Monday 16 November 2009

Idolaters and Sodomites; the end of the Knights Templar


The real point, I think, to hold in mind with regard to the Templars and the other crusading military orders of the day is that they had, by the time of Philip the Fair, King of France, been 'weighed in the balance and found wanting.' Philip was the first to accuse the Templars as being practitioners of magic, sodomy and other sexual vices, though this was really no more than a standard charge leveled against all heretics at the time; he was even to make similar accusations against the Pope himself!

The wealth of the Templars was certainly a temptation. Far more important, though, was the fact that they had, by 1307, really served their purpose. Moreover, while Philip's accusations are clearly ludicrous, the Templars had been guilty of some long-standing abuses, abuses that were widely recognised, and resented. For one thing they had legal privileges not granted to others; and for another they were wealthy, though they continually pleaded poverty. Matthew Paris, the chronicler, noted in 1245 that "The Templars and Hospitallers receive so much income from the whole of Christendom, and, only for defending the Holy Land, swallow down such great revenues as if they sink them into the gulf of the abyss."

The greatest offence of the military orders, though, was that of pride. Jealous of one another, it was thought that their chief energies were expended in mutual hostilities, rather than against the Saracens. In Renart le Nouvel, a satire of 1289, Jacquemart Gelee, makes fun of the competition between the Templars and the Hospitallers in trying to recruit Renart the Fox. More seriously, Pope Nicholas IV suggested that their quarrels had contributed to the fall of Acre in 1291, the last fragment of the Holy Land still in the hands of the Crusaders. Some even went so far as to suggest that the military orders were unwilling to fight the Saracens because they were secretly in alliance with them.

So, by the time that Philip decided to act in 1307 the orders were no longer highly regarded, with few powerful friends. So, why the Templars and not the Hospitallers? Quite simply because they had long promoted themselves as the greatest of the orders, the first in the ranks of the defence of Christendom. But in the accounts of the fall of Acre it is they who come off worst, more interested in saving their treasure than in fighting the enemy. Their fall was the price of wealth; it was also the price of failure.


10 comments:

  1. Didn't Phillip also owe them large sums of money? I am sure that his resulting actions were just a coincidence though....

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  2. I believe he did, Wildgoose. He was certainly after their loot, though. :-)

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  3. Hi Anastasia

    Congrats on your blog - beautifully crafted and laid out. You would be perfect to contribute to www.bookdrum.com, where you can add information, images, video, music and links to illustrate and explore favourite books.

    Right now, we're running a £2,000 Tournament and we'll be offering contract work to the best entries. Can we tempt you to enter with a classic history title?

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    Hector Macdonald
    Editor, Book Drum

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  4. That's just so kind of you, Hector; I'm really flattered. I'm most awfully busy just at the present but I will certainly give your proposal some serious thought. :-) Thanks for the link. The site looks really good.

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  5. Hy Ana! Templars were certainely, more dangerious than the Hospitallers, because they had a lot of secret knowledge and were connected with masson's operative league.Hospitallers became the "Ordre de Malte"(Compassion) and the Templars, a beautiful tale of Devil's followers...

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  6. Hiya, Ortho. :-) Yes, that's true.

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  7. I've always been interested in the order of the Knights Templar. A fascinating movement.

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  8. hi Anas:
    because philippe iv (le bel) french king, had debt with Templar Knights, so he wanted to be in this Order to nullify the enormous debt due to the war with the English, the last Templar Knights Grand Master, Jacques de Molay knowing his intention, refused him, then the king trying to cooperate with his enemy, the greedy pope clement v to accuse them all the inquisition tribunal accused against the heretics of the idolatry, sodomy,profanation, black magic, black mass, to their once good followers, friends the Knights of Templar.
    When Jacques de Molay was burned at the stake on isle of Jew, on the Seine, philippe trying to find the Templar treasure and seized it was too late they already transported it from Paris underground sewage to the Templar's possession La Rochelle port and sail to Scotland the only kingdom in then Europe against the holy see then the fewer Clement v relatives lived in Provence was escaped in this Kingdom, then they was save tried get togheter with english and other Templars transformed it become Grand Orient in France to others the Franc-maçonnerie and
    become later on in worldwide the freemasonry or the masonic.
    As the hospitallers was clemen v accomplices against Templars it was rewarded the Cyprus and Malta islands and became Malta knight.
    The Templar treasure was in Scotland then the english invaded into
    this highland country the last Templars of Scottish or the new Templars
    have dispatched it to the Nova Scotia on the Oak Island.
    AS I am Mongolian, the french king phillipe le bel was an evil he treated the others with cynic manner, but to my ancesters he mannered as a dog begging for life made everything to satisfied the Mongols gave audiences to the Grand Khan's ambassadors receptions in palace.
    Prior to his death, Jacque de Molay, the last Grand Master of entire Templar Knights have cursed on pope clement and to phillipe then it was happened on the some year then it was the doom of the kingdom
    with the british the Hundred Year war because of no posterity to success the kingship of France all this because a greedy pope a lavish king.
    I appreciated very much what you have done to discover the dark side of the history, I studied the french history for years in Sorbonne University of Paris, and I am catholic for more than 800 years since 13th
    century in Mongolia converted from Shamanism,in Kharorin Karakorum then imperial capital of Mongol Empire now Ulan Bator UlaanBaatar by Giovanni da Monte Corvino,an Italian Franciscan missionary since then I am always aware of evil things done by the catholic Church for all past centuries, the Templars and the Teutonic Knights in Germany are the same fate of the faithful followers of the holy see, then it was no more useful then to get rid of by trial them by mean means of inquisition as for the so called pagans.



    Mongolian Black Head's Wolf, Mongolang II
    mongolang@gmail.com

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  9. Mongolang, what a superb contribution. Thank you so much for taking the time and the trouble.

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