Templar Trial Minutes Published!

Big news today for anyone holding an interest in the history of the Knights Templar. It seems that trial documents pertaining to the trials of the Knights Templar are to be published by the Vatican Secret Archives, having been allegedly discovered in 2001. Discovered, as it is purported that the documents had been misplaced somewhere among the vast archives of potentially explosive documents that the Vatican would rather were not made available for public consumption.

Quite why they've made this material available is a bit of a mystery, although apparently, it in some respects exhonerates the then Pope Clement V of his part in the sordid affair, demonstrating his opposition to King Phillip the Fair of France. King Phillip is largely regarded as the main instigator of the dissolution and elimination of the order. He owed them vast sums and was intensely jealous of their power and influence. What the documents probably won't address, and what will likely never be known, is what hold Phillip had over Pope Clement that enabled him to pressurise the Vatican into doing his bidding.

Don't think however, that you'll get your hands on a copy of these documents anytime soon. With a price tag of 5,900 Euros and as part of a limited edition set of 599 copies, the chances are that the lay historian (ie. the guys who get real results) will never get a hold of it. Anyway, the Vatican does as it pleases, so who's to know if this is all they have, partial, or far from complete. Working to their own agenda, odds are that they only released those documents which they see as being in some way likely to cast the Catholic faith in a good light. But we all know what atrocities they have committed or permitted to be committed in their name, in the distant and not so distant past. Their are some stains which will never wash away no matter how much time passes!

Unlocking the Templar Secret!

Any source on the Knights Templar would tell you that in all likelihood, the Knights Templar possessed some secret the magnitude of which was terrifying both to the Church and to Kings. There is no historical record of the existence of this "secret", but if you read between the lines of history, a secret plainly existed. The mere fact that they were permitted to operate outside of Papal jurisdcition ought to be enough to indicate that they had some powerful hold over the Church, but they were made exempt from all interdicts and their properties and revenues were made exempt from taxation.

Of course, historians could suggest that because of the order's noble cause and intentions, such entitlements could be explained. However, no other order ever received the generous accords handed to the Knights Templar, and the origins of the Knight Templar are most mysterious. The original 9 members of the order all held family connections with each other and spent several years camped out in what was formerly King Solomon's stables. There is a great deal to suggest that these men were directly descended from Jesus and that their families had waited a long time for their chance to return to Jerusalem. They may well have been looking for a specific item there. Much of the treasure (both types: of monetary value, and of sacred value) of the Jews had been hidden under the Temple Mount after the failure of the Jewish rebellion against the Romans. That the Knights excavated there is beyond question, what they found is a mystery.

However, after this initial period, as the Order decided to expand, they gained wealth and power at a phenomenal rate. Their prestige was enormous, but in real terms, they hadn't actually done anything visibly worthwhile up to that point. The Knights would go on to fight many valiant battles, although eventually losing the Holy Land, but I suspect that the later feats of the order were of little importance, as the order was only ever created as a front to gain access to the Temple Mount.

So what might the Knights have discovered? We can only speculate (and hundreds of books have), but whatever it was, had the power to rock Christianity to the core. We could assume, that they had been looking for conclusive proof that Jesus had married Mary Magdalene and had children with her (there is plenty evidence to support that idea, The Da Vinci Code is just the tip of the Iceberg). It is wuite possible, that the men who formed the initial group of knights were all directly descended from Jesus, and they knew it. Their families had been waiting hundreds of years to be able to return to Jerusalem and collect the evidence. They knew what the evidence consisted of and they knew fairly accurately where it was to be found.

But the story of the Knights Templar is just mystery upon mystery. If they then acquired this item or items, they must surely have threatened the church with it, in order to obtain the gratuitous liberties, which they did. But, I don't for one minute believe that the expansion of the order was their ultimate goal. Either they had a secondary goal dependant on achieving the first, or the discovery that they had made, had created this new goal. And this goal, whatever it was, required the powers granted by the church. This is a subject I may very well return to in the future!

Foucault's Key To the Templars Tribal Legacy!

Did I tell you already? I'm not sure... I'm reading Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. I'm actually almost at the end of it. As usual, I have been surprised by Eco's literary ability, he really demonstrates great depth of characterisation in his novels. His background research is also meticulous, as is his ability to tie seemingly unrelated subjects together with great ease.

Bizzarely enough, as you may have noticed, I have a slight interest in the Knights Templar, among other subjects, but I hadn't realised this book would focus on them to such an extent, so I have been pleasantly surprised. It actually deals with just about every secret or open society, you can think of. Add in a splash of European History and some dazzling characters, and you have a wonderful story. I hope the ending is going to be everything it's building up to be, not like "The Island Of the Day Before", which although superbly written, had a rather anti-climax of an ending.

