Free Republic

In his manifesto, 2083 A European Declaration of Independence, Anders Behring Breivik — who will soon go on trial for murdering at least 93 fellow Norwegians — writes: Solo-cell systems in combination with martyrdom is the most efficient and deadly form of modern warfare. This strategy was adapted by Jihadist groups. And now we will be using it as well. It is even more valuable to us as we enjoy more “invisibility” than individuals who have Arabic/Asian appearance and customs. This compendium of his writings, whose promotion was his central objective, describes in great detail the lonely pursuit of his...

CUERNAVACA, Mexico — Police found the bodies of six men and one woman inside a car abandoned Monday in an exclusive gated community near the picturesque central Mexican city of Cuernavaca. A shootout between rival gangs in the northern city of Monterrey killed two men, including a hot dog vendor caught in the cross fire, state police said. Three others were injured, including a 2-year-old and the child's father. In western Michoacan state, the bodies of two men were found with messages from a new drug gang (The Knights Templar) that has been taking responsibility for recent killings in the...

A nail from the time of Christ's crucifixion which was hidden by the same knights who featured in The Da Vinci Code has been found in a dig. The four-inch Roman relic, stored in an ornate box, was uncovered by archaeologists working at a fort thought to have been a former Knights Templar stronghold. It was buried with three skeletons and three swords, including one with the religious order's cross on its blade, on the tiny island of Ilheu de Pontinha, off Madeira. The iron nail is of the type used in thousands of crucifixions - but it is special....

Medieval knights hid and secretly venerated The Holy Shroud of Turin for more than 100 years after the Crusades, the Vatican said Sunday in an announcement that appeared to solve the mystery of the relic’s missing years. The Knights Templar, an order which was suppressed and disbanded for alleged heresy, took care of the linen cloth, which bears the image of a man with a beard, long hair and the wounds of crucifixion, according to Vatican researchers. The Shroud, which is kept in the royal chapel of Turin Cathedral, has long been revered as the shroud in which Jesus was...

Medieval knights hid and secretly venerated The Holy Shroud of Turin for more than 100 years after the Crusades, the Vatican said yesterday in an announcement that appeared to solve the mystery of the relic’s missing years. The Knights Templar, an order which was suppressed and disbanded for alleged heresy, took care of the linen cloth, which bears the image of a man with a beard, long hair and the wounds of crucifixion, according to Vatican researchers. The Shroud, which is kept in the royal chapel of Turin Cathedral, has long been revered as the shroud in which Jesus was...

Medieval knights hid and secretly venerated The Holy Shroud of Turin for more than 100 years after the Crusades, the Vatican said today in an announcement that appeared to solve the mystery of the relic’s missing years. The Knights Templar, an order which was suppressed and disbanded for alleged heresy, took care of the linen cloth, which bears the image of a man with a beard, long hair and the wounds of crucifixion, according to Vatican researchers. The Shroud, which is kept in the royal chapel of Turin Cathedral, has long been revered as the shroud in which Jesus was...

The Knights Templar are demanding that the Vatican give them back their good name and, possibly, billions in assets into the bargain, 700 years after the order was brutally suppressed by a joint venture between the Pope and the King of France. If the Holy See doesn’t comply, the warrior knights, renowned for liberating the Holy Land, will deploy that most fearsome of weapons: a laborious court case through the creaking Spanish legal system. The Daily Telegraph reports that The Association of the Sovereign Order of the Temple of Christ has launched a court case in Spain, demanding Pope Benedict...

The Association of the Sovereign Order of the Temple of Christ, whose members claim to be descended from the legendary crusaders, have filed a lawsuit against Benedict XVI calling for him to recognise the seizure of assets worth 100 billion euros (£79 billion). They claim that when the order was dissolved by his predecessor Pope Clement V in 1307, more than 9,000 properties as well as countless pastures, mills and other commercial ventures belonging to the knights were appropriated by the church. But their motive is not to reclaim damages only to restore the "good name" of the Knights Templar....

PORT DOVER, Ont. -- "Get your motor runnin' Head out on the highway Lookin' for adventure And whatever comes our way" -- Steppenwolf The buzzing sound is like a bunch of angry hornets disturbed by some careless kid whacking their nest with a stick. It fills the air for miles and lasts all day long. That buzzing is actually the sound of thousands of motorcycles rolling down the highway. If you live in Norfolk County, it can only mean one thing -- it must be Friday the 13th. Whenever that date appears during the year, bikers, riders and motorcycle enthusiasts...

