Enoch Root

Enoch Root (Enoch the Red) is a fictional character from Neal Stephenson's novel The Baroque Cycle and Cryptonomicon. He is a religious leader by profession, but can handle himself in a fight, and is also competent in medicine, chemistry, and cryptography. He has ties to a semi-secret society known as the Societas Eruditorum. Randy Waterhouse describes him, simply, as a wizard. Root possesses an alchemical means of rejuvenation called by Leibniz the elixir vitae, which allows him to be resurrected after he dies, and be present in novels set in the 17th, 18th, and 20th centuries. He also has an uncanny ability to be at the right place at just the right time to influence other characters, so that they do something of importance. For example, Root sees Eliza in an observatory in The Hague, and shouts out a cryptic message that gets her to turn the telescope to the horizon, where she spots the sails of a French ship sailing in to abduct William of Orange. Once she figures this out, Eliza... full article at wikipedia