So now I have another four books remaining to be read, the remainder of my literary purchases from during College time. I wasn't able to read them then, because the workload was just far too intense. Anyone who says their Degree was easy, is either:

1. A Liar
2. Barking Mad
3. Stephen Hawkings Love-child

I'm none of those unfortunately, so I had to work my ass off. These are the booking awaiting a read from my dusty bookcase:

• The Tribes Of Britain by David Miles
• Turning the Hiram Key by Robert Lomas
• The Tower by Valerio Massimo Mandredi
• The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry

Seems eclectic at first glance, but when I look again at the list I can see a common thread, but perhaps that's just my mindset right now from reading Foucault's Pendulum!

The Inherited Ritual of Modern Freemasonry!

What is known about the rituals of the Knights Templar? Very little really, we know what they were accused of when the order was condemned by Phillip the fair and the Pope Clement (who Phillip had in his pocket), but those accusations were probably largely spurious and so tell us nothing in effect. It had been suggested that the rituals of the Knights Templar were a precursor for modern Freemasonry, and that may well be the case, as there are several factors which commend the suggestion. Alternatively we must also consider the purported Operative guild origins of Freemasonry, an idea largely prevalent in England, and which may simply be a device whereby the Grand Lodge of England can claim that Freemasonry originated in that country (which clearly it didn't!).

The Knights Templar had 3 ordinary grades within the order: Squire, Sergeant and Knight, like the three degress in Freemasonry: Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft amd Master Mason. But these can be equally equated to the traditional craft roles of: Apprentice, Journeyman and Master.

But why stop with the Knights Templar, where did their rituals originate? surely the subject matter of Masonic rituals is Old Testament anyway, so why not look further back? The Knights Templar were accused of including in their rituals, certain practices which were akin to Catharism, which in turn had inherited those ideas from earlier Gnosticism, which leads us back to Jesus. But surely Jesus wasn't a Freemason I hear you say? Hmmm, well the raising of Lazarus from the dead seems decidedly like the ritual of the 3rd Degree in modern Freemasonry, when viewed subjectively, and Jesus own resurrection was essentially the same ritual again.

Following the route back through Jesus who had connections with several fairly diverse sects, a path can be traced back to the Israelite exodus from Egypt, led by Moses who had been initiated into the secrets of the Egyptian High Priests. Safe to say, that Moses took what he had learned and adapted it into something new and unique, but surely much of the secret rituals he had learned would have been preserved by him and practised within the High Priesthood of the new Judaic religion.

So, it's possible to conclude that elements of sacred ritual have been preserved since ancient times and permeated down through the ages till the present day. The modern rituals have probably lost all of the substance and intent which was implied originally, having been distilled down to a fraction of the original and adapted to suit many differnt agendas, but a clear lineage is a possibility!

A Voyage of Discovery!

The discovery of the Americas by Columbus in 1492, is widely accepted as historical fact. Of course, the indigenous peoples of the Americas are testimony to the fact that the Americas were discovered a long time before that, although of course Europeans then (and many still today) regarded Non-Europeans with scant regard, and as little more than savages.

The fact is though, the discovery by Columbus was a re-discovery really, for there is a great deal of evidence to suggest that the Americas have been discovered numerous times, by a variety of civilizations. The voyage of Leif Erikkson to Vinland around 1000 A.D. has found proof in the discovery of Norse settlement remains at L'Anse Aux Meadows, Newfoundland. The Norse sagas recounting their skirmishes with the "Skrellings", the native American Indians, is additionally compelling.

But what of other visits to the American shores?, well there is evidence to suggest that Columbus had sufficient evidence, gleaned from previous reorded visits, to convince him that the Americas existed. He may well have possessed a map as well. In 1396, Henry Sinclair, Earl of Orkney and Earl of Roslin (hmmmm), accompanied by some members of the Zeno family from Venice, set sail for North America, using the same sailing methods employed by the Vikings almost 400 years before, which of course would have been well known to the Sinclairs, who were descended from Norse royal stock. The Templar Tower at Newport in Nova Scotia, along with templar graves there, must have been left as reminders of the voyage. It must be remembered that the legends of the Miqmaq Indians also recall their meetings with these knights, in which there was no violence this time around.

Another reminder however was the Zeno narrative, a map, of which a copy may eventually have made its way into Columbus' hands. This combined with Columbus' visit to Iceland in 1477 suggest that he was amassing evidence on the existence of the Americas in advance of his triumphant voyage where he would claim he had been the discoverer.

Other possible early claimants to an American voyage of discovery are:

• The Welsh Prince Madoc in 1170
• St. Brendan, a 6th Century Irish Monk
• Possible earlier visits to the Americas by Chinese, Egyptians, Phoenicians and many other races.

There is also plenty evidence to suggest that peoples from the Americas crossed the Atlantic many times in the past, often to a less than friendly welcome, but you'll just have to look for details of those encounters yourself!