The Rise & Fall of the Knights Templar: The Order of the Temple 1118-1314 - A True History of Faith, Glory, Betrayal

The Rise & Fall of the Knights Templar: The Order of the Temple 1118-1314 - A True History of Faith, Glory, Betrayal

by Gordon Napier
The Rise & Fall of the Knights Templar: The Order of the Temple 1118-1314 - A True History of Faith, Glory, Betrayal

The Rise & Fall of the Knights Templar: The Order of the Temple 1118-1314 - A True History of Faith, Glory, Betrayal

by Gordon Napier

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Overview

The Knights Templar, a mysterious fraternity of warrior monks, pledged their swords to defend pilgrims to the Holy Land from the bandits and marauders of the roads. Patronised by the aristocracy, the Templars soon evolved into a formidable army and were the vanguard of the ongoing Crusades. They were widely acclaimed for their boldness and tenacity, showered with gifts by Catholic nobles and granted special privileges by admiring Popes. Even after the failure of the Crusades, the Templars remained one of the dominant forces in Christendom with political power to rival kings... until with shocking speed they were brought down by accusations of blasphemous crimes. With confessions tortured out of them by the Inquisition, many knights were burnt as heretics, and the Order was disbanded by the Pope. What really happened behind the closed doors of the Templars' preceptories? Was there truth in the rumours of secret rituals conducted in the dead of the night? Did heretical depravity and Devil-worship truly exist within the illustrious brotherhood? Why is their name associated today with the Freemasons? In this lively and authoritative account, historian Gordon Napier unravels the many mysteries that surround the Knights Templar.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780752473581
Publisher: The History Press
Publication date: 10/24/2011
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 224
Sales rank: 588,912
File size: 1 MB
Age Range: 18 Years

Read an Excerpt

The Rise and Fall of the Knights Templar


By Gordon Napier

The History Press

Copyright © 2009 Gordon Napier
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7524-7358-1



CHAPTER 1

Holy War


The Biblical King David, after smiting numerous enemies, conquered Jerusalem from the Jebusites, in the tenth century BC. Under his rule, the city became spiritually important for the Jews. It was not merely a capital city, it was the centre of the world. David brought to Jerusalem the mythical Ark of the Covenant, a box overlaid with pure gold, associated with Moses and invested with the power of the God of Israel. It contained the two stone tablets bearing the Ten Commandments that Moses had received from God, after he brought the Hebrew nation out of Egypt (Exodus 25:10–21). The Ark itself was given miraculous attributes: it could bring victory in battle against the enemies of the chosen people, bring blessings to the godly, or smite the ungodly with supernatural plagues and pyrotechnics. Guarded by winged cherubim of gold, it was installed by Solomon, the son of David, in a fabulous Temple above the city, built with assistance from Hiram, King of Tyre. Innumerable animals were sacrificed at its consecration, and the glory of the Lord filled the Temple in the form of a cloud.

In 722 BC the Assyrians crushed the northern kingdom of Israel. They later conquered all the surrounding lands, even Egypt. The small king dom of Judah (later called Judaea) stood alone and encircled. The population of its capital, Jerusalem, swelled with refugees from the north. This was perhaps the first real holy war. The Hebrews destroyed the shrines of all other gods on their land, and put all their faith in their God. Yet, by the turn of the seventh century BC, the time of Jeremiah, Jerusalem alone remained defiant. At this time the Torah (holy book) of God first emerged; writings telling that the land was the Lord's gift, but that if the people disobeyed God and committed sins 'the land itself [would] vomit out her inhabitants' (Leviticus 18: 25).

The Assyrian Empire was eventually swallowed up by that of Babylon. Judah also fell. In 587 BC Solomon's Temple was demolished by Nabuchadnezzar, who took the Jews into exile in Mesopotamia. It was at this time that the remaining Old Testament books were largely written, but nowhere was the fate of the Ark recorded. On the Jews' return from exile, King Zerubbabel built a new, but presumably Arkless, Temple on Mount Moriah, the site of the old one. This Temple, in turn, was plundered by the invading Syrians in 169 BC. Jerusalem was recovered for the Jews by Judas Maccabeus, but lost to the Romans who invaded under Pompey in 63 BC. The greatest and last Temple was that of Herod the Great, who ruled the Jews as a client of the Roman Empire. Levite priests were even trained as masons and carpenters to build the edifice (according to Josephus), so that the new shrine need not be profaned by laymen.

