Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Last Crusade Of The Templars
Times Of London ^ | 11-29-2004 | Ruth Gledhill

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.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: conspiracy; crusade; demolay; freemasonry; freemasons; ggg; godsgravesglyphs; insiders; knightstemplar; last; masons; templars
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140141-157 next last
To: Phsstpok

"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.


121 posted on 11/30/2004 6:05:32 AM PST by Rocky Mountain Mama (four more years of tax cuts and dead terrorists)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 97 | View Replies]

To: HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity

Actually they are asking for a apology from the Catholic Church as a whole not individual members.


122 posted on 11/30/2004 6:07:16 AM PST by winodog (We need to water the liberty tree)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: winodog
There is no Catholic alive who had anything to do with 14th-century heresy trials or executions. Who do you suggest should apologize? And for the crimes of Henry VIII, Oliver Cromwell, and the secret societies who plotted the French Revolution...who will apologize for those? And how far back should we go? Should the mayor of Rome apologize to all Christians for their being fed to the lions? Should China be asked for an apology to Europeans for the Mongol invasions? Do you want to give Manhattan back to the Indians and Florida back to the Seminoles? Shall the Welsh and the Cornish demand that all Saxons leave Britain?
123 posted on 11/30/2004 6:13:09 AM PST by HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 122 | View Replies]

To: wideawake
There are hundreds, probably thousands, of descendants of William Marshal alone - living in modern America. You can find many of the lines documented in the archives of the Magna Carta Society and The Virginia Historical Magazine. Descendants walk the streets of Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. Many without knowing it.
124 posted on 11/30/2004 6:16:01 AM PST by HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 119 | View Replies]

To: Rennes Templar

"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. :)


125 posted on 11/30/2004 6:17:23 AM PST by Rocky Mountain Mama (four more years of tax cuts and dead terrorists)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 113 | View Replies]

To: livius

"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.


126 posted on 11/30/2004 6:19:16 AM PST by ZULU (Fear the government which fears your guns. God, guts, and guns made America great.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Campion

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.


127 posted on 11/30/2004 6:24:10 AM PST by Slipperduke (*fixes bayonet*)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]

To: Rocky Mountain Mama
The Second Temple was destroyed around 70 AD (or CE for the PC). The Al Aqsa Mosque was apparently built (completed) around 691 AD, by the Caliph Abd al-Malik. Therefore the Templars would have been digging under the Al Aqsa Mosque during their residency in the "Solomon's Stables" area between 1118 and 1127.

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.

 

128 posted on 11/30/2004 6:56:18 AM PST by Phsstpok (Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform - Mark Twain)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 121 | View Replies]

To: HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity

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.


129 posted on 11/30/2004 7:19:23 AM PST by winodog (We need to water the liberty tree)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 123 | View Replies]

To: uglybiker

Thanks.


130 posted on 11/30/2004 7:23:22 AM PST by ninenot (Minister of Membership, TomasTorquemadaGentlemen'sClub)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 96 | View Replies]

To: Slipperduke
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.

You are wrong. Communism has killed more people in the last hundred years then religion in the history of mankind.

131 posted on 11/30/2004 7:24:07 AM PST by winodog (We need to water the liberty tree)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 127 | View Replies]

To: Phsstpok

bttt


132 posted on 11/30/2004 7:26:32 AM PST by stainlessbanner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 128 | View Replies]

To: winodog

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?


133 posted on 11/30/2004 7:27:36 AM PST by Slipperduke (*fixes bayonet*)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 131 | View Replies]

To: Slipperduke

Dont bet the farm on it but I almost positive I have seen statistics that show that to be true.


134 posted on 11/30/2004 7:34:26 AM PST by winodog (We need to water the liberty tree)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 133 | View Replies]

To: blam
Isn't the Templar a cult?

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.

135 posted on 11/30/2004 7:37:26 AM PST by shield (The Greatest Scientific Discoveries of the Century Reveal God!!!! by Dr. H. Ross, Astrophysicist)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: winodog

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?!


136 posted on 11/30/2004 7:40:25 AM PST by Slipperduke (*fixes bayonet*)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 134 | View Replies]

To: Strategerist
"Problem is the first 50 pages or so are mind-numbingly boring. Then it gets good. It's the DaVinci Code for non-morons."

I started Focault's Pendulem and never made it past those first 50 pages. Perhaps I should give it another try.

137 posted on 11/30/2004 7:42:05 AM PST by joebuck
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: blam
...Holy Blood Holy Grail, by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, which claimed that Jesus survived the crucifixion and settled in France.

As I recall the book, and I have read it several times, it makes no such hard assertion (although it leaves it open as a possibility). Rather it asserts that Mary Magdalene bore His children, and that she settled in France. Their follow up book also makes the case for a second son who perhaps was raised by followers/family in the British Isles.

I'm not defending either claim, just sick and tired of sloppy reporting and inflammatory and antagonistic characterizations.
138 posted on 11/30/2004 7:44:00 AM PST by BlueNgold (Feed the Tree .....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Strategerist
I read "Foucault's Pendulum" last summer. I agree about the 1st 50 pages but the rest was a great read.

I highly reccomend it. But it does take intense concentration to keep it all straight.

139 posted on 11/30/2004 7:58:21 AM PST by jimhesson (John 14:6)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: Slipperduke

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.


140 posted on 11/30/2004 8:26:55 AM PST by winodog (We need to water the liberty tree)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 136 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140141-157 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson