"Fetch me the soft cushions!"
Posted on 08/04/2008 5:23:47 PM PDT by Clint Williams
The Knights Templar are demanding that the Vatican give them back their good name and, possibly, billions in assets into the bargain, 700 years after the order was brutally suppressed by a joint venture between the Pope and the King of France.
If the Holy See doesn’t comply, the warrior knights, renowned for liberating the Holy Land, will deploy that most fearsome of weapons: a laborious court case through the creaking Spanish legal system.
The Daily Telegraph reports that The Association of the Sovereign Order of the Temple of Christ has launched a court case in Spain, demanding Pope Benedict “recognise†the seizure of assets worth €100bn. The Spanish-based group of Templars apparently says in a statement: "We are not trying to cause the economic collapse of the Roman Catholic Church, but to illustrate to the court the magnitude of the plot against our Order." This might come as a surprise to those who believe that the order of warrior monks – also credited with possessing the Holy Grail and laying the foundation of the European banking system - was smashed in 1307 by Pope Clement V and Philip IV of France.
At the time, the order was accused of a multitude of crimes, including two medieval biggies - sodomy and heresy.
However, recently discovered Vatican papers showed that the order had never been declared heretics, burnings at the stake for the leadership not withstanding.
Rather, it appeared that the order’s suppression was more a piece of realpolitik on the pope’s part to pacify Philip, who was somewhat irked by the prospect of the powerful order increasing its continental activities after Jerusalem fell to the Turks.
Despite the order’s brutal apparent suppression, its legacy has been claimed by numerous successor organisations, and besmirched by popular authors ad nauseum.
One of the successors, Ordo Supremus Militaris Templi Hierosolymitani, is apparently recognised by Unesco.
We contacted the UK branch, otherwise known as the The Grand Priory of Knights Templar in England and Wales, to see if they could throw any light on the matter but they have yet to get back to us.
The Grand Priory’s website says the modern organisation is about humanitarian and charity work. There is no mention of the Holy Grail, though it does support the maintenance of the Holy Places.
And if you’re looking for esoteric rites or secret higher knowledge, you’re likely to be disappointed. The website says: “Please don’t expect to be enlightened with some supposed ‘secret’ knowledge, because nothing exists.â€
Of course, any conspiracy theorist will tell you that’s exactly what you’d expect them to say. ®
Good luck, dear Knights.
"Fetch me the soft cushions!"
The Vatican should do exactly as the Knights Templar ask and should condemn Philip IV of France.
The treasure is on Oak Island. For a small advance fee, I will send the co-ordinates.
;)
It’s about time they showed some juevos on this!
Ping?
As Spongebob Squarepants would say, “Well, good luck with that!”
No one shall pass without my permission!
Call your Holy See representative on this!
050-6187-030
Or fax them at 050-6180-007
They'll have to prove legal succession to have legal standing.
And they can't prove that. Too many claimants. It's like the Dook and the Dolphin in Huckleberry Finn.
ping
The vatican is a good deal like Bill Clinton. They’ll give apologies all over the place which will mean absolutely nothing.
They evolved into Free Masons.
CHAPTER XLVII
OF THE BENEFIT THAT PROCEEDETH FROM SUCH DARKNESS, AND TO WHOM IT ACCRUETH
After that certain Churches had renounced this universal power of the Pope, one would expect, in reason, that the civil sovereigns in all those Churches should have recovered so much of it as (before they had unadvisedly let it go) was their own right and in their own hands. And in England it was so in effect; saving that they by whom the kings administered the government of religion, by maintaining their employment to be in God's right, seemed to usurp, if not a supremacy, yet an independency on the civil power: and they but seemed to usurp it, inasmuch as they acknowledged a right in the king to deprive them of the exercise of their functions at his pleasure.
But in those places where the presbytery took that office, though many other doctrines of the Church of Rome were forbidden to be taught; yet this doctrine, that the kingdom of Christ is already come, and that it began at the resurrection of our Saviour, was still retained. But cui bono? What profit did they expect from it? The same which the popes expected: to have a sovereign power over the people. For what is it for men to excommunicate their lawful king, but to keep him from all places of God's public service in his own kingdom; and with force to resist him when he with force endeavoureth to correct them? Or what is it, without authority from the civil sovereign, to excommunicate any person, but to take from him his lawful liberty, that is, to usurp an unlawful power over their brethren? The authors therefore of this darkness in religion are the Roman and the Presbyterian clergy.
Thomas Hobbes http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/hobbes/leviathan-k.html#CHAPTERXLVII
Hey, I think I’m going to sue the Vatican as well for something they did to my ancestors in the Middle Ages. I don’t know of anything in particular; but I’m sure something or other happened back then.
Saving for later e-mailing to some friends.
Better yet, reassemble your forces and regain your lost wealth by plundering the lands of the Unbelievers. Start with Saudi Arabia ...
Being a Cuban, I am going to sue: (1) The Lebanese Government, for the invasion of my ancestral home by the Pheonecians and thier spawn, the Carhaginians; (2) Greece for the invasion of my ancestral home by the Ancient Greeks; (3) Italy and the City of Rome for the conquest of Spain by Rome; (4) Germany, lets not forget those damn Visigoths!; (5) [Can’t sue Islam, its a Religion of Peace, we were the Crusading occupiers (repeat 20,000 times] (6) France, for the War of Spanish Succession and that horrible Napoleonic occupation; (7) England, how dare they invade Napoleonic Spain! and (8) The United States, for the Spanish American War.
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.