Vatican secret archives on the Knights Templar
I saw an interesting news bite today about the Vatican and the Knights Templar .
Vatican Secret Archives to unveil rare book on Knights Templar ........
On October 25 in the Vatican's Old Synod Hall, the presentation will take place of the "Processus contra Templarios," a book published by the Vatican Secret Archives on the subject of the Knights Templar, the medieval military-religious order founded in Jerusalem in 1118 and suppressed by Pope Clement V (1305-1314).
According to a communique made public yesterday afternoon, the new volume is "a previously unpublished and exclusive edition of the complete acts of the original hearing against the Knights Templar." The book, unique of its kind, will have a print run "rigorously limited to 799 copies" and contains the "faithful reproduction of the original parchments conserved in the Vatican Secret Archives." .......
- Templars being burned at the stake ... Illustration, anonyme Chronik, "Von der Schöpfung der Welt bis 1384"
I've been a fan of the Templars since college, when I read Ivanhoe, and also two novels by Graham Shelby - The Knights of Dark Renown (1969), set in the Kingdom of Jerusalem during the reigns of Baldwin IV, Baldwin V and Queen Sibylla, and The Kings of Vain Intent (1970), sequel to the above, dealing with the Third Crusade. But sadly, many people, if they think of the Templars at all, only connect them with weird legends or Masonic conspiracy theories like those in The Da Vinci Code or Foucault's Pendulum .... even films like Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven give a somewhat inaccurate account of the Order. The actual history of the Templars is interesting enough without embellishment, so here below is just the basic introduction from Wikipedia's page on them ....
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Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon (Latin: Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Solomonici), popularly known as the Knights Templar .... were among the most famous of the Christian military orders. The organization existed for approximately two centuries in the Middle Ages. It was created in the aftermath of the First Crusade of 1096, to ensure the safety of the large numbers of European pilgrims who flowed toward Jerusalem after its conquest.
Officially endorsed by the Church in 1129, the Order became a favored charity across Europe. It grew rapidly in membership and power. Templar knights, easily recognizable in their white mantle with a distinct red cross, made some of the best equipped, trained, and disciplined fighting units of the Crusades. Non-warrior members of the Order managed a large economic infrastructure throughout Christendom, innovating many financial techniques that were an early form of banking, and building numerous fortifications across Europe and the Holy Land.
The Templars' success was tied closely to the success of the Crusades. When the Holy Land was lost and the Templars suffered crushing defeats, support for the Order's existence faded. Rumors about the Templars' secret initiation ceremony created mistrust, and King Philip IV of France, deeply in debt to the Order, began pressuring Pope Clement V to take action. On Friday, October 13, 1307, King Philip had many of the Order's members, including the Grand Master Jacques de Molay, arrested, tortured into "confessions", and burned at the stake. In 1312, Pope Clement, under continuing pressure from King Philip, forcibly disbanded the entire Order. The sudden disappearance of a major part of the European infrastructure gave rise to speculation and legends, which have kept the name "Templar" alive in modern fiction.
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- Effigies of Templar Knights in Temple Church, London, once the Templars' headquarters in England.
Vatican Secret Archives to unveil rare book on Knights Templar ........
On October 25 in the Vatican's Old Synod Hall, the presentation will take place of the "Processus contra Templarios," a book published by the Vatican Secret Archives on the subject of the Knights Templar, the medieval military-religious order founded in Jerusalem in 1118 and suppressed by Pope Clement V (1305-1314).
According to a communique made public yesterday afternoon, the new volume is "a previously unpublished and exclusive edition of the complete acts of the original hearing against the Knights Templar." The book, unique of its kind, will have a print run "rigorously limited to 799 copies" and contains the "faithful reproduction of the original parchments conserved in the Vatican Secret Archives." .......
- Templars being burned at the stake ... Illustration, anonyme Chronik, "Von der Schöpfung der Welt bis 1384"
I've been a fan of the Templars since college, when I read Ivanhoe, and also two novels by Graham Shelby - The Knights of Dark Renown (1969), set in the Kingdom of Jerusalem during the reigns of Baldwin IV, Baldwin V and Queen Sibylla, and The Kings of Vain Intent (1970), sequel to the above, dealing with the Third Crusade. But sadly, many people, if they think of the Templars at all, only connect them with weird legends or Masonic conspiracy theories like those in The Da Vinci Code or Foucault's Pendulum .... even films like Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven give a somewhat inaccurate account of the Order. The actual history of the Templars is interesting enough without embellishment, so here below is just the basic introduction from Wikipedia's page on them ....
********************************
Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon (Latin: Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Solomonici), popularly known as the Knights Templar .... were among the most famous of the Christian military orders. The organization existed for approximately two centuries in the Middle Ages. It was created in the aftermath of the First Crusade of 1096, to ensure the safety of the large numbers of European pilgrims who flowed toward Jerusalem after its conquest.
Officially endorsed by the Church in 1129, the Order became a favored charity across Europe. It grew rapidly in membership and power. Templar knights, easily recognizable in their white mantle with a distinct red cross, made some of the best equipped, trained, and disciplined fighting units of the Crusades. Non-warrior members of the Order managed a large economic infrastructure throughout Christendom, innovating many financial techniques that were an early form of banking, and building numerous fortifications across Europe and the Holy Land.
The Templars' success was tied closely to the success of the Crusades. When the Holy Land was lost and the Templars suffered crushing defeats, support for the Order's existence faded. Rumors about the Templars' secret initiation ceremony created mistrust, and King Philip IV of France, deeply in debt to the Order, began pressuring Pope Clement V to take action. On Friday, October 13, 1307, King Philip had many of the Order's members, including the Grand Master Jacques de Molay, arrested, tortured into "confessions", and burned at the stake. In 1312, Pope Clement, under continuing pressure from King Philip, forcibly disbanded the entire Order. The sudden disappearance of a major part of the European infrastructure gave rise to speculation and legends, which have kept the name "Templar" alive in modern fiction.
*****************************
- Effigies of Templar Knights in Temple Church, London, once the Templars' headquarters in England.
posted by crystal | 11:49 PM
3 Comments:
They got railroaded. They had too much money on their hands, and it made people jealous.
I had a friend once who was struggling to decide whether he wanted to be a doctor, a Navy Seal, or a Dominican. I remarked to him at the time that it was too bad that the Templars weren't around anymore for him.
He became a Dominican, but that has become tenuous. He's doing his medical residency now. Looks like he was cut out to be a doctor after all.
Yes, I think railroaded too. It kind of reminds me of when the Jesuits were suppressed - thankfully the church wasn't burning anyone at the stake anymore by then.
Jeff, There are Templars now. So, tell your friend!
Or there's at least one. His name is Tomas, and he lives in a refugio (simple hut) up in the mountains of northern Spain, along the Camino de Santiago, near a military installation. He was a Marxist revolutionary who went on the Camino, and had a vision or something while sleeping on the steps of the Templar Castle in Pontevedra (I think). He converted and became a Templar. I even bought a little Tau pin from him. He guards the Camino now, just like the TEmplars of old.
Oct 25. That sounds like a date the world would end. Is this some kind of apocalyptic thing? Secrets of the Templars revealed, we can all go home now?
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