Gordon K. Greene

In this novel, a modern-day music historian, Richard Taylor, stumbles across a clue that may lead to the journals of Pope Benedict XIII (1328-1423), a.k.a. “Papa Luna”, who was one of three popes claiming legitimacy during the troublesome Western Schism in the Church. The journals were hidden away by Papa Luna’s servant, a loyal Templar knight, in a cave at Montserrat Abbey, near Barcelona. The clue is in the form of a poem set to music. But Richard is not the only one looking for the journals. He wants to reveal their contents to the world. Two rivals want to claim personal ownership, one in order to benefit privately, the other to destroy them, for fear they may reveal Benedict’s claim to the papacy was legitimate after all. While Richard races to decipher the cryptic message, tragedy strikes, creating a murder mystery, with Richard and his companions the prime suspects.

Papa Luna was declared an antipope during the Schism. His justification for refusing to capitulate lay in the fact he was the last living cardinal created by Gregory XI, who was the last Supreme Pontiff recognized by the entire Church. As the only undisputed cardinal, Benedict argued, he was the only legitimate candidate for the papacy. However, at age eighty-seven at the Council of Constance, Benedict’s logic was rejected, and he was forced to flee for his life.

Based on true events, this novel is a companion to Gordon Greene’s previous novel, Papa Luna, in which he documents Benedict’s life and Papa Luna’s journals expose an entirely different perspective on the Western Schism.