Unique Book Dedicated to Trial against Templars on Display in Sofia 30 May 2008, Friday A copy of the unique book dedicated to the trial against templars, issued by Secret Vatican City archive, was presented Friday in Sofia's National Archeological Museum. Photo by Yuliana Nikolova (Sofia Photo Agency) The unique book dedicated to the trial against templars issued by Secret Vatican City archive was presented Friday in Sofia's National Archeological Museum. The publication, called "Processus Conta Templarios", is an expensive limited edition of the proceedings of the 1307-1312 papal trial of the mysterious medieval crusading order of warrior-monks who were...

Almost 700 years after the Pope burned their leader at the stake, the Knights Templar are back. Or are they? Patrick Barkham tries to find out why the long-vanished order of Crusaders might suddenly be advertising in the press.... ~~~snip~~~ Apart from the odd misplaced apostrophe and various arcane references to "annulling the bull", the advert gravely announced that the Knights Templar would petition the Pope to "restore the Order with the duties, rights and privileges appropriate to the 21st century and beyond". It called on all Templar groups and "brothers in arms" around the world to get in touch,...

Descendants of ‘Holy Grail’ knights demand an apology from the Pope Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent A British order of Templars that claims direct descent from the original Knights Templar is calling on the Pope to apologise after the recent discovery of an ancient Vatican document showing that the knights had been absolved of the charges laid against them seven centuries ago. The accusations of heresy led to the disbandment of the order and the burning at the stake of Jacques de Molay, the order’s grand master. The Vatican will next week publish a 5,900-euro (£3,925) collector’s edition of its documents...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Knights Templar, the medieval Christian military order accused of heresy and sexual misconduct, will soon be partly rehabilitated when the Vatican publishes trial documents it had closely guarded for 700 years. A reproduction of the minutes of trials against the Templars, "'Processus Contra Templarios -- Papal Inquiry into the Trial of the Templars'" is a massive work and much more than a book -- with a 5,900 euros (4,125 pounds) price tag. "This is a milestone because it is the first time that these documents are being released by the Vatican, which gives a stamp...

VATICAN CITY - It's not the Holy Grail, but for fans of "The Da Vinci Code" and its tantalizing story line about the Knights Templar, it could be the next best thing. Ignored for centuries, documents about the heresy trial of the ancient Christian order discovered in the Vatican's secret archives are being published in a limited edition — with an $8,377 price tag. They include a 14th-century parchment showing that Pope Clement V initially absolved the Templar leaders of heresy, though he did find them guilty of immorality and planned to reform the order, according to the Vatican archives...

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...

I was running a PVR (Personal Video Recorder) of the live coverage of the Saddam Hussein execution on FOX News Cable. I noticed they were playing some video from his trial, where he’s holding up one of his hands – I notice he has scribbled personal notes on his hand with a Sharpie pen. This aroused my curiosity, since (embarrassingly) I have at times found myself without a notepad and have scribbled personal notations on my left hand to note down some important information such as a phone number or other. I reran the video and took a snap of...

First Knights Templar are discovered April 10, 2006 LONDON: The first bodies of the Knights Templar, the mysterious religious order at the heart of The Da Vinci Code, have been found by archaeologists near the River Jordan in northern Israel. British historian Tom Asbridge yesterday hailed the find as the first provable example of actual Knights Templar. The remains were found beneath the ruined walls of Jacob's Ford, an overthrown castle dating back to the Crusades, which had been lost for centuries. They can be dated to the exact day -- August 29, 1179 -- that they were killed by...

Pope was investigating Knights Templar before his election "The Insider" mailing list article, 30 April 2005. *** The new Pope, Benedict XVI, was actively investigating secret societies including the Knights Templar and the Illuminati, it was revealed yesterday. Details were exposed by a local newspaper in Hertfordshire, England. Cardinal Ratzinger was head of the Inquisition, the arm of the Church set up to investigate, persecute or eliminate heretics. But the curious thing is, we now know that he started his investigation shortly before he was elected as the new Pope. Did he know something? He certainly made no secret of...

Within a very short period of the formation of the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, a new style of church architecture began to spread across Western Europe. The first examples of this are to be seen in France, where great Cathedrals such as that of Chartres sing loud the praise of what became known, much later as 'Gothic'. Whether or not the Knights Templar had any direct part in the creation of this revolution in religious building has always been something of a bone of contention, though it is clear that the fledgling organisation had...

Folks, Zenit.Org is featuring an interview with Massimo Introvigne, director of the Turin-based Center for Studies in New Religions, regarding the existence of the so-called "Illuminati," and their links to the Freemasons, the Knights Templar, etc., as well as the resurgence of their myth in Dan Brown's "historical" novels, Angels and Demons and The DaVinci Code. This is my favorite quote:Those who want to persuade us that a secret Illuminati cabal did lead the world from the Renaissance to the 19th century, and continues to do so today, have a very difficult burden of proof, and never even came close...