Eco can be a bit torturous prosaically. Still, the jokes and esoteric and wild occult allusions were fascinating.
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.
Difficult call. I know some fled to Switzerland where their renowned financial abilities survive to this day. A few may have gone to Britain and blended in among monastics. I would not be surprised if some returned to the Holy Land, surrounding areas or even further east.
I don't think the Freemasons have any actual lineage to them, but that is just my opinion. Ironically, I don't know why they would want to claim the lineage since the Templars were Catholic.
The skull which the Templars were accused of worshipping has been theorized to be the relic of St. John the Baptist which they obtained in a prior journey in the Holy Land. Baphomet is thought to be an anagram for something, not a demonic entitiy.
I doubt any group today could claim actual lineage.
Can't speak to "omissions," but can say that regional practice in that Cathar region during the 1st millenium established a special place for Mary Magdeline in local worship. And at least one local ruler believed himself to be "in the line of David." If memory serves, it was that regional leader who led the first Crusade to the Holy Land and became, for a while and with the support of the Templars, the "King of Jerusalem."
Good historical points, BlackVeil.
In Spain, where they built many churches, they were active in the protection of pilgrims, as were several other military orders. Most of the other military orders were also disbanded or passed into different forms over the years, but for some reason, partly because of their reputation for heterodoxy and the fact that some saw them as proto-Protestants, the Templars continued to feature in the literary imagination, particularly with "progressives," aka, leftists. I suspect the Masonic connection (Knights of DeMolay, etc) had something to do with that.
Now, of course, their churches are the object of "pilgrimages" by bunches of New Agers. I did the Camino de Santiago this fall, starting from Roncesvalles, and I found that more than one of my fellow pelegrinos was actually in search of Templar sites. I guess Gnosticism never quite goes away.
DeMolay is now the Masonic young ladies' Order.
Coincidence?
Interesting. Weren't they supposed to be celibate, warrior monks?
Some married noblemen were permitted to affiliate with the order. Sort of like Third Order lay religious associations, confraternities, etc.
I wouldbe interested in any sources forthesestatements that did not emenate from the Church or simply repeat accusations made by the church as grounds for persecuting the Order.
I see.
Since I have French and DAR lineage on my dad's side I must check this out!
Picky, picky...
Actually, I think Masons have long tried to claim connections with the Templars, so some of these family connections may actually be initially indirect - that is from a Templar uncle or some other relative - but then have been subsumed into the family mythology, particularly if the family was Masonic.
BTW, before offending any Masons on this board, let me note that Masons in Europe are entirely different from what we think of as Masons here. There, Masonry is a very political, anti-religious movement that has frequently allied itself with left-wing intellectual movements to attack the Catholic Church in particular and Christianity in general.
Maybe. I think they started the rumors because they feared the growing power and wealth of the Templars. The Templars had it's own entrenched beauracracy and had outlived it's original purpose. The church felt it was time for them to go and they resisted.
One of the legends claims it went to Switzerland.
I think so. Several groups could have picked up aspects of Templar existence or claim some spiritual association based on presumed practices.
Most likely the surviving Knights blended in with society and we only see traces of their philosophy today.
I could be wrong :-D
Eco can be a bit torturous prosaically. Still, the jokes and esoteric and wild occult allusions were fascinating.
The chalice from the palace has the pellet with the poison
The flagon with the dragon has the brew that is true
or was it
The flagon with the dragon has the pellet with the poison
The chalice from the palace has the brew that is true
Choose wisely
Correction. DeMolay is the young mens order.
The ladies get Rainbow Girls and Job's Daughters.
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.
No. The Crusaders captured Jerusalem as part of the Crusades and established the Latin Kingdoms, with several European kings dividing up the holy land. During the reign of the third ruler of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, Baldwin II, in 1118...
Hugues de Payens, a knight of Champagne, and eight companions bound themselves by a perpetual vow, taken in the presence of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, to defend the Christian kingdom. Baldwin accepted their services and assigned them a portion of his palace, adjoining the temple of the city; hence their title "pauvres chevaliers du temple" (Poor Knights of the Temple). Poor indeed they were, being reduced to living on alms, and, so long as they were only nine, they were hardly prepared to render important services, unless it were as escorts to the pilgrims on their way from Jerusalem to the banks of the Jordan, then frequented as a place of devotion. (New Advent The Knights Templars).
