ping
Interesting up until the point that they start associating revival groups with the original knights. During the 1800s on, many, many groups took on the mantle of Templars, Knights of Malta, etc to give their organizations a connection to history. Just because the groups have the name doesn’t mean they have a direct tie to the original group.
Now they are often seen riding little cars in parades and wearing Fezes with Islamic symbols on them. Evidently modern Templars do not get enough exercise as evidenced by their inclination toward pot-bellied appearance, along with a predilection to loving bad music.
Nice of them to post such a positive review. What I’d like to read is that the Church admits they weren’t guilty of anything other than being good bankers.
In Damascus they foiled the Crusaders as soon as they entered the city - and shut the rest of the Crusaders out. What they expected we will perhaps never know - but the Templars were slaughtered to a man.
When Raymond of Tripoli advised King Guy of Jerusalem to stay at their position of power and good pasture and not attempt to relieve Raymond's castle of Tiberius where his own wife led the defense. Raymond knew that Saladin could not move on to Jerusalem leaving their army intact at his rear - and said he was perfectly willing to ransom his wife and lose his citadel so long as the Kingdom was preserved.
After he left the Templars convinced King Guy that they couldn't see “Christian womanhood in danger” without responding - and that God was on their side, and wouldn't allow “the True Cross” to fall into infidel hands.
In the morning Raymond was quite upset to see the army break camp - and marching through the hot sun - when complaints of the heat got to Guy - he halted the columns in the heat of the Sun - at which point Raymond got down from his horse and lay on the ground crying out “the Kingdom is lost”.
Saladin lit the grass on fire in front of them, and surrounded the army at the “Horns of Hattin”. Raymond of Tripoli and his Knights broke through the encircling forces and rode off.
The rest of the Crusader army was captured, the “True Cross” was captured and never seen by any Christian ever again, and King Guy and the leaders were brought before Saladin.
Saladin handed King Guy a glass of chilled wine - and he drank and handed it to Reynald de Chatillon - Saladin pointed out that King Guy handed the chalice to Reynald - not him - and then drew his sword and beheaded Reynald (who led some pirates to disrupt the haj and planned on sacking Mecca).
King Guy thought he was next - but Saladin said “I am sorry - that was rude - but that man was too much to bear - fear not - ‘A King does not kill a King’.”
The Templars were offered conversion at the point of a sword - with the promise that they would be a prince among the Muslims - but to a man they refused and took the sword.
Impressive in their devotion.
Not so impressive as far as their decision making skills.
After being dissolved in the 14th century, the Knights Templar was revived as a movement in Paris in 1804, adopting the title The Grand Priory of the Ordo Supremus Militaris Templi Hierosolymitani, commonly called Knights Templar International.
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The article makes no mention of the events of Friday the 13, 1307 when Pope Clement and King Phillip put 14,000 of them in chains. No mention of the tortures and deaths at their hands.
I suggest you read “Born in Blood”
by John J. Robinson http://www.msana.com/jrobinson.asp
Hail the founders of modern Switzerland!
An interesting factoid about the Templars:
They invented what might be called the first “travelers’ checque”.
Back then one of their primary missions was to protect travelers as they went back and forth to the holy land and elsewhere around the known world. It was very dangerous of course to travel with all of your money in your possession. Thieves and highwaymen were everywhere. A traveler could, however, deposit their money with the Templars in exchange for a coded document. The traveler could then take that document into the local templar office when they got where they were going, where it would be decoded and they could withdraw money from their account.
Pretty nifty and downright practical.