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by It has spawned endless flights of speculation and has even become popularly attached to the stigma surrounding Friday the 13th. But the arrest, expurgation and subsequent controversy surrounding the fall of the Knights Templar in the dawning years of the 14th century may now finally have a little more light cast on them. Accused of myriad crimes, the Templar Order was destroyed in 1307; its Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, burned at the stake. But were the knights heretics as the French king maintained? It seems not. A new book set to be published by the Vatican and based on recently discovered documents long misfiled in the voluminous Secret Archives reportedly "absolves them" rather completely. Will the release of the book put the brakes on the cottage industry that has developed around templar lore? Probably not. But it will be available on October 25th.
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I'm really looking forward to seeing what Processus contra Templarios really has to say.
There's so much conflicting information floating around about the Templars - stories connecting them to Freemasonry, to various 19th century secret societies, to witchcraft, to the Grail legends, and so on, that it's hard to discern what's real. It's obvious that Philip IV's action to suppress them was financially motivated, and the charges of heresy have always been a little hard to credit. The Friday the 13th arrest orders were only effective in France - though the Knights had order houses throughout Europe. England was dealing with the death of Edward Longshanks and the succession of Edward II, and didn't arrest even a single Knight.
The whole thing is a great source of amusing conspiracy theories.
The whole thing is a great source of amusing conspiracy theories.
And a fairly entertaining movie...
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So what is the real reason by Dereck :: NR5 :: on 08 October 2007
So if not for heresy, what's the real reason the French king had the Templar destroyed?
RE: So what is the real reason by ldsudduth :: NR7 :: on 08 October 2007
I can answer that: France was bankrupt; and Phillipe wanted the Templar Treasures. Of course, the Templars set up a cell system--the thumbs never knew what the fingers were up to. Jacque Demolay didn't give up any of his compatriots or the location of the treasure under torture because he didn't know anyone outside of his cell or where the treasure was located. Phillip had already expelled the Jews from France after seizing their property; and had assassinated Pope Boniface the VIII because of the Papal Bull exempting clergy from paying taxes. After that, the Papacy was moved to France, after Phillip had Clement the V elected Pope (aka Bertrand de Got). Phillip and Clement conspired to unite the Hospitaliars and the Templars into one unit; so that Phillip could control their financial resources. That attempt failed, so the Templars were accused of witchcraft and heresy.
The Templars were arrested on Friday, October 13, 1307. Jacques DeMolay was tortured for nearly seven years and burned at the stake (along with Guy of Auvergne) in March of 1314. Legend has it that Demolay invited King Phillip and Pope Clement to join him in death and they both died within a year.