Knights Templar in 250 Facts

[RolandVT]

The Shroud of Turin (Holy Shroud), is a piece of linen cloth that bears a faint image of the front and back of a naked man. Because details of the image are consistent with traditional depictions of Jesus after his death by crucifixion, the shroud has been venerated for centuries, especially by Catholics, as Jesus’s actual burial shroud upon which his image was miraculously imprinted.

The documented history of the shroud dates back to 1354, when it appeared out of nowhere and began to be exhibited in the church of Lirey, a village in north-central France. 35 years later, it was denounced as a forgery by the bishop of Troyes (!!).

However, it did not stop the House of Savoy to acquire it (in 1453) and subsequently (in 1578) to move it to Turin (hence its name) where it has remained ever since.

Scientific analysis of the image is inconclusive; while some scientists claim that it was painted using a technique similar to the one employed in the 14th century, others reject these conclusions.

Independent radiocarbon dating tests concluded with 95% confidence that the material dated to 1260–1390 AD. Which matches the beginning of documented history of the shroud. All of the hypotheses used to challenge the radiocarbon dating have been scientifically refuted… so it is a fake (forgery), plain and simple.

Consequently, none of the three theories of a Templar/Shroud connection is true. The first one contends that Templars acquired the Shroud in 1204, when they and other Latin crusaders sacked Constantinople.

They kept it ever since and in 1307 managed to hide it from the henchmen of French king Philip IV (who were hardly looking for this religious object). In 1354 it was discovered and for some reason moved to abovementioned church.

The variation of this theory claims that the shroud was acquired by Othon de la Roche who subsequently relinquished it to the Knights Templar for unknown reason. It was subsequently taken to France, where the first known keeper of the Turin Shroud had links both to the Templars as well the descendants of Othon.

The third theory is really creative: it claims that the image on the Shroud of Turin is in fact… that of the last Grand Master of the order, Jacques de Molay. The image on the shroud certainly does fit the description of de Molay as depicted in medieval woodcuts – even his six-foot height.

This theory does fit with radiocarbon dating… however, the image on the cloth is definitely of the body of a crucified and whipped man – and de Molay suffered neither (he was never tortured at all). Consequently, this theory is also not true.

[RolandVT]

The (in)famous allegedly non-fiction (in reality it is anything but “non”) Holy Blood, Holy Grail claims that the Templars in their 18 ships fled to the New World by following old Viking routes, i.e., making one of the pre-Columbian voyages. Carrying with them their (allegedly) immense treasure that they (allegedly) buried… on Oak Island in Nova Scotia, Canada.

None of the above is true. There is no evidence of any pre-Columbian voyage to North America by Vikings or anyone else; the Templar treasure was not that immense (and all of it was captured by King’s soldiers on October 13th, 1307) … and Templars simply did not have 18 ships.

There is no record that the Templars ever had 18 galleys, much less than 18 galleys were at La Rochelle (or in any other French port) in October of 1307. Actually, the Templars had very few large ships –no more than four – and hired more from merchant shippers when needed. Hence, the “lost fleet of Templars” is also a myth.

And even if they did… at the time of the country-wide arrest of the Templars, the whole France was under such a tight control by King’s men that it was practically impossible even for a lonely Templar to get from Paris to the coast – let alone a caravan loaded with immense treasure.

And even if it wasn’t… why go to a totally unknown destination (at the time no one knew what was “across the ocean” and how far away it was) when there were at least two perfectly safe places for Templars in Europe: Scotland and Portugal.

And, last but not the least, there is not a shred of evidence that Templars landed in the New World – in North, Central or South America.

[RolandVT]

This particular myth is so messy that getting to the bottom of it is (almost) an exercise in futility. Like most of the myths and legends, this myth is rooted in irrefutable historical facts… unfortunately, it does not help much.