Herod's Temple was the scene of a massacre as the Jewish revolt began. In AD 70 the Roman general and later Emperor, Titus Vespasianus put down the Zealots and the Jews, who had temporarily won back their land, soaking Jerusalem in blood. He demolished the Temple, but for a portion of the west wall of its outer court, which he left as a monument to the Jewish defeat. (This remnant, known as the Wailing Wall, has remained deeply sacred in Judaism to this day.) Rather than submit to the Romans, the last Hebrew rebels, besieged at their mountain fortress of Masada, selected ten men to kill all their company; which they did before killing themselves. The remaining Jews, banished from Zion, were dispersed throughout the Empire.

In Jerusalem a sect had existed called the Nazarenes, or the Jerusalem Church. They adhered to the teachings of Jesus, who they believed had been a descendant of David and the long-prophesied Jewish Messiah. Jesus's message boiled down to 'Love God, love your neighbour'. He had wandered Galilee healing, performing miracles, teaching forgiveness and preaching repentance so that souls might become worthy of the expected Kingdom of Heaven. His career, however, had ended with his crucifixion by the Jewish priests and the Roman authorities, as a blasphemer and rabble-rouser. His body was taken down from the Cross, and put in a tomb given by a wealthy Jew named Joseph of Arimathea. Christians believe he rose again, appearing first to Mary Magdalene, then to the disciples delivering the teachings that could save mankind from death and the Devil, before ascending to Heaven.

Paul of Tarsus was an individual somewhat estranged from the original Christians, whom he had actively persecuted before his conversion, following his vision on the road to Damascus. Subsequently, he began preaching about Jesus Christ, who was Lord God, who had become man, lived a faultless life, and died in an act of sacrifice that made eternal life possible for mankind. Paul believed Jesus had literally risen from death, a view by no means unanimously upheld in the Jerusalem Church. Paul preached tirelessly to the Gentiles, and won converts in Rome, Greece and Asia Minor. The creed he espoused was, however, influenced by his own prejudices. It reflected, for example, some of the misogyny inherent in both Classical and Hebrew culture:


Let your women keep silent in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they learn anything, let them ask it of their husband at home ... (1 Corinthians 14: 34–35)


Paulian Christianity began to spread through the Roman world. Christians, as they became more numerous, were periodically persecuted by the pagan authorities, and driven underground. By their refusal to acknowledge the divinity of the Emperor, and to fight in his wars, they were guilty of sedition. They were additionally accused of conducting ghastly rituals, where obscene kisses were exchanged, child-sacrifice, cannibalism and blood drinking occurred and wild orgies were engaged in. The insane Emperor Nero inaugurated a general persecution of Christians in AD 67, blaming them for a fire which had earlier destroyed much of Rome. Hundreds were tortured, crucified and burned, or fed to wild beasts. Saint Paul himself was beheaded, that same year, in Rome. Many Christians died bravely for their beliefs, and inspired others by the way they embraced martyrdom. Christianity's spread continued, therefore. Believers in Christ formed a Church across the Empire, with priests emerging to administer to the spiritual needs of their flock, and to preach what they regarded as the word of God.

The Gospels of the evangelists Matthew, Mark and Luke appeared after about AD 70, containing accounts of the life and teachings of Christ. Mark's was the oldest, the others derivations produced in Syria, though all were based on a vanished original. Later came the more mystical Gospel of John, probably a Greek, who also wrote the book of Revelation, containing cryptic prophecies about the reign of the demonic Antichrist, the Last Judgement, the Heavenly Jerusalem and the Second Coming of Jesus; subjects that would obsess Christian minds through the centuries, and that would significantly influence their actions. These texts were accepted, along with the Jewish Old Testament, for inclusion in the Christian Bible. Other writings were rejected as apocryphal.

Tertullian, in the second century, defined heresy as putting one's own judgement above the teachings of the priests of the Church, and deviating in one's beliefs from the doctrines which the apostles received from Christ. In AD 330, under the Emperor Constantine, Christianity became the official religion of the Empire. Constantine gave the Empire a new, Christian capital in Byzantium on the Bosphorus which he renamed Constantinople. Here he presided over a succession of religious councils, to establish the doctrines of the Church. Church fathers built on the work of St Paul to construct a hierarchical ideology that supported the established social order, thereby gaining acceptability with the conservative ruling classes. The priesthood, especially bishoprics, became a preserve of the aristocracy. Obedience was a central tenet.

