Posted on 07/21/2002 10:01:31 AM PDT by Hacksaw
The Knights Templar were a monastic military order formed at the end of the First Crusade with the mandate of protecting Christian pilgrims on route to the Holy Land. Never before had a group of secular knights banded together and took monastic vows. In this sense they were the first of the Warrior Monks.
From humble beginnings of poverty when the order relied on alms from the traveling pilgrims, the order would go on to have the backing of the Holy See and the collective European monarchies.
Within two centuries they had become powerful enough to defy all but the Papal throne. Feared as warriors, respected for their charity and sought out for their wealth, there is no doubt that the Templar knights were the key players of the monastic fighting orders. Due to their vast wealth and surplus of materials the Templars essentially invented banking, as we know it. The church forbade the lending of money for interest, which they called usury. The Templars, being the clever sort they were, changed the manner in which loans were paid and were able to skirt the issue and finance even kings.
They were destroyed, perhaps because of this wealth or fear of their seemingly limitless powers. In either case, the order met with a rather untimely demise at the hands of the Pope and the King of France in 1307 and by 1314, "The Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon" ceased to exist.
Although originally a small group of nine knights, they quickly gained fame largely due to the backing of Bernard of Clairvaux and his "In Praise of the New Knighthood". Bernard at that time was often called the Second Pope and was the chief spokesman of Christendom. He is also the one responsible for helping to draw up the order's rules of conduct.
In European political circles, they became very powerful and influential. This was because they were immune from any authority save that of the Papal Throne. (Pope Innocent II exempted the Templars from all authority except the Pope.) After the crusades were over, the knights returned to their Chapters throughout Europe and became known as moneylenders to the monarchs. In the process many historians believe they invented the Banking System. The Templars fought along side King Richard I (Richard The Lion Hearted) and other Crusaders in the battles for the Holy Lands.
The secret meetings and rituals of the knights would eventually cause their downfall. The King of France, Philip the Fair used these rituals and meetings to his advantage to destroy the knights. The real reason for his crushing the Templars was that he felt threatened by their power and immunity. In 1307, Philip, who desperately needed funds, to support his war against England's Edward I made his move against the Knights Templar.
On October 13th, 1307, King Philip had all the Templars arrested on the grounds of heresy, since this was the only charge that would allow the seizing of their money and assets. The Templars were tortured and as a result, ridiculous confessions were given. These confessions included:
Trampling and spitting on the cross
Homosexuality and Sodomy
Worshipping of the Baphomet
Philip was successful in ridding the Templars of their power and wealth and urged all fellow Christian leaders to do the same thing. On March 19th, 1314 the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay was burned at the stake. De Molay is said to have cursed King Philip and Pope Clement as he burned asking both men to join him within a year. Whether he actually uttered the curse or if it is simply an apocryphal tale what remains as fact is that Clement died only one month later and Philip IV seven months after that.
Baphomet, bad speller here. Here are some theories:
- Noel Currer-Briggs, The Shroud and the Grail
It is possible that the head idol was intended to represent the severed head of John the Baptist, based on allegations that he was revered by the Order. The Templars took part in the sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1203-4. Robert de Clari described the opulence and numerous relics at the sacred chapel of the Boucoleon Palace, amongst them supposedly the head of John the Baptist.
- P. R. Koenig, Too Hot to Handle
Another possibility as to the identity of the Baphomet may lie with Nicodemus, who in the Gospel of John who brought spices for Christ's burial. He is also mentioned in the apocryphal Evangelium Nicodemi (4th C.) as a ruler of the Jews who testified in Christ's favor. The Interpolation in the First Continuation of Chrétien's Perceval (12??) tells of the flight of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea to England and includes the following intriguing passage:
Another possibility for the origin of the Head relates to the imagery on the first Grand Master's shield, which consisted of three black heads on a gold field. After about two hundred years, it is plausible that this head imagery could have worked itself into the legend of the Baphomet. According to more than one account, the Head was the actual skull of Hugues de Payen, which was preserved as an object of veneration.
- Forrest Jackson, The Baphomet in History and Symbolism
We found indisputable evidence for the charge of secret ceremonies involving a head of some kind. Indeed the existence of such a head proved to be one of the dominant themes running through the Inquisition records. Among the confiscated goods of the Paris preceptory a reliquary in the shape of a woman's head was found. It was hinged on top, and contained what appeared to have been relics of a peculiar kind."
- Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail
Herodotus (4:26) speaks of the practice in the obscure Issedones of gilding a head and sacrificing to it. Cleomenes of Sparta is said to have preserved the head of Archonides in honey and consulted it before undertaking an important task. Several vases of the fourth century BC in Etruria depict scenes of persons interrogating oracular heads. And the severed head of the rustic Carians which continues to 'speak' is mentioned derisively by Aristotle."
http://www.crystalinks.com/baphomet.html
The Masons ask their members to keep to themselves all beliefs concerning Jesus Christ, the Bible and the authority of the Church. Masonry is all about occult and "Wizardry", which is expressively forbidden in the Judao-Christian Bible.
Masonry can really not be called a Secret Cult, because it is open to almost the entire public to join. It can best be called a Cult with Secrets. The rank and file never learn the "highest secrets". If they did--they may flee in a hurry when they realize "Lucifer, the Light-bearer!" is "directing the show". This reference is on page 321, of one of Freemasonry's greatest books entitled "Morals And Dogma" by Albert Pike.
From: http://www.bibleprobe.com/freemasonry.htm
Bump for later reading
Warrior Monks?
:)
Grampa bump.