The facts are as follows. The timelines of Cathars and Templars overlapped for about a century (1150s – 1240s); both were religious organizations based in France; both were accused of heresy (Cathars correctly; Templars not so much); both were ruthlessly destroyed by the Church and French kings; leaders of both were burned alive… and both were highly mysterious organizations (their histories raise far more questions than provide answers).

Oh, and both were perceived (both incorrectly) as secret occult societies linked to the legend of Holy Grail (Holy Chalice). Actually, it was this perception that linked these two in… well, not exactly healthy minds of various occultists, esotericists and wild and weird conspiracy theorists.

These folks (particularly in France – no surprise here) began to connect the Templars and Grail to the Cathars in the early 20th century. However, the tight connection of all three was made in the 1930s by a German.

Beginning in 1933, German medievalist, Ariosophist and writer of… well, fiction pretending to be non- Otto Rahn published a series of books tying the Grail, Templars, and Cathars to modern German nationalist mythology (!!).

It was a pure nonsense, of course, but it was the kind of nonsense that was very much liked by the Nazis (especially the SS). So much liked that no other than SS-Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler sponsored Rahn’s search for the Holy Grail. Endeavor predictably failed – and Rahn committed suicide (or was murdered).

In his books, Rahn presented Templars as mystics, occultists, the enemies of the Church and friends of Cathars… none of that was true. Although the Templars did not take part in the crusade against Cathars (they were too busy fighting Muslims in the Holy Land and in Spain), they would have either killed any Cathar – or turn him or her to Holy Inquisition to be burned at the stake.

For Templars were firmly on the side of the Church – and so for them Cathars were even worse enemies than the Saracens (because the former betrayed Christ, in their not-humble-at-all opinion).

[RolandVT]

French inquisitors accused the Templars of quite a few really weird religious practices (such as worshipping Baphomet, for example) and of being not as much secret (although it did have a totally secret component – Ark Templar – of which existence inquisitors had no clue) as secretive.

Hence, it is not surprising at all that at some point (albeit centuries after their demise), Knights Templar began to be perceived as a secret esoteric (if not outright occult) society dedicated to mystical knowledge and relics such as Holy Grail. Some esotericists even claimed that the latter was not a physical object at all, but a symbol of the secret knowledge that the Templars allegedly sought.

Reality – as if often happens – was nothing of the sort. First, Knights Templar were anything but secretive. Witness statements demonstrated that outsiders were regularly invited into Templar houses and chapels, and that the Templars were happy to chat, gossip or to engage in business just like other men.

Testimonies at their trials demonstrate that, far from being secretive, the Templars were in close contact with other parts of society and led a far more sociable existence than one might expect from monks.

Outsiders such as other members of the local community and servants could attend mass at the Temple churches and their chapels were open to the outsiders except during special occasions.

Contrary to charges against them, admission ceremonies to the order were anything but secret – they seem to have been joyful family celebrations (open to outsiders) rather than sinister occult occasions.

But the most powerful evidence that refutes the “occult” claim are the inventories of Templar possessions seized by King’s men on October 13th, 1307. As the Templars had no warning of their impending arrests or thorough searches of their living quarters, they had no time to hide or throw away anything.

To a great surprise of inquisitors, no occult/esoteric (or heretical) books, documents or objects (let alone idols) were found. None at all. There was no hint of any occult activities or pursuit of a secret/occult/esoteric knowledge or worship. All books & objects were surprisingly Catholic – and in excellent condition.

Which proves beyond the reasonable doubt that Templars were NOT an occult society, but a regular, Catholic, Christian, military-religious order. And the Ark Templar religion was a Unitarian (Arian) Christian heresy without a hint of any occult/esoteric influence (let alone component).

[RolandVT]

Knights Templar was a highly mysterious organization – still is – so there is no shortage of myths and legends about the order of Templars. One of the most weird myths is of Templars… secretly converting to Islam. Or at least incorporating Islamic ideas into their belief system (which made the latter a heresy).

However, this myth is far more complicated than it might seem at first glance. First and foremost, because it originated right after Templar trials when the accusations and testimonies of Templars became public knowledge.

