The Assassini

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The Assassini is a thriller novel by US author Thomas Gifford, published in 1990 by Bantam Books.^[1]

Contents 1 Plot summary 2 Inspiration and influences 3 Similarities 4 References

[edit] Plot summary

Set in 1982, while the Roman Catholic Church is preparing to elect a new pope as the old one is dying, the book describes the attempts of lawyer Ben Driskill to solve the murder of his sibling, Sister Valentine, a nun who was an outspoken activist and a thorn in the Church's side. Driskill's world-spannning investigation leads him to the discovery of a document from a forgotten monastery in Ireland, which proves the existence of the Assassini, an age-old brotherhood of killers, once hired by princes of the Church to protect it in dangerous times; and the person who now controls them in his Machiavellian bid for power.^[1]

[edit] Inspiration and influences

The novel was inspired by, and weaved together in its dramatic structure, numerous historical controversies about the Roman Catholic Church:

• The Pope John Paul I conspiracy theories.
• The Banco Ambrosiano scandal of the Vatican Bank.
• The involvement of Vatican officials and Catholic priests in ODESSA "ratlines", systems of escape routes for Nazis and other fascists fleeing Europe at the end of World War II.
• The art theft and other items stolen as a result of the organized spoliation of European countries by agents of Nazi Germany.
• The emergence of Catholic clerical fascism in Europe.
• Pope Pius XI and his negotiation of the Lateran Treaty with Fascist Italy and the Reichskonkordat with Nazi Germany.
• The legacy of the House of Borgia and their corrupt rule of the papacy during the Renaissance.

[edit] Similarities

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The Assassini (Italian for "assassins"), as an archetype for a lone priest or a secret society of priests involved in the sanctioned killing of (non-supernatural) political opponents of the Roman Catholic Church or a faction within the Church, can be found in several works of fiction.

• The Judas Testament, a 1994 novel by Daniel Easterman.^[2]

[edit] References