Knights Templar

 The Arrest of the Knights Templar

This post is a little late in coming. 

    There isn't many people who don't know about the Knights Templar. Two weeks ago, an anniversary pertaining to this holy order of knights was on the calendar, though not many people might know about it. This was the date of the arrest of every single French Templar in the Order.

    The Order of the Knights Templar was founded in Jerusalem in 1118, or 1119. The exact date is uncertain. Its full name was the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon. The name varies as to which source you use. In the beginnings of their history, they were called the Poor Fellow-soldiers of Jesus Christ, then later on, the Knights of the Temple of Solomon. The names were merged later on, and the simplified version was the Knights Templar.

    First off, the Templars were very strict, but through their tough and frugal ways of living, became basically the shock troops of the Middle Ages. Hundreds of rules regulated their lives, but despite vows to remain holy, devout Christians, loyal to God, distaster struck.

    Below is an excerpt from a research paper I wrote this past year about the Templars. It explains the Templars' downfall, over 700 years ago.

In the year 1303, King Philip of France and Pope Clement V met together in Rome. Philip gave Clement a long list of ghastly, horrendous accusations, directed at the Templars as an Order, not individuals. He told the Pope that he got all of them from reliable witnesses. If these accusations proved to be true, they would, as the king put it, threaten all of Europe, and the very existence of the church. These included, but were not limited to, bowing to and worshiping an idol shaped like a human head, denying Christ, spitting upon His image, the widespread practice of homosexuality, and quite a few other evil acts. Another reason that Philip desired the Templars investigated was that he had a history of debt, and had already persecuted other groups in France, like the Lombards and the Jews, and taken their wealth. In short, he wanted the Templars’ money.² By the end of the meeting, Philip had made it clear to Clement that he absolutely needed to order a formal, deep investigation into the Knights of the Temple of Solomon. However, the Pope talked with the current Grandmaster of the Temple, and asked about these alleged crimes. That Grandmaster was Jacques de Molay. De Molay was furious, and continued to strongly avow the innocence of the Order, declaring the accusations were totally false.¹ But even though he stood by the Order being clean of these crimes, he insisted that an inquiry of some of these accusations be put towards a few Templars that had been expelled from the Order in 1305, their charges being similar to the ones being set towards the Order by the King of France.² The Pope partly believed him, but then also delayed the telling of these findings to Philip of France, thereby putting of the formal inquiry Philip so desperately wanted. But then soon after this, Philip appointed a new Chancellor of France, a man by the name of William de Nogrant. With the King’s approval, de Nogrant ordered the arrest of every single one of the 5,000 Templars in France. This command was carried out on Friday, October the 13^th, in the year 1307. Out of 5,000, only 20 evaded capture. Friday the 13^th was indeed an unlucky day for the Knights of Solomon’s Temple.¹ The Templars’ arrest, and the beginning of their end on Friday the 13^th, is the reason the two together are considered unlucky,³ Fierce controversy has surrounded the question of the guilt of the Templars for centuries. These days, people incline to believe that all of Philip’s atrocious accusations were fabricated.¹

 

¹ The Knights Templar, by Stephen Howarth

² Freemasonry Its History and Myths revealed, by Giles Morgan