From Peter's and Paul's fear of women arose a belief that sex was of the Devil. Therefore Eve's daughters were soon forbidden to be priests and priests and the religious were expected to be celibate. Meanwhile others, including the disenfranchised poor, and many women, were drawn to other forms of faith, such as Arianism, Montanism, Gnosticism and Manichaeism. These could offer a more direct spirituality (free of highly structured, mediating priesthoods) and put less emphasis on the knowing of one's place. Catholic Christianity saw such ideas as dangerous and heretical.

One former heretic was Augustine who was turned from his early ways by reading St Paul's warnings against sexual licentiousness. Augustine became Bishop of Hippo in North Africa in AD 391. Hitherto, the Church had advocated absolute pacifism. Christ had said:


You have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. (Matthew 5: 38–39)


Christ's message was to love your enemies, bless them that curse you and do good to them that hate you. Therefore, as St Martin expressed it a century before Augustine's time: 'I am a soldier of Christ, I must not fight.' Augustine, however, argued that a defensive war could be justified and that God also sanctioned holy wars against unbelievers. Augustine went on to influence monasticism, where communities of brothers could live apart from the temptations of society armed in Christ to conquer the cravings of the body. Augustine's writings later inspired a Rule (set of instructions) to govern the conduct of these monks. His writings became enormously influential, especially on St Benedict, who in AD 529 founded the first Monastic Order to become part of the Church in the west. Certain clerics, meanwhile, began to accuse the members of rival sects of the same abominable rites as the pagan Romans had accused the early Christians of, and soon the Christian establishment, likewise, began to persecute its theological and political foes.

With the conversion of Emperor Constantine, Jerusalem became Christianity's foremost Holy City. There was a desire among the faithful to trace the course of Christ's Passion on Earth. Pilgrims journeyed there to pray at the Holy Sepulchre, the tomb of Christ, and to venerate the True Cross, miraculously unearthed nearby by Constantine's mother, the Empress Helena. The Emperor soon ordered the building of a great church, housing both the Cross and the tomb. It was called the Church of the Resurrection. Many also beat a path to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, enshrining the birthplace of Jesus.

The Roman Empire gradually lost its western provinces to invading tribes of pagan Goths – Germanic peoples whom the Romans considered barbarians, displaced from their own lands north of the Imperial frontier by the marauding Huns. Rome itself was sacked by one such tribe, the Visigoths, in AD 400. After the fall of Rome, however, Jerusalem and the Holy Land remained in the hands of the Eastern, or Byzantine Empire, and the traffic of pilgrims continued without interruption. Rome, meanwhile, survived as the seat of the most powerful bishops, called Popes, who dispatched monks to convert the Frankish and Germanic chiefs, and to re-establish Christianity in the west.

The Arab prophet Muhammad began preaching in AD 622 in Mecca. This was the holy city of the Quraysh tribe, containing an ancient shrine called the Ka'ba, that was supposedly built by the prophet Abraham. Muhammad claimed to have received revelations from the Archangel Gabriel – revelations that were subsequently set down in the Holy Book, the Koran. Acting on his divine inspiration, Muhammad purged the Ka'ba of all idols, except for a black stone, sacred to a singular God, Allah. The Koran directed believers to have no qualms about resisting evil:

Fight for the sake of God those that fight against you, but do not attack them first, God does not love aggressors. Slay them wherever you find them, drive them out of the places from which they drove you. Idolatry is more grievous than bloodshed. Do not fight them in the precincts of the holy mosque unless they attack you there. If they attack you put them to the sword. Thus shall the unbeliever be rewarded. But if they mend their ways, know that God is forgiving and merciful.

Fight against the unbeliever until idolatry is no more, and God's religion supreme. But if they desist, fight none except against evil doers. (The Koran, The Cow or Al Baqarah 2: 182–3)


In time the Meccans drove Muhammad and his followers out of the city, forcing them to remove to Medina. However, Muhammad returned to Mecca with an army, as an aggressor, raiding their camel caravans, then taking Mecca itself by storm. Peaceful means had failed to win people over to Allah. Muhammad decided that it was necessary to convert them by force.

