Vatican book on Templars' demise

BBC ^ | October 5, 2007

[NYer]

The Vatican is to publish a book which is expected to shed light on the demise of the Knights Templar, a Christian military order from the Middle Ages.

The book is based on a document known as the Chinon parchment, found in the Vatican Secret Archives six years ago after years of being incorrectly filed.

The document is a record of the heresy hearings of the Templars before Pope Clement V in the 14th Century.

The official who found the paper says it exonerates the knights entirely.

Prof Barbara Frale, who stumbled across the parchment by mistake, says that it lays bare the rituals and ceremonies over which the Templars were accused of heresy.

In the hearings before Clement V, the knights reportedly admitted spitting on the cross, denying Jesus and kissing the lower back of the man proposing them during initiation ceremonies.

However, many of the confessions were obtained under torture and knights later recanted or tried to claim that their initiation ceremony merely mimicked the humiliation the knights would suffer if they fell into the hands of the Muslim leader Saladin.

The leader of the order, Jacques de Moley, was one of those who confessed to heresy, but later recanted.

He was burned at the stake in Paris in 1314, the same year that the Pope dissolved the order.

However, according to Prof Frale, study of the document shows that the knights were not heretics as had been believed for 700 years.

In fact she says "the Pope was obliged to ask for pardons from the knights... the document we have found absolves them".

Details of the parchment will be published as part of Processus contra Templarios, a book that will be released by the Vatican's Secret Archive on 25 October.

[Savage Beast]

"The official who found the paper says it exonerates the knights entirely."

This is hardly surprising.

The persecution and massacre of the Knights Templar is one of history's most disgraceful episodes. King Philip IV of France ("Philip the Fair") is one of history's more corrupt and indecent mass murderers, and Clement V, perhaps unwittingly, served as his de facto accomplice.

Jacques de Molay declared his innocence and the innocence of the Templars as he burned, and he promised that he would meet Philip before God.

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

I’ll have to tell my friends and some of my family they don’t exist anymore

he he he

[Savage Beast]

Read Born in Blood by John J. Robinson. While researching the Peasants' Revolution in England, Robinson stumbled upon extensive evidence that the Knights Templar, under persecution by Clement V and Philip IV, went underground and remained so until the early 18th century, when they re-emerged as the Freemasons, that the Freemasons had no connection whatsoever with a Midieval trade guild or anything or the sort but used this as a cover for their true identity, viz. the Knights Templar, to avoid further persecution and annihilation.

If the Templars are in fact proven innocent and if the Freemasons can make a sufficiently sound case that they are in fact the Templars, Freemasons should consider appealing to the Vatican for the return of the property.

[river rat]

".... it exonerates the knights entirely."

Surprise, surprise, surprise..........NOT.

Wasn't the French King and Pope at the time who became jealous and fearful of the Knights Templar -- responsible for framing and persecuting them..

[bert]

.....at the orders of the French king...

Who was a Papal lackey much the same as Hezbollah is an Iranian lackey

[Interesting Times]

Templar ping.

[Amadeo]

Templars have not been exterminated.

[bert]

.....Templars have not been exterminated.....

I’ll bite. Where are they today?

[Hacksaw]

Who was a Papal lackey much the same as Hezbollah is an Iranian lackey

Actually the Pope was a lackey of the French King.

[decal]

“When the King of France couldn’t pay back his loans, he decided to have them trumped up on heresy charges...”

Like the saying goes - when you owe enough money, YOU own the bank.

[ColdSteelTalon]

I wonder what other juicy morsels are to be found in the vatican’s archives. Unfortunately the Roman Catholic Church has done much wickedness in the name of Christ.

[ColdSteelTalon]

I wonder what other juicy morsels are to be found in the vatican’s archives. Unfortunately the Roman Catholic Church has done much wickedness in the name of Christ.

[ColdSteelTalon]

Oh come on !!! The Vatican could have stepped in but decided not to. They wanted the Templars gone as well.

[Joe 6-pack]

"Some have theorized that the Jedi Purge was based in part on the insidious destruction of the Knights Templar..."

I suspect you'd find a stronger parallel if you google "Satsuma Rebellion."

[Mountain Troll]

I’ll wait for the paperback.

[mnehring]

The problem is the earliest Scottish Lodges were started in the early 15th century (the UGLE in early 18th century) while the Templars themselves where eliminated in the early 1307, a century earlier. One could say there was inspiration, just as there was inspiration from the Knights of Malta and the Knights of St. Andrew, but the direct connection would be hard to prove.

[zot]

Thanks for the ping. I saw the heading, but didn’t read the article because I didn’t expect it to state, “The official who found the paper says it exonerates the knights entirely.” This exoneration is long overdue.

[Savage Beast]

A direct connection may be hard or even impossible to prove; however, it's possible that records long held secret are in existence. It would not be surprising if the Templars remained underground from the 14th to the 15th centuries--or even until the 21st.

I am not a Mason, though my father was.

If the Masons could prove that they are in fact the Templars, they should petition the Vatican not only for the return of the property but for restoration of the Order.

[mnehring]

There is the interesting connection that the “Jolly Roger” was also the flag of the Templar fleet and is found on many early Templar gravestones. It also was the nickname of the King of Cyprus who gave sanctuary to many Templars after the purging.

The theory is plausible, the 27th Degree of the Scottish Rite, the Order of Knight Commander of the Temple (within the Council of Kadosh) does often refer and uses similar regalia. The ritual within this degree is very tied to the historical allegory.

I still would be cautious to associate inspiration with actual connection. All of the Masonic degrees have inspiration of great achievements and allegory for the purpose of learning from history, making good men better. Saying a direct creation from the Templar would also put the same plausibility with the Knights of Malta and other heraldic orders that have inspired the Lodge.

[mnehring]

There also is an actual Knight Templar degree within the York Rite, albeit, the York Rite is much younger and took much of its inspiration from the older Scottish Rite.

I don't know much about the York Rite degrees other than the obvious Blue Lodge degrees that must be obtained before growing in either the York or Scottish Rite.