Point Zero by Narek Malian

report by the secret police passed through his hands first. He and Urban would decide together whether to forgive a sinner or punish him, and they would even discuss the severity of the punishment. No decisions were made without hearing Odo’s opinion first.

Everyone in the palace knew this, and they were all unanimous in their hatred of Odo. Of course, they never expressed their hatred in any way, but there was no lack of rumors about Odo throughout the corridors. The courtiers, hearing Odo’s name, would explicitly express their dissatisfaction with their facial expressions and would bow to Urban as if wanting to say, “The will is yours, high priest, but if we were you, we would not tolerate that cynical, arrogant Odo even for one minute.”

Unlike the courtiers, the higher aristocrats, namely kings and emperors, would simply pretend not to understand who was being discussed. They would snobbishly deny knowing Odo. This approach slightly amused Urban.

The pope had known Odo for so long that he couldn’t even remember when they had met. He knew that Odo was stubborn and that he couldn’t see anything beyond himself. Odo was the only living being on earth who was free and unconstrained in contradicting Urban and could even argue better than him. Since the papal infallibility was the cornerstone of the Catholic Church and taking into account the infinite power Urban had in the secular life as well, Odo’s position required a lot of courage. To some extent, this infallibility could be viewed as a violation of one of the fundamental dogmas of the Catholic Church. Every moment, Odo was in danger of losing his own head. Of course, it was possible that one day Urban could finally become so angry that he could retaliate, but this didn’t affect Odo’s courage at all. He continued his assertions, which usually went beyond the general opinion. Some courtiers had tried to replicate Odo’s daring approaches to win Urban’s favor, but they were removed from the palace at the first sign of insubordinate behavior. Odo was brave but not reckless. He was an advisor able to give profound reasons for having formed this or that opinion. In this case, that’s what happened.

A few months before Urban’s sermon at the Notre Dame Mass, a letter of request had been received from Byzantine Emperor Alexius. In his letter, the emperor described the wonders of Constantinople. He explained that twenty new fountains had been installed, more than half of the city had been paved, three new cathedrals had been constructed, the renovation [ 14 ]