In the years that followed, his preaching inspired the nomadic peoples of Arabia to embark on their great enterprise of evangelical imperialism. Islam, the new religion, emphasised submission to the will of Allah, moral behaviour, ritualised prayer, pilgrimage to Mecca, fasting during Ramadan, charity and hospitality. It also subordinated women. 'Men have authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other and because they spend their wealth to maintain them' (Koran, Women, or Al Nisa, 4:34). The religion also permitted slavery and blood vengeance: 'Believers, retaliation is decreed for you in bloodshed, a slave for a slave, a female for a female ...' (The Koran, The Cow; 2: 178–9).

Jihad was the holy war that Muhammad's preaching unleashed. Some Muslims interpreted their duty to Allah, the beneficent, the merciful, as being to convert the world to his worship by the sword. Jihad promised these holy warriors material rewards: booty, concubines and slaves, while greater rewards awaited the fallen. Many envisaged a paradise harem where seventy alluring houris would ensure that each martyr would live eternally in bliss. On all sides they would be offered golden vessels and cups filled with all that their appetites could desire.

Muhammad's successors began by conquering Persia. Byzantium at this time was already beset from the north by the Avars and Bulgars, and could not defend its middle provinces against the Muslims. Moreover the Syrian, Palestinian and Egyptian Christians mainly adhered to Monophysitism, the doctrine that Jesus had a singular, divine nature (as opposed to the prevailing orthodoxy that Christ had both a human and a divine nature; the human aspect necessary for his sacrifice to have meaning). The Byzantine Emperor Justinian had tried and failed to reconcile these views which had threatened the religious unity of his Empire, and subsequently the Monophysites had been persecuted as heretics. Such was the resulting resentment of the Byzantine Greeks among their middle subjects that the Monophysites did little to resist the invading Muslims.

After Muhammad, the spiritual and temporal rulers of Islam were the Caliphs. Caliph Omar conquered Syria in AD 636, taking Jerusalem the following year. It became a Holy City for Islam. Omar's successors built the Dome of the Rock Mosque, where once had stood Solomon's Temple. The rock it enclosed, once the foundation stone of the Jewish Temple's Holy of Holies, was sacred to Muslims also. From it, they believed, Muhammad had flown in spirit to Heaven. Omar's successor, Othman, captured Cyprus and attacked Constantinople itself, burning the Byzantine fleet into the water.

The succeeding Umayyad Empire, centred on Damascus, spread Islam as far as Afghanistan in the east, while in the west it overwhelmed north Africa and, by AD 711, Spain. The Jihad advanced well beyond the Pyrenees. Muslim armies sacked Bordeaux in 732, and burned its churches. They were only checked by the Franks at the Battle of Poitiers. Muslim pirates, meanwhile, harried the coastal regions of Italy. They took Sicily and, in 846, even landed an army of raiders in Italy and drove the Pope from Rome.

For all their militancy, the Umayyads and later the Abbasids, the dynasty of Caliphs who ruled Islam from Baghdad, permitted their conquered people to practise their chosen religions – at the price of paying an extra tax. The Koran forbade believers to have friendships with Christians and Jews. It did, however, accord them some respect as fellow 'people of the book' and conceded that the Bible contained some light. Omar had formally guaranteed to Patriarch Sophronius the safety of Christians and to respect the sanctity of their churches. His successors had the wisdom to leave alone the pilgrims, who continued to visit the Holy Sepulchre, and were a useful source of revenue. Meanwhile, heterodox varieties of Christianity actually flourished in Islamic dominions, free of persecution by the established Churches of Byzantium and Rome.


(Continues...)

Excerpted from The Rise and Fall of the Knights Templar by Gordon Napier. Copyright © 2009 Gordon Napier. Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Table of Contents

Contents

Title Page,
Series Page,
About the Author,
Acknowledgements,
Introduction and Historiography,
PART ONE: Beauseant!,
I Holy War,
II The Early Templars,
III The Templars' Rule,
IV The Fortunes of War in the Holy Land,
V Powers and Accomplishments,
VI The Loss of Jerusalem,
VII The Third Crusade and its Aftermath,
VIII The Fate of the Holy Land,
PART TWO: Baphomet,
IX The Aftermath of Acre,
X The Sleep of Reason,
XI The Downfall,
XII The Destruction of the Temple,
XIII Possible Non-Catholic Influences on the Templars,
XIV Trial and Terror,
XV The Templars Beyond France,
XVI Abolition and Aftermath,
Epilogue: The Shadow of the Crusades,
APPENDICES,
A Modern Templars – Survival or Revival?,
B Grand Masters of the Knights Templar,
C Timeline,
Addendum,
Bibliography,
Plates,
Copyright,

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