This is what I found:
There have been many strange idols throughout the ages but the idol of Baphomet seems to be among the most mysterious. All which seems to be known about this unknown figure it that it is sometimes called the goat idol of the Knights Templar and the deity of the sorcerers' Sabbat. Even the name Baphomet seems to be a composition of abbreviations: 'Temp. ohp. Ab.' which originates from Latin 'Templi omnium hominum pacis abhas,' meaning "the father of universal peace among men."
The many accounts concerning Baphomet describe the idol as a monstrous head, a demon in the form of a goat, a figure with a goat's head and a body combining the characteristics of a dog, bull, and ass. The body was thought to symbolize the burden of matter from which arose the repentance for sin. The human hands formed a sign of esotericism to impress mystery upon the initiates. First they represented the sanctity of labor; and by pointing two lunar crescents, the upper being white and the lower black, they also represented good and evil, mercy and justice. The lower part of the goat's body was veiled but expressed the mysteries the universial generation symbolized by the caduceus or the phallus. The goat's female breasts were the only symbols of maternity, toil, and redemption.
Most accounts of the idol Baphomet were from the confessions of the Knights Templar at their trials after the Inquisition. This is why the idol still remain a fascination and a puzzlement. Instead of definitely establishing the existence of the idol the variances in the Knights confessions did the opposite. Not only is there an uncertainty whether the idol existed but, also, whether there was just one or several idols. The uncertainty of the idol's existence arises because some of the heresy and devil-worship charges brought against the Templars were never proven, and Baphomet was thought to represent the devil. During the knights' confessions the idol seemed to change or was shown in different forms. It was described differently as having a frightful head with a long bird and sparking eyes; or a man's skull; or having three faces. Some said it was made of wood while others said it was metal.
Although some accounts give the idol a goat's body as previously mentioned and others are vague, others described the head in detail. It possessed horns and between the two horns was a torch which represented the intelligence of the triad. Still below the torch, on the forehead, is the sign of the microcosm, or the pentagram with one beam in ascendant symbolizing human intelligence. The situating of the pentagram below the torch was to signify that human intelligence is the image of the divine intellect.
Among the heresy charges brought against the Templars was that some had embrace Mahometanism even though they had sworn to fight against every pagan belief. The charge arose when a knight confessed that he was made to adore the idol by kissing its feet and uttering the word 'Xalla,' which was a word of the Saracens. This was seized upon for proving heresy against the Order, but it must be remembered that western Christians were constantly trying to attribute the idol to Mahomet as an expression of their desire to persecute the Knights.
The belief in Baphomet still exists among some occultists. They hold the idol of the Templars was really the god of the witches deriving from the nature god Pan. In the 19th. century the Austrian Orientalist Baron Joseph von Hammer-Purgstal discovered an inscription on a coffer in Burgandy which he claimed indicated the Baphomet came from the Greek words meaning "Baptism of Metis (Wisdom)." This seemed to exalt Metis or Baphomet as the true divinity.
In the 20th. century German occultists formed the secret order of the O.T.O. (Ordo Templi Orientis or Order of Templars in the East). They installed the English occultist Aleister Crowley to head their British section. Crowley took Baphomet as his magical name. A.G.H.
from http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/b/baphomet.html
(end of text)
BTTT
Tri/Delt is a notorious fantasist.
Ask him about his life as a spook if you want a good laff sometime.
(I'm surprised he's not underground again. LOL!)
It certainly is!
I might have spoken too soon on the "Satanist" crap. It always starts and they always quote the same tired sources.
Good to meet you brother
Anyone interested in a reputable mailing list of the subject of the Priory of Sion, Rennes le Chateau, Holy Blood, Holy Grail etc can check this out:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/priory-of-sion/?yguid=203157982
That 'secret' removed from the Temple Mount is part of one of my current novel projects. You will be pleasantly surprised with the revelation of that 'thing' secreted off to the castle region of Spain, then to a small Church in Scotland. The Templars figured decisively in the recent movie "The Last Crusade" ... an Indiana Jones venue.
And gave us that infamous quote by the Crusader's leader, "Kill them all, God will know his own".
Absolutely fascinating medieval history.
"The Perfect Heresy" by Stephen O'Sheais not a scholarly book. For one thing the "famous quote 'Kill them all, God will know his own'" is apocraphal to begin with. No scholerly book I know claimes it as a genuin qoute. And their is no way 20,000 people died at Bezier. That is more then twice the population of the town (Sumption, Albigensian Crusade, pp. 88-89, 92-94; Setton Crusades, II, 288-289' Mann, Popes in the Middle Ages, XIII, 244.).
Anyway the Cathars were most certainly NOT good people, nor were they even Christian in the proper sense of the word. Technically the Cathars hated God, and by that I mean they hated the Created World.
In the duelistic philosophy of the Cathari all matter is by it's very nature evil, thus either God did not create the world or God is evil, and further Jesus could not be God because God cannot be a physical man, unless he be an evil God. Among other crazy things the Cathars believed was that suicide was good, and sex is evil (assuming the purpose is to creat new flesh, otherwise it's ok). So basically, homosexuality and beastiality were ok. But, if you trap a soul inside human flesh, i.e. create a baby you are doing evil. Oh...you also couldn't eat meat for some reason. This duelistic hatred of matter was the justification for denying the sacraments like baptism, and marriage.
And lest you think I'm just repeating anti-Cathari propaganda promulgated by the Inquisition there are some primary sources of Cathari Bishops in Italy accusing each other of not being strict enough on the afore mentioned beliefs. And besides, contrary to what some pro-cathari historians like to claim the Cathars can easily be traced to the Bogomils and before that the Paulicians and all the way back to the Manichaens who were absolutly NOT Christan.
For a more balinced history of the Cathari heracy read Sumption Albigensian Crusade(London, 1978).
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