Source: “The Lost Colony of the Templars: Verrazano's Secret Mission to America**”,** By Steven Sora, Destiny Books, 2004.
The Knights Templar Death And Rebirth.wav
This podcast explores the complex history of the Knights Templar, suggesting they became custodians of ancient knowledge from various sources, including the East, leading to advancements in areas like architecture and science. While they grew into a formidable military and financial power, the text highlights their loss of purpose after the decline of the Crusades, internal conflicts, and increasing enmity from European monarchs and the papacy. A pivotal event discussed is the persecution of the Cathars, which exposed a deep rift between the Church and groups with alternative beliefs, potentially influencing the Templars' later dissent and their eventual violent suppression by Philip IV of France, despite some escaping to places like Scotland and Portugal. The passage concludes by suggesting the failed Crusades and the Church's actions, like the Inquisition, created a fertile ground for future challenges to its authority, with the survival of certain ideas possibly hinted at in symbols like the tarot.
Topic 1. Acquisition of Ancient Knowledge by the Templars. The source discusses how the Knights Templar somehow became masters of an ancient body of knowledge. The exact origin of this knowledge is presented as unclear, with several theories offered. One possibility is that the original nine Templars found documents in the Temple of Solomon. Another theory suggests exposure to the East through the Crusades brought new products and ideas to Europe. Critically, the texts of the Romans and Greeks, which had been preserved by Islamic scholars, made their way back to Islamic learning centers in Sicily and Spain. This exposure allowed the West to better understand the East, initiating a renewed effort to learn from those who pursued science without fear of being labeled as witches, magicians, and alchemists. The source highlights that this "recovered science" unlocked understanding that had been hidden for centuries in the West's Dark Ages. Examples of its application included building cathedrals with perfect acoustics and windows aligned with sacred days and constellations, as well as the construction of durable bridges. The source later contrasts this Templar exposure to "unbridled science" with the Church's bias against learning and its role as an obstacle to scientific pioneers like Leonardo, Copernicus, and Galileo who risked the Inquisition. The knowledge brought back from the East is seen as leading to new ways of looking at the world in a humanistic sense and a new way to approach the divine, contributing to the end of the Dark Ages and setting the stage for renaissance and reform.
Topic 2. Growth and Power of the Knights Templar. The Knights Templar grew significantly from their humble beginnings of a grand master and eight men to become the largest and wealthiest organization in the world. The source emphasizes that as a fighting force, their military was almost without rival. They answered to no earthly king, which allowed them to operate with nearly total impunity on the seas and over land. Beyond their military strength, the Templars also developed vast business interests. These included estate management, trade, shipping, and banking. Their wealth and power grew unchecked because few entities could challenge the order's dominance. Even the pope's attempt to address the complaints of kings who had become indebted to the order proved ineffective. This unchecked growth in power and wealth is later cited as a reason for the order's arrogance, leading them to believe they were insulated from their enemies, including kings and the pope.
Topic 3. The Loss of the Holy Land. A significant factor in the decline of the Templars' stability was the end of their primary purpose: defending the Holy Land. Towards the end of the twelfth century, the crusaders faced an enemy equal in strength to their own armies. This enemy was the Islamic armies led by Saladin, described as one of Islam's greatest heroes, who was both gallant and respected, yet widely feared. Unlike the Crusader orders, whose efforts were divided among various activities like managing estates, conducting trade, and delving into science, Saladin's armies had a singular focus: defeating the Christian forces. Saladin achieved major victories, including taking Aleppo in 1183, establishing an empire, and then winning the massive Battle of Hittin on July 4, 1187. In this battle, the Templars and Hospitallers were surrounded and thousands of Christians were killed. Captive knights who refused to renounce Christ were beheaded. Following Hittin, Saladin recaptured Jerusalem on October 2, 1187, ousting the Templars from their headquarters there. Although the Third Crusade followed, resulting in many Christian losses and a five-year peace treaty that left Jerusalem in Muslim hands, the overall trend was the decline of the Crusader states. The source notes further disappointments for the Church in the thirteenth century, leading to the loss of all important cities except Acre. Despite a treaty period, renewed conflict culminated in the siege of Acre in 1291. Twelve thousand Templar knights and Hospitallers defended the city, but it fell, ending the tenuous 170-year Christian hold on the Holy Land. This loss was a fatal wound to the Crusades as an enterprise, although attempts continued afterwards. Pope Nicholas IV blamed the military orders, including the Templars, for the fall of Acre.
