Posted on 10/05/2007 1:44:55 PM PDT by NYer
The Vatican is to publish a book which is expected to shed light on the demise of the Knights Templar, a Christian military order from the Middle Ages.
The book is based on a document known as the Chinon parchment, found in the Vatican Secret Archives six years ago after years of being incorrectly filed.
The document is a record of the heresy hearings of the Templars before Pope Clement V in the 14th Century.
The official who found the paper says it exonerates the knights entirely.
Prof Barbara Frale, who stumbled across the parchment by mistake, says that it lays bare the rituals and ceremonies over which the Templars were accused of heresy.
In the hearings before Clement V, the knights reportedly admitted spitting on the cross, denying Jesus and kissing the lower back of the man proposing them during initiation ceremonies.
However, many of the confessions were obtained under torture and knights later recanted or tried to claim that their initiation ceremony merely mimicked the humiliation the knights would suffer if they fell into the hands of the Muslim leader Saladin.
The leader of the order, Jacques de Moley, was one of those who confessed to heresy, but later recanted.
He was burned at the stake in Paris in 1314, the same year that the Pope dissolved the order.
However, according to Prof Frale, study of the document shows that the knights were not heretics as had been believed for 700 years.
In fact she says "the Pope was obliged to ask for pardons from the knights... the document we have found absolves them".
Details of the parchment will be published as part of Processus contra Templarios, a book that will be released by the Vatican's Secret Archive on 25 October.
This is hardly surprising.
The persecution and massacre of the Knights Templar is one of history's most disgraceful episodes. King Philip IV of France ("Philip the Fair") is one of history's more corrupt and indecent mass murderers, and Clement V, perhaps unwittingly, served as his de facto accomplice.
Jacques de Molay declared his innocence and the innocence of the Templars as he burned, and he promised that he would meet Philip before God.
he he he
If the Templars are in fact proven innocent and if the Freemasons can make a sufficiently sound case that they are in fact the Templars, Freemasons should consider appealing to the Vatican for the return of the property.
Surprise, surprise, surprise..........NOT.
Wasn't the French King and Pope at the time who became jealous and fearful of the Knights Templar -- responsible for framing and persecuting them..
Who was a Papal lackey much the same as Hezbollah is an Iranian lackey
Templar ping.
Templars have not been exterminated.
.....Templars have not been exterminated.....
I’ll bite. Where are they today?
Actually the Pope was a lackey of the French King.
Like the saying goes - when you owe enough money, YOU own the bank.
I wonder what other juicy morsels are to be found in the vatican’s archives. Unfortunately the Roman Catholic Church has done much wickedness in the name of Christ.
I wonder what other juicy morsels are to be found in the vatican’s archives. Unfortunately the Roman Catholic Church has done much wickedness in the name of Christ.
Oh come on !!! The Vatican could have stepped in but decided not to. They wanted the Templars gone as well.
I suspect you'd find a stronger parallel if you google "Satsuma Rebellion."
I’ll wait for the paperback.
Thanks for the ping. I saw the heading, but didn’t read the article because I didn’t expect it to state, “The official who found the paper says it exonerates the knights entirely.” This exoneration is long overdue.
I am not a Mason, though my father was.
If the Masons could prove that they are in fact the Templars, they should petition the Vatican not only for the return of the property but for restoration of the Order.
The theory is plausible, the 27th Degree of the Scottish Rite, the Order of Knight Commander of the Temple (within the Council of Kadosh) does often refer and uses similar regalia. The ritual within this degree is very tied to the historical allegory.
I still would be cautious to associate inspiration with actual connection. All of the Masonic degrees have inspiration of great achievements and allegory for the purpose of learning from history, making good men better. Saying a direct creation from the Templar would also put the same plausibility with the Knights of Malta and other heraldic orders that have inspired the Lodge.
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