[D66] How the Vatican destroyed the Knights Templar

[Henk Elegeert]

How the Vatican destroyed the Knights
Templar<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/how-the-vatican-destroyed-the-knights-templar-395360.html>

By Peter Popham in Rome
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*Friday, 26 October 2007*


One of the most iniquitous chapters in the history of the medieval church
was revisited in Rome yesterday when the Vatican publisher Scrinium put on
sale facsimiles of the trial of the Knights Templar order, held before Pope
Clement V in 1308.

The book is unlikely to turn up in Foyles or Waterstone's: measuring 27 by
22in, printed on artificial parchment with replicas of the original papal
seals, it is as close as the publishers can get to the appearance of the
original document, which turned up in the Vatican's secret archives in 2001,
having been mislaid for more than 300 years.

Academics and fans of Dan Brown's thrillers will be eager to get their hands
on the book but it costs ¿5,900 per copy, and most of the 799 copies have
already been reserved by specialist libraries. The 800th will be given to
the Pope.

It ought to make uncomfortable reading for him. The Knights Templar, the
order of monastic knights set up to defend Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem,
seized during the First Crusade, went into decline after Christians were
expelled from the Holy Land in the 13th century. King Philip IV "the Fair"
of France owed the order large amounts of money and land; to avoid repaying
the debt, he prevailed on Pope Clement V, based in Avignon and dependent on
his good offices, to put members on trial for heresy.

The pope tried them, and while he found them guilty of immorality, the key
charge of heresy was found to be false. It had been alleged that while in
Jerusalem they had been in the custom of spitting on crosses, and underwent
an initiation ceremony that involved kissing.

They persuaded the pope and his judges that the spitting was done to prepare
themselves for the dissembling they would be obliged to practice if captured
by the Saracens, while the kissing was a way of promising complete
obedience. The pope accepted their arguments and absolved them of heresy.
This, however, did not satisfy Philip. The pope was pressured to reverse his
verdict, and the head of the order and his closest associates were burnt at
the stake. The order's riches were handed to a rival knightly order, and the
surviving knights melted away. It was a demonstration of the power of
realpolitik to trump justice.

The order's downfall stimulated the growth of legends and fables about the
order. Founded in Jerusalem by veterans of the successful First Crusade of
1096, it was a potent armed force designed to protect Christian pilgrims.
When the pope gave it special status – exemption from local laws and taxes
and answerable to no one but the pontiff – it soon became uniquely rich and
powerful.

The order developed a way for wealthy travellers to pay for services
received by leaving lands and wealth at the disposal of a Templar group in
Europe.

It believed, as did the Jews, that Al-Aqsa was the site of Solomon's Temple,
from which sprung the belief that many holy relics had fallen into its
hands. The Turin Shroud, fragments of the Cross and the chalice used by
Christ at the Last Supper – the Holy Grail – are among treasures it was
popularly believed to have acquired.

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Zie ook

http://templars.wordpress.com/chronology/
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CHRONOLOGY OF THE SOVEREIGN MILITARY ORDER OF THE TEMPLE OF JERUSALEM*

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Henk Elegeert
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