I’ve always had a bit of an interest in the Knights Templar. Not enough to study them in depth, but I’ve read some articles about them. It was on this day, January 13, in the year 1128, that Pope Honorius II made a big announcement about this military group. He called them an “Army of God.” He even granted them a papal sanction. Papal Authority, I suppose. I guess they were given clearance to defend and kill with the Pope’s big-hat blessing.
There were not too many of them when they started. Only nine knights. Their fearless leader was a French guy named Hughes de Payens. The Knights Templar organization had been around already for ten years by the time they were sanctioned by the Pope. (They were founded in 1118). The Knights made it their own little mission to protect Christian pilgrims on their way to and from the Holy Land during the Crusades. But they had a big heaping side order of wanting to defeat the Muslims in Palestine, truth be told.
Like I mentioned, for a while, the Templars had only nine members. This resulted because they had a bunch of rigid rules. If I read a book about them, I’d probably find out what the rules were. Like what? Helping with the dishes? No peeing indoors? Keeping your armor shiny? I don’t know. But for those first years, they had to take strict vows of poverty, obedience and chastity.
Then, in 1127, things loosened up. And a whole bunch more noblemen signed up to join the order. They got bigger. More influential. Their guys were supposed to be vowing poverty, but they were getting money now. And on. I’m not sure about the sex thing.
Anyway, by the time the Crusades ended, the Knights were ultra-wealthy. Loads of cash-ola. Benjamins out the yang. Well, not Bennies, because the United States wasn’t even invented back then, so there were no stacks of $100 bills. But you know, they had gold and jewels. Bling. People had paid them loads of money over the past two centuries, and they were good at keeping it.
And because they were so rich? The people of both religious power and secular power were jealous. In 1307, King Philip IV of France and Pope Clement V shook hands on the deal. They set out to take down the Knights Templar. Phil arrested the grand master, Jacques de Molay. He was charged with a bunch of bad deeds, including heresy, sacrilege and Satanism. They tortured Molay and a bunch of other Templars. Many were burned at the stake. And Clement dissolved the Templars in 1312.
Most of their treasure was never recovered. And there are a lot of myths, legends, stories that have been passed down about those Templars. About them discovering holy relics at Temple Mount. Well, more than just little relics. We are talking about the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant or parts of the cross from Christ’s crucifixion. The whole Da Vinci Code thing poked around in at these histories. And of course, the Freemasons are associated with all of this. Curiously.
So, today’s anniversary is when they got their papal blessing and distinction. But that same church put a “hit” on them a couple hundred years later. It is kind of like the old version of someone “Unfriending” you on Facebook. At least on Facebook, there is no burning at the stake.
Speaking of burning steaks. Do you know who cooked all the food for the Knights Templar?
Sir Loin.
Sorry. I was joust joking.
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“In the end you should always do the right thing even if it’s hard.”
― Nicholas Sparks, The Last Song
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“We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives,
Who thinks most, feels noblest, acts the best.”
― Philip James Bailey, Festus: A Poem
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“To do good is noble. To tell others to do good is even nobler and much less trouble.”
― Mark Twain
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