The Last Moorish King

da Vinci's code - The Book (?)

nota: este texto é uma adapação escrita para uma amiga letã acerca do livro de dan brown. Aproveito este momento agora que o entusiasmo (exagerado) em redor do livro acalmou (andaram a dar valiums?) para escrever a minha opiniãp acerca do livro.


Well, I have read Da Vinci's code, which is a good detective and adventure story, however the author mislead the public about some historic facts (or lack of those).

First, I must state that I am atheist and do not believe in any form of organized religion/cult. Secound, and according to French justice, Le priorat du sion never existed! It was invented by a guy (Pierre Plantard in 1956) who wanted claim the throne of France (?). This man forged documents planted them in the French archives, the police got him and he was convicted.

Well, of course that the Catholic Church is not a saint :-) They have committed several crimes and mislead people for centuries. The selection of the 4 gospels is very dubious, an I wouldn’t be surprise that Christ had a wife and kids during his life (he could also be gay) - José Saramago wrote a novel (The Gospel According to Jesus Christ) were he describes a love relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene years before Dan brown - But I have many doubts that Marie Magdalene wrote a gospel. She was a women 2000 years ago (more or less, the monks made mistakes when they defined our calendar), did she had education enough to write?

Talking about women. The Catholic Church relegated women to a secondary place, but did woman in any civilization (western or eastern) had a significant role in society? (e.g. Magdalene itself was Jew and was put a side by her peers – in nowadays orthodox Jews in Jerusalem defend that women should be separated from men in public places) My point: no religion is innocent when it comes to equality among genders, at least in practice.

Fortunately, in our times the role of women’s is starting to become more appreciated, although there are a lot of primate males walking around us. The “religion of mother-goddess” sounds to me very Wicca style, and Wicca is (I believe) from the British islands. Therefore, a link between the end of this cult and inquisition is lacking. Furthermore, the author states that inquisition had the purpose to kill women who were devoted to this cult. My opinion is that the Church wanted to kill anybody (men or women) that questioned their power (Jews were a preferential target). And did this cult survived to centuries of Roman Empire subjugation? The Romans became Christians when the Empery was declining.

Sorry to bore you with my truthful opinion about the book, which is a wonderful entertainment, but the blend of some true facts with hoaxes, and hate to Catholic Church, can blind the reader, and he may accept everything written in the book as a dogma. Of course that my opinion comes from someone who did not studied history, and I would appreciate comments from someone that with more knowledge in these matters. But I give credit to the author, because he turns some scattered historical facts (only part of them at least) to come up with a well-written novel.