Was there really a popish plot involving the Inquisition and The Knights Of St John?
The specifics of the plot in the novel are invented, but the Vatican certainly intrigued over the centuries to try to take control of the Order of Saint John, for the reasons explained in the book. As also explained, the Knights devised the most byzantine electoral system ever invented specifically in order to thwart Vatican attempts to meddle. The Knights Templar – another of the three military orders of the Church – were entirely exterminated by Vatican intrigue, in league with the French Crown, for similar motives, so such plots have a sound basis in history. The politics of our own era, as we all know, are characterized worldwide by every extreme of treachery, deceit, greed, immorality, narcissism and plain old evil. So it was then. But we have to remember that the political actors of the 16th century had far fewer constraints on their behaviour, enjoyed untrammeled power, and had almost nothing to fear from surveillance and trails of evidence. My own theory of life is that any hum
