Sadat Hussain Rafsanjani :
The Knight Templar was a medieval organisation that lasted nearly for two centuries. They were the most influential and powerful organization ever existed in the Europe during the middle ages. Not because of only power, they were once considered the most financially enriched order thus some scholars consider the Knight Templar was the first banking organisation of the central Europe. Born to be the savior of Christianity and sworn to devote their life deprived of all enjoyment the templar suddenly emerged as the dominant force of western and central Europe and became the owner of vast fortune, riches, lands and money.
But suddenly the order became notorious for practicing devil worship, accused of blasphemy, sodomy. And then they were vanished all on a sudden from the history mysteriously.
Knight Templar was first born after the war of first crusade. Muslims entered Jerusalem at 637 AD. One thing they bought to the holy land was peace. At that time, the Western Europe was mostly ruled by the Christians. Pope Urban II hit upon a plan to extend the Christian territories and ordered to invade the holy land, now the capital of Israel, Jerusalem, on November 27, 1095. He calls for a large army formation. He promised that the criminals who would join the war will be waived of all their charges. By the July of 1099 AD a large army stormed Jerusalem and finally they managed to capture the holy land. In the process of capturing the city the army slaughtered both Muslims and Jews. As they established Kingdom of Jerusalem, they choose a new king. Further they captured two more territories. The western Christians began to send pilgrims to the holy land. In 1118 AD a third king was chosen named Baldwin II. He was approached by a French nobleman named Hugues de Payens to form a team of man to protect the pilgrims visiting the holy land from the west lands. After being granted by the king, Hugues de Payens collected eight of his relatives who were the crusaders and formed a team. They took the vow to protect the pilgrims at any cost. They also sworn to never get married, never possesses any wealth and never form any blood ties. They were permitted to stay at the Al-Aqsa Mosques, commonly referred as the original place where temple of Solomon was established, which later became their head quarter. Therefore these nine men were named, the poor fellow soldiers of the Christ and the Temple of Solomon.
The templar were common monks, they used to say prayers seven times a day on the other hand they were trained in the arts of war. It is said that in this period of time, the templar found some sort of historical relic beneath the temple or Al-Aqsa mosques that later proved to be the greatest fortune of the order. Some says that they found some hidden treasure; some says it was Holy Grail. According to a medieval script, the knight found the ark of covenant or a true piece of cross that was used to crucified prophet Isa or Jesus Christ. In 1867, a British archaeology team discovered a hidden tunnel beneath the Al-Aqsa mosque to Dome of Rock, another mosque. Some also said that, the main attempt was to rebuild the temple of Solomon by the templar.
The organization was officially sanctioned in 1129 AD and became a very important part of Christian community. As soon as they got recognition, the Knight Templar began to raise fund, recruit man from noble families, and ask for lands. There were some prerequisites to join the order. The man must be a former crusader or born of a crusader family, must come from a noble family and give up all the wealth he possesses to the order. They also had sworn to fight for Christianity. To them, martyrdom was the most precious thing. Their main motto was a small force can take on a larger force under the right condition.
Knight Templar had total 72 codes of conducts, devised by the founding father Hugues de Payens and Bernard de Clairvaux. These rules are sometimes referred as Latin rules. They had every type of codes including how to eat and how to behave. A templar can eat meat only three times a week, they must eat in silence. They were not allowed to contact physically with any women whether family members or outsiders. They used to wear a specific type of white coat and a white mantle. A red cross is inscribed on the garment, depicting the sign of martyrdom. Some used to grow long beard. There were certain rank systems in the Knight Templar. A master was allowed to possess four horses. He was assigned one chaplain brother and a clerk with three horses, a sergeant with two horses and a valet who would carry his shield and lance with one horse.
Templar was good sailors. During the reign of Jerusalem they mastered mathematics, geometry and collected many world maps. They tried to extend the brotherhood through sea. Even explorer like Vasco de Gama and Christopher Columbus were knight. They started to give loans. They would charge a decent amount of money from the travelers to the holy land. Even King John of England loaned from them from 1260 to 1266. King Henry III of England was funded by them too, heavily. Pope Innocent II granted them to construct new churches throughout the Europe and they started to build churches with Gothic architecture. In this way they became the owner of many castles.
But some time later internal conflicts and aggressive Muslim invading army started to weaken the templar. As a result, in 1186 they were defeated by the Muslims. So the templar decided to fall back. On the other hand King Richard I, also called lion heart although he murdered 3000 Muslims mercilessly, formed an ally with templar. He sold the island Cyprus to the templar.
