Posted on 11/29/2004 2:57:11 PM PST by blam
The last crusade of the Templars
By Ruth Gledhill
The knights want a Papal apology nearly 700 years after they were disbanded and hounded into exile
THE VATICAN is giving “serious consideration” to apologising for the persecution that led to the suppression of the Knights Templar.
The suppression, which began on Friday , October 13, 1307, gave Friday the Thirteenth its superstitious legacy.
A Templar Order in Britain that claims to be descended from the original Knights Templar has asked that the Pope should make the apology.
The Templars, based in Hertford, are hoping for an apology by 2007, the 700th anniversary of the start of the persecution, which culminated with the torture and burning at the stake of the Grand Master Jacques de Molay for heresy and the dissolution of the Order by apostolic decree in 1312.
The letter, signed by the Secretary of the Council of Chaplains on behalf of the Grand Master of the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Jesus Christ and the Temple of Solomon Grand Preceptory, with a PO box address in Hertford, formally requests an apology “for the torture and murder of our leadership”, instigated by Pope Clement V.
“We shall witness the 700th anniversary of the persecution of our order on 13th October 2007,” the letter says. “It would be just and fitting for the Vatican to acknowledge our grievance in advance of this day of mourning.”
Apologies have already been made by the Roman Catholic Church for the persecution of Galileo and for the Crusades. The Templars hope that these precedents will make their suit more likely to succeed.
Hertford Templar Tim Acheson, who is descended from the Scottish Acheson family that has established Templar links and whose family lived until recently in Bailey Hall, Hertford, said: “This letter is a serious attempt by a Templar group which traces its roots back to the medieval Order to solicit an apology from the Papacy.”
He added: “The Papacy and the Kingdom of France conspired to destroy the Order for reasons which modern historians judge to be primarily political. Their methods and motives are now universally regarded as brutal, unfair and unjustified.
“The Knights Templar officially ceased to exist in the early 1300s, but the order continued underground. It was a huge organisation and the vast majority of Templars survived the persecution, including most of their leaders, along with much of their treasure and, most importantly, their original values and traditions.”
The Hertford Mercury newspaper has reported newly discovered Templar links with Hertford, including a warren of tunnels beneath the town. At the heart of the maze of tunnels is Hertford Castle, where in 1309 four Templars from Temple Dinsley near Hitchin were imprisoned after their arrest by Edward II, who believed that they were holding a lost treasure. The treasure was never found.
When Subterranea Britannica, a group of amateur archaeologists, expressed an interest in investigating Hertford’s tunnels last month, they received anonymous threats telling them not to.
The Templars captured Jerusalem during the Crusades and were known as “keepers of the Holy Grail”, said to be the cup used at the Last Supper or as the receptacle used by Joseph of Arimathea to catch Christ’s blood as he bled on the Cross, or both.
Interest in the Templars and the Holy Grail is at an unprecedented high after the success of books such as The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown, and the earlier Holy Blood Holy Grail, by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, which claimed that Jesus survived the crucifixion and settled in France.
The Knights Templar were founded by Hugh de Payens, a French knight from the Champagne area of Burgundy, and eight companions in 1118 during the reign of Baldwin II of Jerusalem, when they took a perpetual vow to defend the Christian kingdom. They were assigned quarters next to the Temple. In 1128, they took up the white habit of the Cistercians, adding a red cross. The order knights, sergeants, farmers and chaplains amassed enormous wealth.
In Rome, a Vatican spokesman said that the demand for an apology would be given “serious consideration”. However, Vatican insiders said that the Pope, 84, was under pressure from conservative cardinals to “stop saying sorry” for the errors of the past, after a series of papal apologies for the Crusades, the Inquisition, Christian anti-Semitism and the persecution of scientists and “heretics” such as Galileo.
"They did set up their headquarters in the lee of Solomon's Temple,"
This has been confusing me since the discussion of the Templars surfaced again recently. Wasn't Solomon's Temple destroyed in 70 AD? Was the Dome of the Rock built by the time of crusades, does anyone know when it was built? Thanks.
Actually they are asking for a apology from the Catholic Church as a whole not individual members.
"But ever since Christ died his Teachings have been distorted or suppressed by those who did not want this teaching to get to the masses:"
I think if you read the New Testament you will see that the teachings of Jesus did get out to the masses, even though unsuccessful attempts have been made in history to destroy the Scriptures. There is more historical evidence that the New Testament we have is the authentic record of the apostles than there is that Columbus existed or sailed the ocean blue in 1492. :)
"Some of them - not all, by any means - seem to have started dabbling in things ranging from the occult to homosexuality."
Interesting what a few racks and some hot irons will induce a person to admit to.
I suggest you read some more about this order and Philip the "Fair" of France who engineered this evil plot.
Because a few members of an order may have problems, does that erase the good the entire organization accomplished over its existence? Hardly.
The dissolution and persecution of the Knights Templar was an international disgrace and purely motivated by the Frence monarchy for monetary purposes. The collusion of the Pope in this affair was disgraceful, but then he too had been the victim of Philip the Fair's pressure.
Too true. In historical terms, Communism barely registers on the evil scale.
Christianity and Islam must be way out in front on the atrocity count, though it must be said that this is the fault of misteachings, rather than the original concepts themselves.
Here's a good site with history of Solomon's Stables that places them both physically and historically.
Solomon's Stables and the Southern Gates
The site itself, TempleMount.ORG is an overall history of the Temple Mount and appears pretty good, archaeologically.
I guess we are talking about two different things. I see the Catholic Church as a institution like no other.
The apology should come (if indeed one is forthcoming) from the church as a whole not individuals who have nothing to do with with happened hundreds of years ago.
It is far different then asking for the US gov.org to apoligize for slavery. Comparing the names and nations you mention to the church is far different because all of those have come and go but the Catholic Church has stood "upon the rock" for two thousand years. Like I said it is a institution like no other. If you cannot see that then I will not discuss the issue further. You may have the last word.
Thanks.
You are wrong. Communism has killed more people in the last hundred years then religion in the history of mankind.
bttt
You're telling me that in 80 years, Communists managed to kill more people than thousands of years of jihads, crusades, wars, skirmishes, sacrifices and persecutions?
Dont bet the farm on it but I almost positive I have seen statistics that show that to be true.
The Holy Grail is such a joke in their teachings. This is the cup Jesus drank out of at the Last Supper. Jesus would have never drank out of a golden with jewels cup.
It was actually a wooden cup...and it's still around in Wales...there's not much of it left any longer.
Well, I'll bow to your superior knowledge if you're right. I know that Stalin wiped out millions in concentration camps, but it would have to be a fairly consistent killing machine to overtake a 2,000 year head start.
Do you think they keep league tables for this kind of thing?!
I started Focault's Pendulem and never made it past those first 50 pages. Perhaps I should give it another try.
I highly reccomend it. But it does take intense concentration to keep it all straight.
Like I said I am not 100% positive but there are freepers that have the info and if we keep chatting one of them will take notice and give us the figures. I think with China, Russia, Cambodia, all the other far east and Africa murders done under the name of Karl marx it adds up. Simply because there were not that many people alive in the centuries before the 20th. Let alone the methods for killing.
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