The Great Heresy!

For as long as Christianity has existed, there have been heretics, and possibly even before Christianity existed, because there were already those who knew a damn site more about Jesus than Paul did, and they had formed there own church in Egypt. They consisted of, possibly some of the disciples, friends, family and associates of Jesus. You may well ask why the church formed by those individuals did not succeed where the Roman church was able. Well, in the main, the Egyptian church was a Jewish church which regarded Jesus as a prophet but a man neverthless, whereas the Roman church had deified Jesus Christ, elevating him to the position of the son of God. Did Jesus ever claim to be such, yes he did, but facing a stoning changed it to be "we are all the sons of God".

The new Roman church could not have a rival church, claiming a different "truth", and so heresy was born. Heretics were people who held the same beliefs, but may have held alternative views regarding scripture or religious doctrine. You only need to read Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose" to get a feel for how easy it was to be branded a heretic, where the issue of whether Jesus ever laughed takes on enormous significance. Of course it isn't enough that a heretic should burn to death for being a heretic, they must also confess their crimes under torture, and be tortured until they do confess, for confessing or not confessing, either way being accused of heresy was usually a death sentence.

Throughout the intervening centuries, the Roman church has purused relentlessly any sect or group which has threatened alternative concepts of Christianity, and especially where the enormous wealth of the Roman church was threatened. Any sect or cult proclaiming that poverty should be observed were dealt with most harshly.

With the arrival of "Witchcraft" in the Middle Ages, heresy took on a new meaning, as the Roman church had always despised women anyway, and because fear of the devil coupled with superstitious beliefs (especially among the peasantry) were very successful in drawing the masses into church. Over 1 million women are thought to have been executed for Witchcraft in the Middle Ages, most of whom were probably the victims of jealous neighbours.

Another major stop for the Roman church's blood frenzy was South America. When Cortes and his men saw the Aztec religion in action, it was not the sacrifices and violence that offended them, it was the striking similarity between the Aztec religion and Catholicism. That was the driving force for a purge of the Aztecs, it was clearly heresy at its worst. Almost certainly, the priests in the retinue of Cortes would have made it immediately plain what they thought should be done about it.

The Sea Egg and the Family of Jesus

Dagobert was murdered! But even worse than that, he was betrayed by his father's chief minister Grimoald, who put his own son on the throne and sent Dagobert off to an Irish monastery at Slane. The ancestry of Dagobert seemed to be a very special one, descended from Merovee as he was. The name Merovee is in itself a curiosity, meaning "sea-egg" or "borne of the sea". The suggestion was that he had 2 fathers, the King and some sort of sea monster. However, deeper investigation indicates that Merovee was somehow closely associated with the sacred family of Jesus, by then firmly established in a Jewich enclave in the Languedoc. Many Jews had fled the Roman persecution to live in Southern France, where they even had their own royal family, which was widely accepted at the time to be descended from Jesus. Yes, even by the Cathoilc Church (however reluctantly). But, as time passed, Catholicism evolved into something which could not tolerate a religion founded on Jewish beliefs, subsiting within it's own domain. A series of punitive crusades would be required to get rid of these heretics who dared claim that Jesus was a man who had fathered children.

The demise of the Knights Templar

If you've read any of my posts thus far, which I doubt, you may have wondered why the site is called "The shroud of Jacques DeMolay". Well, you see, Jacques De Molay was the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, who in the 12th and 13th Century were world players in banking, finance, foreign travel etc. Unfortunately, come Friday 13th October 1307, having lost the Holy Land to the infidels, they had also aroused the jealousy of Phillip the Fair, King of France, who had the Pope (his cousin) denounce them as deviants and worse, heretics. Of course, Phillip just wanted the Templar treasure (not to mention getting rid of his massive debts to the Templars). He never found the treasure, and poor Jacques De Molay spent the next 5 years being tortured until he was finally burned to death in 1312. Part of his torture was being crucified, as one of the charges against the order was denouncing Christ, so his tormentors thought it just revenge. Now, as you might know, tests on the Turin shroud indicate it belonged to that precise period. No-one else was known to have been cruciofied at that time, so it's highly likely that it was the sheet on which Jacques De Molay was lain after he received that form of torture. And Phillip, he never got that treasure, and died 2 years after Jacques. However, for the treasure and the survival of the order, look no further than my own Scotland, where the King Robert the Bruce, who was excommunicat at the time would have accepted both readily.