One of the key charges against Templars was worshipping the idol that inquisitors called Baphomet. Like just about all charges, this idol was invented by French prosecutors of Templars… however, its name was a deliberate distortion of Mahomet (that’s how Christians called the founder of Islam).

Inquisitors never accused Templars of converting to Islam… however, it is well-known that perceptions are the only reality. And the perceptions were… well, if the inquisitors accused the Templars of heresy and of worshipping idol called Baphomet (which in some minds is the same as Mahomet) … then Templars surely were “secret Muslims”.

Muslims because at that time they were perceived by Christians as either heretics (correctly as Islam is essentially a Unitarian-Arian Christian heresy) or idol-worshippers (incorrectly).

The latter perception was quite common in medieval times – many Christians believed that Muslims were idolatrous (wrong) and worshipped Muhammad as a god (wrong again), with Mahomet becoming mammet in English, meaning an idol or false god.

True, some of Templars (12 out of 25,000) were the followers of a Unitarian-Arian Christian heresy… but it had it roots in Old Testament, not Islam. Besides, it was absolutely unique as it was centered around the Ark of the Covenant.

All other Templars were devoted Catholic Christians who were fighting religious war with the Muslims. Which automatically precluded them from incorporating even a tiny bit of the religion of their adversaries into their belief system.

Ditto for the followers of Ark Templar who were firmly on the side of Catholic Church and Jesus Christ in this religious war – which made them no different from their Catholic brothers.

[RolandVT]

One of the most widespread and persistent myths about Knights Templar is that Friday the 13th became an especially unlucky day after all Templars in France were rounded up on Friday, October 13th.

The reality is different (as usual). The number 13 has been considered unlucky thousands of years before the destruction of Knights Templar. For starters, the Code of Hammurabi, one of the world’s oldest legal documents, for an unknown reason omitted a 13th rule from its list of laws. Ancient Sumerians, who believed the number 12 to be a “perfect” number, considered the one that followed it decidedly non-perfect.

It is believed that the number 13 is considered unlucky in the Bible because on this particular day, Eve gave Adam the forbidden fruit which eventually led to the supposed fall of mankind (Fall from Grace).

Another source mentioned for the unlucky reputation of the number 13 is a Norse myth about twelve gods having a dinner party in Valhalla. The trickster god Loki, who was not invited, arrived as the thirteenth guest, and arranged for Höðr, the god of darkness, to shoot Balder, the god of joy and gladness, with a mistletoe-tipped arrow. Balder died, triggering much suffering in the world, which caused the number 13 to be considered unlucky.

While there is evidence of both Friday and the number 13[8] being considered unlucky, there is no record of the two items being referred to as especially unlucky in conjunction before the 19th century – it was triggered by a 1834 play Les Finesses des Gribouilles.

However, it is mostly agreed that Paraskevidekatriaphobia (fear of Friday the 13th) was born in 1907, after the publication of the novel by Thomas W. Lawson’s novel, called ‘Friday, the Thirteenth’. The story revolves around the financial world and a Wall Street stock market crash that occurs on Friday the 13th.

So, it has nothing to do with Knights Templar… however, few realize how destructive this fear really is. In the USA alone, an estimated 21 million people in the United States are affected by it, making it the most feared day and date in history. Some people are so paralyzed by fear that they avoid their normal routines in doing business, taking flights or even getting out of bed. It has been estimated that about US$ 1 billion is lost in business on this day.

[RolandVT]

A very successful hoax, actually – one of the most successful (if not the most successful). It fooled many millions of common folks and dozens (if not hundreds) of supposedly professional historians.

It became the foundation of two mega-bestsellers (Holy Blood, Holy Grail and Da Vinci Code), dozens of other bestsellers, one blockbuster movie (Da Vinci Code) and the whole new genre (in books and movies) of “alternative religious history”.

Priory of Sion was not a complete hoax because it was a real organization. It was founded in France and dissolved in 1956 by Pierre Plantard in his failed attempt to create a prestigious neo-chivalric order. It was dissolved almost immediately after that… but it was only the beginning.