Topic 4. Internal Conflicts and Challenges to the Templars. Following the years of war in the Holy Land, a lull in fighting allowed the Crusader orders, including the Templars, to focus more on business or engage in infighting. The source points out that the Knights Templar engaged in the slave trade in Acre. There were conflicts with other military orders; for example, Frederick II, commanding the Teutonic Knights, declared war on the Templars, seizing their properties and ships. The Teutonic Knights are noted as being autonomous, effectively fighting for their own leaders, unlike the Templars who answered ultimately to the pope. The Templars also came into conflict with Italian merchants due to their growing fleets, which often operated at the merchants' expense. The pope, years earlier, had spoken out against the orders, criticizing them for being more interested in trade and profits than in fighting Christendom's enemies. Although the trade war eventually ended, the enmity between the different orders persisted. This era saw the growing split between the papacy and the Templar order, which was supposed to be Rome's direct servant.
Topic 5. The Challenge Posed by the Cathars to the Church. The source identifies a group in the south of France that posed a much more serious threat to the Catholic Church's monopoly on reverence to God than Islam ever did. This group was the Cathars, centered in the Languedoc area of France. The Cathar movement, which originated in northern Italy and spread south into France, derived its name from the Greek word for "pure." The source links Cathar beliefs to the Bogomils of the Balkans and notes similarities in their belief in dualism, a philosophical concept present for thousands of years, like in the Persian Mazda religion. Cathars generally shared the concept of good and evil as warring forces (light and spirit vs. darkness and matter). While their teachings could be inconsistent, they often held that matter and earthly life were evil, although in reality they lived simple, often joyful lives as families. They believed in commandments, judgment day, and an afterlife reward for the good. Their theology is described as being very close to early Christianity before the influence of Constantine. Critically, the Cathars believed in finding God on one's own and held that access to God was individual and direct, requiring no intermediaries. They preached against the need for a bureaucracy of clerics and bishops and criticized the Church's mode of operation and its wealth, viewing the Catholic Church as the opposite of early Christian principles. They refused both the clergy and the taxes of the Church. This direct challenge to the Church's authority as an intermediary and its power to tax was seen as an infinitely more serious threat to an organization that thrived on a huge hierarchy and the ability to tax everyone in its realm. The source notes that even Saint Bernard, sent to investigate, found the Cathars devout and living the Christian ideal, abstaining from excess and rejecting the corrupt ways of Church institutions, but lacking the power to enact change without incurring wrath.
Topic 6. The Albigensian Crusade Against the Cathars. The Church, perceiving the Cathar movement as a serious threat to its power, initiated a response that escalated from debate to military action. After initial peaceable attempts involving figures like Saint Dominic debating Cathar leaders proved unsuccessful, particularly after a Cathar publicly declared the Church of Rome not holy but rather espoused of the devil, the Church shifted to force. In 1208, the pope issued a bull of anathema against the Cathars, who did not recognize his authority. Then, on Saint John's Day in 1209, Pope Innocent III sent an army into the Languedoc. This initiated a brutal, half-century-long purge. An army of thirty thousand, primarily from northern France, swept through the region, burning towns and cities, destroying crops, and massacring thousands. The source notes that in many towns, as with Christian attacks on Constantinople and Jerusalem, no one was spared. The first city to fall was Beziers, chosen for Mary Magdalene's feast day, a figure revered by Cathars and Occitans. The inhabitants were given the choice to renounce their faith or die; they chose death and thousands were killed, with the papal legate infamously stating, "Kill them all, God will know his own." The crusaders, wearing the same tunics and crosses as those fighting Islam, were promised heavenly remission of sins and earthly rewards from the spoils. The war raged for forty years, devastating Languedoc and leaving it blighted for centuries. Cathars, like early Christian martyrs, viewed death for their faith as a gateway to the afterlife. The source notes that Bertrand de Blanchefort, a Templar grand master, was from Languedoc, as were many Templar knights. Templars are recorded as fighting on both sides at the final battle of Montségur, where Cathars and their knightly defenders refused to acknowledge the Catholic faith or Rome's authority, choosing to be burned on pyres.
Topic 7. The Church's Reaction: Inquisition and Authority. The war against the Cathars had lasting consequences, notably creating new movements inside and outside the Church. Within the Church, the Inquisition was established by 1234. While the Church had previously used torture and execution, the Inquisition organized these procedures and, by 1257, made them independent of Rome. The Inquisition had significant power, including the ability to seize goods and property and condemn individuals without due process. It relied on greed and jealousy to encourage people to inform on neighbors and family members, with the presence of a single Cathar potentially leading to the seizure of a household. The source suggests that the Church was more interested in maintaining its right to govern and its revenues than in being a moral authority. The Church harshly defended its right to rule on any issue related to man and God. Lacking its own army, its power was maintained through revenues, the armies of compliant kings, and the ability to excommunicate or outlaw its enemies. The Cathars, with their challenge to the Church's power to tax and its role as intermediary, were seen as a much greater threat than the Saracens. The cruelty of the Inquisition and the excesses of the clergy contributed to the growing perception of the clergy as a "fat, tax-hungry bureaucracy," setting the stage for future challenges to Church authority. The Church's bias against learning is also highlighted as a failure that proved it to be an obstacle to knowledge.
