After 700 Years The Knights Templar Get Public Reprieve (Though Sadly Their Holy War Continues)

http://www.dailymantra.com/2007/10/after_700_years_the_knights_te.html

by Nicole
Today the Vatican Secret Archives are releasing a 300-page volume entitled Processus contra Templario (Latin for "Trial against the Templars"), which includes a reproduction of a key document known as The Chinon Parchment, which formally absolves the Knights Templar of heresy. The Chinon Parchment had been “misplaced” by the Vatican for many years, and was rediscovered by Professor Barbara Frale, a medievalist at the Vatican’s Secret Archives in 2001.

The Templar Knights were born out of the free for all that was the First Crusade, a holy war launched in 1095 by Pope Urban II in an effort to unite the Christian world behind the Roman Catholic Church. With his Deus Vult (God wills it!) rallying cry in their ears, his coalition of willing Christians from all walks of life piled into the Middle East to seize the Muslim held Holy Lands.

Founded by French knight Hugues de Payens shortly after the Christian conquest of Jerusalem in 1099, the Templar Knights’ mission was to ensure the safe passage of the mass of European pilgrims heading east. They were named after the headquarters they were given by King Baldwin II of Jerusalem on Temple Mount, which is said to be the site of the Temple of Solomon. This location was, in part, what gave rise to the various legends (as portrayed in the book Da Vinci Code) that the Templars were guardians of hallowed relics such as The Holy Grail and The Ark of Covenant (which proved to be as elusive as WMDs).

After the Templars were endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church in 1129 the organization’s size and wealth increased dramatically. They were the charity du jour amongst the European nobility. The Templars ventured into banking and financial management; issuing an early form of traveler's checks to nobility who didn’t want to tempt thieves by traveling to the Holy Lands with their wealth in their pockets. By developing such an infrastructure, the Templars amassed unprecedented power and wealth, which ultimately lead to the organization's downfall.

In 1187 Jerusalem was captured by Saladin, the Muslim Sultan of Egypt who was widely admired, even in the Christian world, for his chivalry, a concept the Templar Knights brought back to Europe. After more than a century of skirmishes, the Templars lost their final foothold in the Holy Lands in 1303, and with it their fundamental purpose. Their infrastructure in Europe remained, and as the continent’s leading bankers they loaned King Philip IV of France money for his war with England –– money the spendthrift monarch had no hope of repaying. Seizing on rumor and innuendo centered around the monastic military order's slightly bizarre initiation rituals, which included spitting on a cross, on Friday October 13th, 1307 the King issued orders to arrest Templar Grand Master Jacques de Molay and his fellow knights. Charged with heresy, among other things, they were tortured, and false confessions were extorted.

On March 8th 1314 de Molay was burnt at the stake in Paris. Legend has it that he cursed the King and Pope as he died in the flames, saying they would both meet him soon before God. Pope Clement and King Philip both died within a year, on April 20th and November 29th 1314 respectively. However, in the Chinon Parchment dated August 17–20, 1308, Pope Clement V recognized that the Templars were not guilty of the heresies they were charged with, and secretly pardoned the knights and their leader de Moley, “restoring him to unity with the Church and reinstating him to communion of the faithful and sacraments of the Church."

“Simply put, the pope recognized that they were not heretics but guilty of many other minor crimes -- such as abuses, violence and sinful acts within the order," says Frale in a Telegraph article. “For 700 years we have believed that the Templars died as cursed men, and this absolves them.”

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