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!

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!