The templar started to realize that the organization is on the verge of extinction. On the other hand many of them already became isolated from each other. King Fillip IV of France and Pope Clement V called upon a meeting. They demanded to merge the templar to merge them with other forces. But the real intention was something else. King Fillip was loaned heavily from the templar. So he decided to arrest the all templar leaders in the pretence of gathering them all in Paris. In 1307, templar arrived in Paris. On October 1307, Friday the 13 king Fillip ordered to arrest Knight Templar on the charge of total 123 charges. Templar were arrested, jailed and tortured vehemently for the next five years. Total 138 were questioned. Among them 105 confessed that they denied Jesus Christ, 103 confessed they performed obscene kiss during initiation ritual, 123 confessed they spat on the cross. Many of them were accused of worshipping the goat head commonly called Baphomet for 100 years, symbol of Satan. This claim was later disputed when a scholar named Dr Hugh Schonfield applied a Hebrew substitution ciphering technique called Atbash cipher on the word Baphomet. The deciphered word was Sophia, Greek word for wisdom. According to the Gnostic gospel, Sophia was a Greek goddess. According to the gospel, Sophia is the creator the world. But Church banned these gospels. Gospels were 52 ancient texts based on the teachings of spiritual leaders. Other implied that they worshipped the severed head of John the Baptist. Some said that, the templar were tortured in vicious manner like hanging both hands from ceiling until the shoulder dislocates that forced them to confess such crime. They were charged with homosexuality and references are made to their seal where two knights are riding a same horse. The last grand master of the templar was Jacques de Molay denied all the charges in front of a public trial. But as ill luck would have it, he was burned alive on March 18, 1314, an incident commonly called by the term burned at stake. He cursed the Pope and king that they would soon die for their sin. King Fillip died that year November. Later pope Clement also died.
But no all the templar were arrested. Some said many of them joined other forces; many of them just simply vanished from the scene with their vast fortune. Only the templar who were in England or France were arrested. Bur rest of them suddenly vanished from the history. Many said that the followers and templar who evaded the arrest went to Scotland and established a new life. Some of them choose different livelihood as carpenters and some went to farming. But they maintained a strong tie between themselves underneath. Many years later they established a new brotherhood called freemason that resembles many things with the Knight Templar.
Some also says the Rosslyn Chapel established in 15th century was also the mark of knights because the architectural arts resemble many things common with the order. The chapel was established 150 years after the discontinuation of Knight Templar.
The gothic architecture, pagan symbols and marks like two riders riding a same horse became the matter of dispute in the early 1980s. Many tried to connect the chapel with other structures commonly found in Europe constructed by Knight Templar. But most of them were debunked later. n
The Knight Templar was a medieval organisation that lasted nearly for two centuries. They were the most influential and powerful organization ever existed in the Europe during the middle ages. Not because of only power, they were once considered the most financially enriched order thus some scholars consider the Knight Templar was the first banking organisation of the central Europe. Born to be the savior of Christianity and sworn to devote their life deprived of all enjoyment the templar suddenly emerged as the dominant force of western and central Europe and became the owner of vast fortune, riches, lands and money.
But suddenly the order became notorious for practicing devil worship, accused of blasphemy, sodomy. And then they were vanished all on a sudden from the history mysteriously.
Knight Templar was first born after the war of first crusade. Muslims entered Jerusalem at 637 AD. One thing they bought to the holy land was peace. At that time, the Western Europe was mostly ruled by the Christians. Pope Urban II hit upon a plan to extend the Christian territories and ordered to invade the holy land, now the capital of Israel, Jerusalem, on November 27, 1095. He calls for a large army formation. He promised that the criminals who would join the war will be waived of all their charges. By the July of 1099 AD a large army stormed Jerusalem and finally they managed to capture the holy land. In the process of capturing the city the army slaughtered both Muslims and Jews. As they established Kingdom of Jerusalem, they choose a new king. Further they captured two more territories. The western Christians began to send pilgrims to the holy land. In 1118 AD a third king was chosen named Baldwin II. He was approached by a French nobleman named Hugues de Payens to form a team of man to protect the pilgrims visiting the holy land from the west lands. After being granted by the king, Hugues de Payens collected eight of his relatives who were the crusaders and formed a team. They took the vow to protect the pilgrims at any cost. They also sworn to never get married, never possesses any wealth and never form any blood ties. They were permitted to stay at the Al-Aqsa Mosques, commonly referred as the original place where temple of Solomon was established, which later became their head quarter. Therefore these nine men were named, the poor fellow soldiers of the Christ and the Temple of Solomon.
The templar were common monks, they used to say prayers seven times a day on the other hand they were trained in the arts of war. It is said that in this period of time, the templar found some sort of historical relic beneath the temple or Al-Aqsa mosques that later proved to be the greatest fortune of the order. Some says that they found some hidden treasure; some says it was Holy Grail. According to a medieval script, the knight found the ark of covenant or a true piece of cross that was used to crucified prophet Isa or Jesus Christ. In 1867, a British archaeology team discovered a hidden tunnel beneath the Al-Aqsa mosque to Dome of Rock, another mosque. Some also said that, the main attempt was to rebuild the temple of Solomon by the templar.