In the 1960s, Plantard began claiming that his self-styled order was the latest front for a secret society founded by crusading knight Godfrey of Bouillon, on Mount Zion in the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1099, under the guise of the monastic order of the Abbey of Our Lady of Mount Zion (the latter was real).

As a framework for his grandiose assertion of being both the Great Monarch prophesied by Nostradamus and a Merovingian pretender, Plantard further claimed the Priory of Sion was engaged in a centuries-long benevolent conspiracy to install a secret bloodline of the Merovingian dynasty on the thrones of France and the rest of Europe.

By itself, it was not enough – not by a long shot – to propel Priory of Sion and its founder to global fame… but to Plantard’s surprise, his astonishing claims were somehow fused with the notion of a Jesus bloodline.

The latter is a myth (all evidence points to exactly the opposite) that Jesus got married, had children and his bloodline (House of Jesus) has persisted, possibly even to the present time.

After attracting varying degrees of public attention from the late 1960s to the 1980s, the mythical history of the Priory of Sion was exposed as a hoax created by Plantard. However, many conspiracy theorists still believe that the Priory of Sion was a millennium-old cabal concealing a religiously subversive secret.

As part of the hoax, Plantard and his associates forged documents that alleged that… the Priory of Sion and the Knights Templar were two fronts of one organization with the same leadership until 1188. Obviously, it is pure fiction as there is no evidence that it was the case.

[RolandVT]

Rosslyn Chapel (actually, a full-size church building), also known as the Collegiate Chapel of Saint Matthew, is a 15th-century chapel (now Episcopal) located in the village of Roslin in Midlothian, Scotland.

The chapel was founded by William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness in 1456 (150 years after the demise of Templars which should have ended all stories of Templar connection right then and there). After the Scottish Reformation in 1560, it was largely abandoned but, following a visit by Queen Victoria, it was rededicated in 1862. It is still privately owned.

The interior contains some strange carvings which many historians have sought to interpret for a long time. They were unsuccessful, so it is not surprising that since the late 1980s, the chapel has been the subject of speculative theories that claim its connection with the Knights Templar, Freemasonry and even the Holy Grail. No historical evidence to support these speculations surfaced so far.

The key source of these legends is the long-sealed crypt which is suspected of being a front to an extensive subterranean vault containing the Holy Grail, the treasure of the Templars… or the original crown jewels of Scotland. There is no evidence that supports any of these claims.

One of the claims that became the basis for Rosslyn-Templar connection, was the assertion that layout of Rosslyn Chapel allegedly echoes that of Solomon’s Temple (First Temple).

However, if you superimpose the floor plans of Rosslyn Chapel and either Solomon’s Temple or Herod’s Temple, you will actually find that they are not even remotely similar.

In reality, the Rosslyn Chapel was a scaled-down imitation of Glasgow Cathedral (consecrated in 1197). If you superimpose the floor plans of Rosslyn Chapel and the East Quire of Glasgow Cathedral you will find a startling match: the four walls of both buildings fit precisely. Similarities do not end there – both have the same number of windows and the same number of pillars in the same configuration.

In short, the alleged between Rosslyn Chapel and the Templars is purely fictional: it was invented by Dan Brown in his mega-bestseller The Da Vinci Code (2003) and further popularized in its 2006 film adaptation.

The book and the movie generated enormous public interest in this alleged connection – so dozens of books (all de-facto fiction) were written to cater to the global demand for more information.

[RolandVT]

Château de Gisors is a castle in the town of Gisors (a little over 6o km northwest from the center of Paris) in the department of Eure, France. The castle was a key fortress of the Dukes of Normandy. It was intended to defend the Anglo-Norman Vexin territory from the King of France. Since 1862, the Château de Gisors has been recognized as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.

The only known connection between the Château de Gisors and Templars has nothing to wo with the alleged treasure of the latter: the castle became the final prison of the last Grand Master of the Order, Jacques de Molay, in 1314.

