each province they had idols, namely heads... Item, that they adored these idols .. .
Item, that they said that the head could save them. Item, that lit could] make riches .. . Item, that it made the trees flower. Item, that it made the land germinate. Item, that they surrounded or touched each head of the aforesaid idols with small cords, which they wore around themselves next to the shirt or the flesh .24
The cord mentioned in the last item is reminiscent of the Cathars, who were also alleged to have worn a sacred cord of some kind. But most striking in the list is the head’s purported capacity to engender riches, make trees flower and bring fertility to the land.
These properties coincide remarkably with those ascribed in the romances to the Holy Grail.
Of all the charges levelled against the Templars, the most serious were those of blasphemy and heresy of denying, trampling and spitting on the cross. It is not clear precisely what this alleged ritual was intended to signify -what, in other words, the Templars were actually repudiating. Were they repudiating Christ? Or were they simply repudiating the Crucifixion?
And whatever they repudiated, what exactly did they extol in its stead?
- 73 -
No one has satisfactorily answered these questions, but it seems clear that a repudiation of some sort did occur, and was an integral principle of the
Order. One knight, for example, testified that on his induction into the
Order he was told, “You believe wrongly, because he [Christ] is indeed a false prophet. Believe only in God in heaven, and not in him.”zs Another
Templar declared that he was told, “Do not believe that the man Jesus whom the Jews crucified in Outremer is God and that he can save you.”zs A third knight similarly claimed he was instructed not to believe in Christ, a false prophet, but only in a “higher God’. He was then shown a crucifix and told,
“Set not much faith in this, for it is too young.”
Such accounts are frequent and consistent enough to lend credence to the charge. They are also relatively bland; and if the Inquisition desired to concoct evidence, it could have devised something far more dramatic, more incriminating, more damning. There thus seems little doubt that the
Templars’ attitude towards Jesus did not concur with that of Catholic orthodoxy, but it is uncertain precisely what the Order’s attitude was.
In any case, there is evidence that the ritual ascribed to the Templars
-trampling and spitting on the cross was in the air at least half a century before 1307. Its context is confusing, but it is mentioned in connection with the Sixth Crusade, which occurred in 1249.28
Knights Templar The Hidden Side
If the end of the Knights Templar was fraught with baffling enigmas, the foundation and early history of the Order seemed to us to be even more so. We were already plagued by a number of inconsistencies and improbabilities. Nine knights, nine “poor’ knights, appeared as if from nowhere and among all the other crusaders swarming about the Holy Land promptly had the king’s quarters turned over to them! Nine “poor’
knights without admit ting any new recruits to their ranks presumed, all by themselves, to defend the highways of Palestine. And there was no record at all of them actually doing any thing, not even from Fulk de Chartres, the king’s official chronicler, who must surely have known
- 74 -
about Map 5Jerusalem the Temple and the Area of Mount Sion in the Mid-Twelfth
Century
BRh’ACH OF If199
I EPER HOSPII’AI~
Chorch4ih’HolyS~lchr~ FHE TEMPI .F
,i, o m “~4 C
S, Man of,h, Lame._
S’Mary heGr S, Man d ih, F.
SI( IN GA’II’F.
AHE’A OWNLD Ny’
F Ht: I’t)hFPLARS
NOTE DAME Dt: SION (C-le and Tomb ~”I D-id)
“IoBahleham
- 75 -
them! How, we wondered, could their activities, their move into the royal premises, for instance, have escaped Fulk’s notice? It would seem incredible, yet
Item, that they said that the head could save them. Item, that lit could] make riches .. . Item, that it made the trees flower. Item, that it made the land germinate. Item, that they surrounded or touched each head of the aforesaid idols with small cords, which they wore around themselves next to the shirt or the flesh .24
The cord mentioned in the last item is reminiscent of the Cathars, who were also alleged to have worn a sacred cord of some kind. But most striking in the list is the head’s purported capacity to engender riches, make trees flower and bring fertility to the land.
These properties coincide remarkably with those ascribed in the romances to the Holy Grail.
Of all the charges levelled against the Templars, the most serious were those of blasphemy and heresy of denying, trampling and spitting on the cross. It is not clear precisely what this alleged ritual was intended to signify -what, in other words, the Templars were actually repudiating. Were they repudiating Christ? Or were they simply repudiating the Crucifixion?
And whatever they repudiated, what exactly did they extol in its stead?
- 73 -
No one has satisfactorily answered these questions, but it seems clear that a repudiation of some sort did occur, and was an integral principle of the
Order. One knight, for example, testified that on his induction into the
Order he was told, “You believe wrongly, because he [Christ] is indeed a false prophet. Believe only in God in heaven, and not in him.”zs Another
Templar declared that he was told, “Do not believe that the man Jesus whom the Jews crucified in Outremer is God and that he can save you.”zs A third knight similarly claimed he was instructed not to believe in Christ, a false prophet, but only in a “higher God’. He was then shown a crucifix and told,
“Set not much faith in this, for it is too young.”
Such accounts are frequent and consistent enough to lend credence to the charge. They are also relatively bland; and if the Inquisition desired to concoct evidence, it could have devised something far more dramatic, more incriminating, more damning. There thus seems little doubt that the
Templars’ attitude towards Jesus did not concur with that of Catholic orthodoxy, but it is uncertain precisely what the Order’s attitude was.
In any case, there is evidence that the ritual ascribed to the Templars
-trampling and spitting on the cross was in the air at least half a century before 1307. Its context is confusing, but it is mentioned in connection with the Sixth Crusade, which occurred in 1249.28
Knights Templar The Hidden Side
If the end of the Knights Templar was fraught with baffling enigmas, the foundation and early history of the Order seemed to us to be even more so. We were already plagued by a number of inconsistencies and improbabilities. Nine knights, nine “poor’ knights, appeared as if from nowhere and among all the other crusaders swarming about the Holy Land promptly had the king’s quarters turned over to them! Nine “poor’
knights without admit ting any new recruits to their ranks presumed, all by themselves, to defend the highways of Palestine. And there was no record at all of them actually doing any thing, not even from Fulk de Chartres, the king’s official chronicler, who must surely have known
- 74 -
about Map 5Jerusalem the Temple and the Area of Mount Sion in the Mid-Twelfth
Century
BRh’ACH OF If199
I EPER HOSPII’AI~
Chorch4ih’HolyS~lchr~ FHE TEMPI .F
,i, o m “~4 C
S, Man of,h, Lame._
S’Mary heGr S, Man d ih, F.
SI( IN GA’II’F.
AHE’A OWNLD Ny’
F Ht: I’t)hFPLARS
NOTE DAME Dt: SION (C-le and Tomb ~”I D-id)
“IoBahleham
- 75 -
them! How, we wondered, could their activities, their move into the royal premises, for instance, have escaped Fulk’s notice? It would seem incredible, yet
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