The organization was officially sanctioned in 1129 AD and became a very important part of Christian community. As soon as they got recognition, the Knight Templar began to raise fund, recruit man from noble families, and ask for lands. There were some prerequisites to join the order. The man must be a former crusader or born of a crusader family, must come from a noble family and give up all the wealth he possesses to the order. They also had sworn to fight for Christianity. To them, martyrdom was the most precious thing. Their main motto was a small force can take on a larger force under the right condition.
Knight Templar had total 72 codes of conducts, devised by the founding father Hugues de Payens and Bernard de Clairvaux. These rules are sometimes referred as Latin rules. They had every type of codes including how to eat and how to behave. A templar can eat meat only three times a week, they must eat in silence. They were not allowed to contact physically with any women whether family members or outsiders. They used to wear a specific type of white coat and a white mantle. A red cross is inscribed on the garment, depicting the sign of martyrdom. Some used to grow long beard. There were certain rank systems in the Knight Templar. A master was allowed to possess four horses. He was assigned one chaplain brother and a clerk with three horses, a sergeant with two horses and a valet who would carry his shield and lance with one horse.
Templar was good sailors. During the reign of Jerusalem they mastered mathematics, geometry and collected many world maps. They tried to extend the brotherhood through sea. Even explorer like Vasco de Gama and Christopher Columbus were knight. They started to give loans. They would charge a decent amount of money from the travelers to the holy land. Even King John of England loaned from them from 1260 to 1266. King Henry III of England was funded by them too, heavily. Pope Innocent II granted them to construct new churches throughout the Europe and they started to build churches with Gothic architecture. In this way they became the owner of many castles.
But some time later internal conflicts and aggressive Muslim invading army started to weaken the templar. As a result, in 1186 they were defeated by the Muslims. So the templar decided to fall back. On the other hand King Richard I, also called lion heart although he murdered 3000 Muslims mercilessly, formed an ally with templar. He sold the island Cyprus to the templar.
The templar started to realize that the organization is on the verge of extinction. On the other hand many of them already became isolated from each other. King Fillip IV of France and Pope Clement V called upon a meeting. They demanded to merge the templar to merge them with other forces. But the real intention was something else. King Fillip was loaned heavily from the templar. So he decided to arrest the all templar leaders in the pretence of gathering them all in Paris. In 1307, templar arrived in Paris. On October 1307, Friday the 13 king Fillip ordered to arrest Knight Templar on the charge of total 123 charges. Templar were arrested, jailed and tortured vehemently for the next five years. Total 138 were questioned. Among them 105 confessed that they denied Jesus Christ, 103 confessed they performed obscene kiss during initiation ritual, 123 confessed they spat on the cross. Many of them were accused of worshipping the goat head commonly called Baphomet for 100 years, symbol of Satan. This claim was later disputed when a scholar named Dr Hugh Schonfield applied a Hebrew substitution ciphering technique called Atbash cipher on the word Baphomet. The deciphered word was Sophia, Greek word for wisdom. According to the Gnostic gospel, Sophia was a Greek goddess. According to the gospel, Sophia is the creator the world. But Church banned these gospels. Gospels were 52 ancient texts based on the teachings of spiritual leaders. Other implied that they worshipped the severed head of John the Baptist. Some said that, the templar were tortured in vicious manner like hanging both hands from ceiling until the shoulder dislocates that forced them to confess such crime. They were charged with homosexuality and references are made to their seal where two knights are riding a same horse. The last grand master of the templar was Jacques de Molay denied all the charges in front of a public trial. But as ill luck would have it, he was burned alive on March 18, 1314, an incident commonly called by the term burned at stake. He cursed the Pope and king that they would soon die for their sin. King Fillip died that year November. Later pope Clement also died.
But no all the templar were arrested. Some said many of them joined other forces; many of them just simply vanished from the scene with their vast fortune. Only the templar who were in England or France were arrested. Bur rest of them suddenly vanished from the history. Many said that the followers and templar who evaded the arrest went to Scotland and established a new life. Some of them choose different livelihood as carpenters and some went to farming. But they maintained a strong tie between themselves underneath. Many years later they established a new brotherhood called freemason that resembles many things with the Knight Templar.
Some also says the Rosslyn Chapel established in 15th century was also the mark of knights because the architectural arts resemble many things common with the order. The chapel was established 150 years after the discontinuation of Knight Templar.
The gothic architecture, pagan symbols and marks like two riders riding a same horse became the matter of dispute in the early 1980s. Many tried to connect the chapel with other structures commonly found in Europe constructed by Knight Templar. But most of them were debunked later. n