Topic 8. The Conflict Between Philip IV of France and the Templars. Philip IV, the king of France, found himself deeply in debt. France had borne significant costs in the Crusades, and Philip also engaged in costly wars in Flanders. The Knights Templar, who had previously managed Philip's finances until 1295, had become a massive banking empire whose wealth grew unchecked and whose estates were exempt from royal taxes. Philip, seeking to shore up his finances, first expelled the Lombard bankers from France and seized their wealth, and then targeted the Jews, making them scapegoats and seizing their wealth. When these measures failed to restore his treasury adequately, the vast wealth of the Templars became his primary target. The source explicitly states that one of those in debt to the order was Philip IV. The king even desired to join the order himself and become the Rex Ballator (Warrior King), but the Templars rejected him, fearing he would attempt a takeover. To access the Templars' wealth, Philip needed the aid of the pope, as the order was supposed to answer only to Rome.
Topic 9. Philip IV's Manipulation of the Papacy and the Arrest of the Templars. Philip IV's plan to seize the Templars' wealth required gaining control over or influencing the papacy. The source describes Philip's conflict with Pope Boniface VIII, which escalated after Boniface declared himself ruler of the world. Philip sent agents to arrest the pope, who died days after being humiliated and weakened. Philip then used the same agent, Guillaume de Nogaret, to pursue the next pope, Benedict XI. When Benedict excommunicated Nogaret, Nogaret allegedly trumped up charges of witchcraft against the pope and potentially poisoned him. The subsequent pope was Clement V, a relative of a Templar grand master through his mother, who moved the papacy to Avignon and was described as equally greedy as Philip, selling various favors. Needing protection, Clement initially tried to ease tensions between Philip and the Templars but ultimately failed. Philip pressured Clement by submitting a list of charges against the order, compiled by Nogaret. When even heresy charges weren't sufficient for Clement to act, Philip threatened him with his inquisitor. Clement summoned the Templar grand master, Jacques de Molay, to Paris, hoping for an agreement. When this failed, Clement finally yielded to the king's demands. The source notes that the pope likely tipped off his relatives in the Blanchefort family (associated with the Templars) and possibly made a deal with the king to protect certain Templar properties, but overall, he caved to Philip's pressure, leading to the order's downfall in France.
Topic 10. The Dissolution of the Order and Templar Survival. Following Clement V's acquiescence to Philip IV's demands, on Friday, October 13, 1307, the king's forces arrested Templars across France, seized their properties, and attempted to confiscate their wealth. However, the massive treasure in Paris, Philip's main objective, was gone. The source suggests the order was somehow tipped off, possibly by allies close to the king or even the pope, allowing them to move the treasure. It is believed the treasure was loaded onto wagon trains and taken to the Templar port city of La Rochelle, then loaded onto eighteen ships and removed from France. Despite being Europe's greatest fighting force, the Templars in France largely submitted to arrest without resistance, except for the removal of their treasure. Individuals, including the grand master Jacques de Molay, were charged with heresy and subjected to extreme violence and torture to extract confessions. Many confessed to fabricated charges like homosexuality, devil worship (including Baphomet), and murder of babies, often under duress or torture. Many died from torture or harsh prison treatment. Jacques de Molay and another preceptor were roasted to death over a slow fire. The order was officially dissolved on March 22, 1312. However, the source highlights that Philip's success was primarily limited to France. He pressured the pope to order arrests elsewhere, but Templars in other countries fared differently. In Lorraine, trials were less hysterical, resulting in monastic sentences. In England, arrests occurred under papal pressure, but punishments were less severe than in France. In Germany, armed Templars were quickly exonerated. In Portugal, the order remained intact but came under the king's direction, eventually being renamed the Knights of Christ. While the order as a whole was broken, with lands distributed to crowns, the Church, and rival orders, the source suggests that the Templar fleet and hundreds of French knights narrowly escaped arrest. Speculation points to Scotland, where the excommunicated king Robert the Bruce might have offered refuge, and Portugal, where the order survived in a new form, as likely destinations. A third possibility is Cyprus, where the ruler, Amalric, loyal to the Templars, ignored papal and French orders for months, allowing Templars to arm themselves and potentially hide another great treasure. Templars there were eventually arrested but acquitted in initial trials. The source concludes that while many likely ended up quietly living in monasteries or joined mercenary ranks, the surviving Cathars and Templars, and the "gnosis" they carried, were not forgotten, influencing later movements outside the Church.