The Château de Gisors hoax (yes, it was a hoax) was the result of collaboration of three… well, fraudsters: Gérard de Sède (writer), Roger Lhomoy (tourist guide at the Château de Gisors) and – surprise, surprise – Pierre Plantard. So, in fact, Château de Gisors deception is a part of an (in)famous Priory of Sion hoax.

Géraud-Marie de Sède, baron de Liéoux was a French author (his books mostly promoted various Medieval conspiracy theories and alternative history) who at some point decided to become a farmer.

One of the workers that he hired was one Roger Lhomoy – the former tourist guide at the Château de Gisors nearby. Lhomoy claimed to have discovered under the tower donjon in March 1946, a secret entrance to a long basement thirty meters long, nine meters wide, and approximately four and a half meters high, saying it was a subterranean chapel dedicated to Saint Catherine.

He alleged it contained nineteen sarcophagi of stone, each two meters long and sixty centimeters wide, with 30 iron coffers arranged in columns of ten. Lhomoy said he was sure it was the treasure of the Knights Templar.

De Sède – always a journalist – immediately smelled money and fame and wrote a magazine article where he made those really wild claims public. This article (not surprisingly) caught the attention of Pierre Plantard.

Not surprisingly either, they collaborated on the book “The Templars are Amongst Us, or The Enigma of Gisors“, that was published in 1962, containing passing references to the Priory of Sion (definitely no surprise here).

The hoax was predictably exposed as one in 1964, when an official excavation Château de Gisors found no trace of what Lhomoy claimed was there. Lhomoy was finally dismissed as a liar… which pretty much put an end to all speculation about the alleged Templar treasure at Gisors.

[RolandVT]

Laon Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church located in the city of Laon, 137 km to the northeast of Paris. Completed in 1235, it is one of the oldest cathedrals in France. The church served as the cathedral of the Diocese of Laon until 1802, and has been recognized as a monument historique since 1840.

There is no documented connection between Laon Cathedral and the Templars; however, the latter were present in Laon since 1134 (100 years before the cathedral was completed) when Bishop of Laon helped the Templars to settle in the city.

The (really weird) theory about the connection between Laon Cathedral and the Templars was put forward by a German journalist (he specializes in mysteries of history) Tobias Wabbel in his book “The Templar Treasure: An Investigation”

In his book he claims (correctly) that The Templars found the Ark of the Covenant of the Israelites beneath the Temple Mount of Jerusalem and transported it to France (more precisely, in 1187 when the fall of Jerusalem became inevitable).

Then he claims that in France the Ark was first kept in Payns, in Clairvaux Abbey, then in Rome, St.-Denis, Chartres and, finally, in Laon. This is not true because the Ark was so valuable to Templars that they had to keep it in the safest possible place. Which was their European HQ in Paris, where it resides since 1187.

He claims that Baphomet is none other than the Ark of the Covenant. This is partially true as the inquisitors invented Baphomet on the basis or rumors about (some) Templars worshipped a magical object. Which was the Ark.

Then he claims that Chrétien de Troyes and Wolfram von Eschenbach included the Ark of the Covenant in encrypted form in the Grail stories Perceval and Parzival and thus that they knew that the Templars had the Ark.

This is total rubbish as letting this knowledge out of the circle of 12 members of the Ark Templar religion (a Unitarian/Arian heretical Christian sect) was tantamount to inviting the Inquisition into their religious ceremonies. Suicidal.

He claims that France’s Gothic cathedrals represent the Temple of Solomon. This claim was thoroughly debunked many, many times. Contrary to his other claims, the Holy of Holies of Ark Templar religion were located (obviously) in Templar HQ: in Jerusalem, Cyprus and Paris.

It is known that Adolf Hitler developed an incredible interest in Laon Cathedral. Hitler visited Laon (and the cathedral) after the fall of France in 1940. But why exactly he was interested and why he visited Laon, no one knows for sure.