| From: | Martin Steffens <chimerae@***.IE> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Templars [was: Awakened Greece and Ancient Civilization] |
| Date: | Fri, 4 Sep 1998 12:12:37 +0000 |
> >This is of course where someone is going to mention that fabled
> >prophesy that Jacques de Molay did just before he was burned. I'll
> >bite, I've got a reputation to maintain anyway :)
>
> I was wondering how long it would take...
Well I waited almost 7 hours before replying :P
> >He predicted that within the year of his death (1314) the king, the
> >pope, and the king's chancellor (forgot his name, but he was
> >responsible for executing the whole plan) would die too. And suprise,
> >suprise, they all kicked the bucket within the year.
> And all from natural causes. Apparently the pope wasn't in very good
> health anyway and Philip died of an aneurysm.
All Phillippe's sons died pretty young too. But note I said "Fabled",
most historians agree that that prophesy part was added later,
after de Molay was burned.
> The Templars did have a lot of friends; not enough, but still lots. Plenty
> of Templars received advanced warning, enough so that the portable wealth
> could be hidden. Some decided to, at least figuratively, fall upon their
> sword, other's bailed out, some couldn't believe it.
> Which was mostly "huge tracts of land!" which of course meant great wealth
> anyways.
Which was tax-free! The whole process took over five years. Any
banker worth his job can move away the possessions in the meantime.
There have been some reports made by locals at that time that carts
drove away in the night and Templar ships departing France
after being loaded with an unidentified cargo.
But I think that most of the goodies together with a lot of
ex-Templars went to the Hospitallers, who were rivals of the Templars
for a long time. Those Hospitallers were later known as the Knights
of Rhodos and later Malta by virtue of defending those places for
some time.
> I think it was larger than that, but they did wield tremendous "temporal"
> power both politically and militarilly. Almost certainly the best army, in
> training and gear, at the hight of their power.
Yes, it was actually bigger. I checked and it was estimated that
there was a force of 2000 knights in France alone. How many
sarjeants (light cavalry) and retainers (foot soldiers) that adds to
the whole picture I cannot tell but it probably puts it around
10-15,000 at least.
> Um...not necessarily. It's a strong suspicion that the Scottish Templars
> helped to found the Freemason. The Rosicrucians seem to have existed in
> pure fiction years before any organization of that name really was formed.
> At the time of their founding, anyway, it was "cool" to be a member of
> these groups and they were springing up everywhere.
Damn, last time I trust someone without checking the sources myself.
You're right, it's nothing more than a bunch of doubtfull links to
the Templars without any real basis. The Portuguese Templars continued
as "The Knights of Christ" and in Spain as the "Aragonese Order of
Montesa" and as "The Knights of Christ".
The Templars do fit the "racism" theory from a week ago perfectly
btw: The were very rich, powerful, secretive, formed a sub-culture,
and could do things others couldn't (banking). It was just a matter
of time before someone would take them down, and when their protector
the church displayed signs of weakness, someone did take them down.
Martin Steffens
chimerae@***.ie
