The Parchment »

Gerald T. McLaughlin was born on September 16, 1941 in New York City. He earned his BA degree summa cum laude from Fordham College in 1963. He graduated from New York University Law School in 1966 where he was Managing Editor of the Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. After graduating from law school, he was a legal writing instructor at Boalt Hall (University of California at Berkeley Law School) and then an Associate in the New York office of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. In 1991, following teaching stints at the University of Connecticut, Fordham and Brooklyn Law Schools, he became Dean of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles where he currently serves as Dean Emeritus and Professor of Law. He has lectured and written extensively in the field of commercial law with particular emphasis on letters of credit. The Parchment is his first novel.

It is 70 A.D., and Evardus, a wine merchant from Gaul, has encountered a dying rabbi on a road outside of Jerusalem. With his final breaths, the old man urgently tells Evardus that Jewish priests have spirited sacred objects and records away from Herod's Temple in the hope of keeping them out of the hands of Roman soldiers-who are, at that very moment, attacking Jerusalem and destroying the Jews' most holy site. The merchant learns of a copper scroll hidden beneath the Holy of Holies and a map that leads to the holy objects.

A thousand years later, while on a Crusade to Palestine, a descendant of the merchant finally uncovers those secrets below the temple. They include an astonishing parchment that threatens the very foundations of the Church and Christianity. The grand master of the Templars develops a scheme to advance the interests of his order, but the plan has devastating consequences. The parchment survives, however, and for nearly a millennium remains hidden in plain sight. With the dawning of the twenty-first century and pivotal world events, two American professors discover the document while researching a book. Like those before, they are tempted to use it for their own purposes. The course they pursue leads to unforeseen consequences that affect events in the Middle East and a crucial turning point for the Vatican.

Gerald McLaughlin shows us a rich, haunting tableau that spans two thousand years. We are given a timely glimpse into the often-disastrous ways that we tend to deal with faith when confronted by fear and ambition, and how moral choices are made in the face of the continuing battle between good and evil-both in ourselves and in the world. Ultimately, the author shines a light of profound hope and faith into the darkest recesses of the human soul, our modern life, and world events.

Biography

Gerald T. McLaughlin was born on September 16, 1941 in New York City. He earned his BA degree summa cum laude from Fordham College in 1963. He graduated from New York University Law School in 1966 where he was Managing Editor of the Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. After graduating from law school, he was a legal writing instructor at Boalt Hall (University of California at Berkeley Law School) and then an Associate in the New York office of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. In 1991, following teaching stints at the University of Connecticut, Fordham and Brooklyn Law Schools, he became Dean of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles where he currently serves as Dean Emeritus and Professor of Law. He has lectured and written extensively in the field of commercial law with particular emphasis on letters of credit. The Parchment is his first novel.