arm. She was staring at something. Sean could tell the gears were turning in her head.
“What is it?” he asked.
She reached out a finger and touched part of the sculpture the figure of David was standing on. “The rock,” she said in an absent tone.
“What?” Tommy said.
“Peter was known as the rock. Jesus said to him at one point that He would build His church upon this rock. Some people believe that Jesus was talking about Himself. A more common belief is that He was telling Peter that the church would be built on him, that he was the cornerstone.”
“Yeah… so where are you going with this?”
Sean picked up what she was saying. “No, she’s right. Think about it. Each one of these guys is depicted standing on a rock.” He turned to June. “Like you said, all nine of them represented what the Renaissance culture believed was chivalry. Those same noble characteristics would apply to Christianity.”
June smiled. “I didn’t think of it that way.”
“Correct,” Adriana said. “And take a look at these things below each pedestal.”
“Those triangles represent churches,” June said. “You see them in lots of places on these old buildings.”
“Exactly.”
“Okay, hold on,” Tommy said. “Let’s put all this together. Say we focus on Peter. So all these guys are standing on a rock, and that represents Peter. And all of them are above a church, which Jesus said would be built on Peter.”
“Along with all the fundamentals of chivalry,” June added.
“Right. So what does all that mean?”
His voice faded after a moment of echoing off the ancient stones, and the room fell silent once more.
Sean had been unusually quiet. He finally spoke up. “June, you said that there are lots of places with those church symbols.”
“Yep,” she said with a nod. “All over Europe.”
“There wouldn’t happen to be any more on this building, would there?”
She thought for a moment, and then her face brightened. “Oh yeah. I almost forgot. There’s one outside over the cornerstone of this building.” She paused.
“Can you show us?”
“Sure,” June said. Then she paused. “Although you’ll have to try to ignore the unusual base of that particular sculpture.”
“Unusual base?” Tommy asked.
June raised an eyebrow. Her voice filled with mischief. “You’ll see. Come on. I’ll show you.”
Chapter 11
“Yeah… that certainly is… um, unusual,” Tommy said in an awkward voice.
“Kind of hard to not look at it,” Sean said.
Adriana shook her head. “You boys and your sexual issues. Could you please try and focus on the sculpture above the base?”
“I was until you mentioned it again. I mean, it’s a little person with their pants around their ankles flashing that entire part of the city.”
Adriana and June both sighed. The latter had a playful smirk on her face.
“Who is this guy again?” Tommy asked. “The priest. Not the… you know, the one without pants.”
“That would be Konrad von Hochstaden,” June said. “There are about 130 dignitaries represented on the exterior of this building. Konrad was a bishop, though he had aims of being more than that. He was constantly involved in conflict and driven by what seemed to be greed.”
“Greed?”
June nodded. “He took bribes to give his blessing to men who would be king. In effect, that made him more powerful than the kings themselves. When kings died, he took over temporarily and even waged war like a military leader.”
“Hardly seems fitting of a man of the church,” Sean said.
“Indeed. So this representation of him is one of contradictions. The pantsless figure below was sort of the people’s way of memorializing how embattled the man was, and how much trouble he caused for the country. At least that’s what one local told me.”
“Yet he’s the one who laid the cornerstone of this building, the oldest city hall in Germany?” Adriana asked.
“That is correct. It was pretty much his idea. At least he took credit for it. He laid the cornerstone in 1248 and died thirteen years later.”
“He only missed the completion by six or seven centuries,” Tommy joked.
“This rock…” Sean said to himself.
“What?”
The other three turned to him.
Sean was staring up at the sculpture. “Peter. Jesus said to Peter, ‘Upon this rock I will build my church.’ The cornerstone of a building is a rock.”
“Yeah,” Tommy said, “but this isn’t a church.”
“No, but that is,” Sean said, pointing up at the triangle below the bishop’s figure. “Or at least it’s the symbol of one.”
“Right. Now how does that help us?”
“Look at the design just below the pinnacle of the triangle. What does that look like to you?”
Tommy and the others thought for a moment before he responded. “The three interlocking circles? Looks like some sort of ancient symbol from…” Then it hit him. “Britannia.”
“There you go,” Sean said. “And where did King Arthur come from?”
“Great Britain,” June answered, suddenly mesmerized by the idea.
“Come back to Peter for a second,” Sean said. “What is the connection to all of this?”
“The sword,” Tommy said in an absent tone. “The legend suggests that when Peter was executed by Nero, his sword was taken to Britain by Joseph of Arimathea.”
“The one who gave his grave to Jesus,” Adriana said.
“The very same. There are other legends, too. One says that he took the Holy Grail to Britain to be its guardian. Another suggests that he was the one who brought Christianity to the isles and became the first abbot of Britain, founding the first abbey.”
“Wait,” Sean said, holding up his palm. “If he founded the first church of Britain, maybe that’s where we’re supposed to look next.”
Tommy looked as if he was going into a trance. “As the story goes, Joseph took the sword of Peter and the Holy Grail to Britain and founded the abbey at Glastonbury. I can’t believe I didn’t make that connection before now.”
“What connection?” June asked.
“Glastonbury Abbey… it’s where King Arthur and Queen Guinevere are buried.”
“You mean supposedly buried,” Sean said.
“Right. But come on. It can’t be a coincidence. Can it?”
“And I thought you said we’re not looking for the grail,” Adriana added.
Frustrated with all the comments, Tommy held up both hands. “Okay, hold on. Nobody said anything about looking for the grail. I’m just putting it all out there. At this point, we don’t know what is right or wrong.”
“Sounds like we need to pay Helen and Mac a visit in France,” Sean said.
“Good idea,” Tommy agreed. “Right now we’re grasping at straws. That codex might hold the key to figuring out this whole thing.”
“Unfortunately, Mr. Schultz, your friends won’t be in possession of the codex much longer,” a new voice said from behind. It was oddly familiar.
The four spun around simultaneously and were met by the man who’d accosted them in Aachen, the one who’d posed as a waiter. He was standing several feet away with both hands tucked inside his jacket pockets.
Tommy took a step toward him.
“You should know every one of you has a gun aimed at your head right now,” the man said. “I would prefer not to spill your blood.”