Vatican paper set to clear Knights Templar

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/05/wvatican105.xml

Vatican paper set to clear Knights Templar

By Malcolm Moore in Rome
Last Updated: 2:08am BST 05/10/2007

The mysteries of the Order of the Knights Templar could soon be laid bare after the Vatican announced the release of a crucial document which has not been seen for almost 700 years.

Guardians of the Grail
    
Knights Templar are rumoured to guard the Holy Grail

A new book, Processus contra Templarios, will be published by the Vatican's Secret Archive on Oct 25, and promises to restore the reputation of the Templars, whose leaders were burned as heretics when the order was dissolved in 1314.

The Knights Templar were a powerful and secretive group of warrior monks during the Middle Ages. Their secrecy has given birth to endless legends, including one that they guard the Holy Grail.

Recently, they have been featured in films including The Da Vinci Code and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

The Order was founded by Hugues de Payns, a French knight, after the First Crusade of 1099 to protect pilgrims on the road to Jerusalem. Its headquarters was the captured Al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount, which lent the Templars their name.

But when Jerusalem fell to Muslim rule in 1244, rumours surfaced that the knights were heretics who worshipped idols in a secret initiation ceremony.

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In 1307, King Philip IV "the Fair" of France, in desperate need of funds, ordered the arrest and torture of all Templars. After confessing various sins their leader, Jacques de Molay, was burnt at the stake.

Pope Clement V then dissolved the order and issued arrest warrants for all remaining members. Ever since, the Templars have been thought of as heretics.

The new book is based on a scrap of parchment discovered in the Vatican's secret archives in 2001 by Professor Barbara Frale. The long-lost document is a record of the trial of the Templars before Pope Clement, and ends with a papal absolution from all heresies.

Prof Frale said: "I could not believe it when I found it. The paper was put in the wrong archive in the 17th century."

The document, known as the Chinon parchment, reveals that the Templars had an initiation ceremony which involved "spitting on the cross", "denying Jesus" and kissing the lower back, navel and mouth of the man proposing them.

The Templars explained to Pope Clement that the initiation mimicked the humiliation that knights could suffer if they fell into the hands of the Saracens, while the kissing ceremony was a sign of their total obedience.

The Pope concluded that the entrance ritual was not truly blasphemous, as alleged by King Philip when he had the knights arrested. However, he was forced to dissolve the Order to keep peace with France and prevent a schism in the church.

"This is proof that the Templars were not heretics," said Prof Frale. "The Pope was obliged to ask pardon from the knights.

"For 700 years we have believed that the Templars died as cursed men, and this absolves them."

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http://axcessnews.com/index.php/articles/show/id/12641

Blackwater - The Knights Templar Live
 
By W R Marshall
(AXcess News) Washington - Back in the old days, way back before all these annoying laws about individual rights and international treaties and some bizarre notion of universal equality, there were a group of guys who were sent east to take care of business.
They were the Knights Templar; ass-kickin' monks, European bad boys who joined the Crusades to protect high value Christian assets in the Holy Land . They showed up and showed the Infidel who was the boss of bosses down Jerusalem way. The Templars were devout true believers who read the Good Book but found when the stuff hits the fan, turning the other cheek was a mugs game and you could get the job done better by sticking a dagger up the other guy's strap, then heading down the ol' pilgrim trail with a trunk full of his goodies.
These dudes weren't just knights, they were connected knights. Thanks to their fundamentalist C.E.O., Bernard de Clairvaux (who, when he got out of the death and plunder business got a sweet appointment to sainthood), the Knights Templar got a fat, no bid contract from Pope Honorius II and zero oversight - except from the Pope, who was too busy deciding a lot of other decisions to worry about a bunch of gung-ho contractors just doing their job.
Things were going great, the Templars were getting rich and powerful, they were given land and titles, and it was all good. Then, as occupations often go, the Muslim world united, there was more and more Christian factionalism, and by the early 14 th Century the Templars, along with the rest of the Christian crusaders, had their rear ends kicked all the back to Europe. (Don't worry about this happening again. First; America is farther from Jerusalem than Europe. More importantly, no one in the Bush administration has ever read any history, so it can't repeat itself, right?)  Eventually the Templars lost their patron (he either died or lost the mid-term) and the Knights were going to be brought up on charges. But word was leaked and the Templars loaded their enormous wealth on their enormous fleet of ships and were never seen again.
Some say they went underground and were part of that DaVinci Code nonsense where they hid a pregnant Mary Magdalene somewhere in southern France, and right now the great-great-great-great-great grandson of Jesus himself is buying a baguette and some brie in a little shop on Rue de Nutjob.
Then there's a theory they came to America. Think like a Templar for a minute: you have a lot of money, you're real smart, you're a devout fundamentalist, and you have an empty land in which to prosper. You just didn't figure closet atheists like Jefferson and Washington would end up in charge when the new nation formed.
But since you're familiar with things going wrong - you're still a little miffed about being chased out of Europe - you have a backup plan. You've put most of your money and effort into Michigan.
Michigan is pretty much Canada , so as a place for major industry to serve the rest of an enormous nation, it doesn't make much sense. But if you wanted to somehow legitimize millions of dollars while at the same time fly under the political radar -  Michigan's a great choice. Is it a coincidence that it's also home to tens of thousands of right‑wing, heavily armed, highly organized militia loonies? If you have a gun, a grudge, and a uniform, Michigan is the place for you. (A similar ad for Malta ran in 1486.)
So you're a lonely, rich, devout Templar living in Michigan, investing in this new nation and biding your time. You even take an American name, although you don't want to be that American, so you keep a little touch of the old royalty and call yourself, Prince.
And, lo, seven hundred years after the Templars get a Middle Eastern ass-whoopin' the nation elects a guy, who, it turns out doesn't want to be king, he wants to be Pope. (Cheney wants to be king.) Better yet, he wants to be an old school Pope so he starts a new Crusade in the Holy Land.
Now the patience of the Templars pay off, especially for the Prince family, who've spent their considerable wealth supporting evangelical candidates for elected office, and, in their spare time, bought six thousand acres in North Carolina and started a Templar training facility known as Blackwater-USA.
Just like in the days of Honorius II, Pope Dubya I has given his close friend Erik Prince a no-bid contract to protect modern State Dept. pilgrims - and future Halliburton execs. Equipped with the latest and best equipment money can buy, much better than what the Pope sees fit to give his own military (wait, Templar/Blackwater is his army), they crusade against the Infidel with no accountability and a simple motto: shoot anything that isn't Christian...and maybe some stuff that is.
This may seem a bit disturbing, but frankly with all the revelations of mismanagement that have attended this war, it's nice to see some planning went into this latest Crusade. Quite a bit actually, this Iraqi adventure was seven hundred years in the making. ( Iraq is not quite the Holy Land, but the day ain't over.)   I know many of you have become rather cynical about all the "not nation building" going on over there, but I have a feeling it's all going to work out this time - really.