So much for the Templars having "captured Jerusalem."
As to being "keepers of the Holy Grail," this stems from the legends surrounding the Templars and their rapid rise in power over their nearly 300 year history. They did set up their headquarters in the lee of Solomon's Temple (today's Temple Mount) in what were identified as King Solomon's stables. Their quarters extended deep into the Temple Mount and could easily have led them to discover buried relics, including such items as the Grail, the Arc of The Covenant, the Breastplate of Aaron, the True Cross or the burial shroud of Jesus. All of these have been identified as part of the Templar treasures. All of the legends could be true, if you believe that these relics were buried beneath the remains of Solomon's Temple.
I am particularly partial to the implied history of the burial shroud of Jesus and its possible link to the Templars. Assuming it is real, it would have likely first surfaced as a miraculous cloth within two or three years of the Crucifixion, which was known as the Mandillion (all pre-Templar). If it had lain in hiding beneath Solomon's Temple and the Templars discovered it and secreted it as one of their holy relics it would have then logically reemerged shortly after the suppression of the Templars, which it did. It was, in fact, passed on from a "former Templar's" family, to the Cathedral in Turin around 1357. One of the more interesting tidbits is that, if you take the shroud, fold along the creases that are there, it is "folded in eight,".or a tetradiplon. This is a possible reference to the Shroud long before it was "discoverd," and folding along those creases leaves only the face visible, the characteristic of the Mandillion (also the Edessa Cloth).
Of course, it is more likely that, if the Templars held the Shroud (real or not) it came to them as part of the sack of Byzantium (Constantinople) in 1205 and not from digging under Solomon's Temple. Digging under the Temple Mount is obviously where they found the Ark, the Grail and the Breastplate of Aaron (with the Jewels of Power, the Umin and the Thurmin, yes, I'm serious, that's what they were called). Some also say the found the Seal, the Staff and the Crown of Solomon, himself. Now those would be powerful artifacts.
Of course, without any need for faith or any belief in these relics (which I have), there is also the little tidbit that the Templars were incredibly wealthy and powerful, even beyond most governments, because they had invented banking and the idea of the bank draft. Made them the equivalent of trillions for their treasury! Mundane, but sufficient for a wretch like Philip,
A further bit of historical complication:
“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.
Another way of looking at it is that the King of France, Philip le Bel, and his chancellor, Guillaume de Nogart, siezed the Papacy by engineering the imprisonment and murder of Pope Boniface VIII, in 1303, replacing him with a more "compliant" French Pope, Clement V (Bertrand de Got), and moving the Papacy to Avignon, France in 1305.
The suppression of the Templars is not the fault of the Catholic Church, per se, but is the fault of France! (typical)
Of course, the Catholic Church would be guilty of a massive cover up for nearly seven centuries, to this very day. All in the name of "real politik." Nasty.
And of course, if the last bit about "conservative cardinals" preassuring the Pope to “stop saying sorry” for the errors of the past," to groups like the Muslim invaders of Christian lands, "the Inquisition," (mostly ferreting out Muslims, just after throwing them out of Spain after several hundred years of brutal suppression) and "Christian anti-Semitism and the persecution of scientists and 'heretics' such as Galileo" wouldn't it be ironic if the Church apologized to everybody but the one Holy Order that remained true to Christ and their vows, to the end, even when the Pope did not?
Damn the French, anyway.
Those are groups not recognized by the United Grand Lodge of England (yes, the initials are UGLE) which traces its history back hundreds of years, and are considered clandestine. Lodges recognized by the UGLE, the origional Masons, are strictly apolitical. Because of the tremendous range of religious and political views of the members of any given lodge, religion and politics are not discussed.
"when the Pope did not?"
well, eventually St. Catherine of Sienna (doctor of the Church) set things to straight and convinced the papacy to return to Rome, and be more independent of the French.
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