Knights Templar
In order to better understand the history of Richerenches in the Enclave des Papes in the Provence, here is an abbreviated version of the Wikipedia write-up about the Knights of Templar.
The Order of the Knights of Templar - the full name is "The Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple which is in Jerusalem" was founded in 1118, in the aftermath of the First Crusade of 1096, to help the new Kingdom of Jerusalem maintain itself against its hostile Muslim neighbors, and to ensure the safety of the large numbers of European pilgrims who flowed towards Jerusalem after its conquest. They followed a rule created for them by Bernard of Clairvaux, the founder of the Cistercian Order. The Templars were well connected and quickly became prime movers in the international politics of the Crusades period. In time they were permitted by the Pope to levy taxes and accept tithing in the areas under their direct control, facilitating their quick rise to institutional power.
There were four divisions of brothers in the Templars:
- the knights, equipped as heavy cavalry;
- the sergeants, equipped as light cavalry and drawn from a lower social class than the knights;
- farmers, who administered the property of the Order;
- the chaplains, who were ordained priests and saw to the spiritual needs of the Order.
At any time, each knight had some ten people in support positions. Some brothers were devoted solely to banking, as the Order was often trusted with precious goods by participants in the Crusades. But the majority of the Knights Templar were dedicated to warfare. It was primarily a military order directly responsible only to the Pope. Some consider the Knights Templar to be the forerunner of the modern professional army and elite special forces units. The Templars used their wealth to construct numerous fortifications throughout the Holy Land and were probably the best trained and disciplined fighting units of their day.
Their popular name alludes to their historical headquarters in the Temple of Jerusalem on the Temple Mount.In addition to Palestine, the order fought in the Spanish and Portuguese Reconquista. The Templar Knights were identifiable by their white surcoat with distinct red cross emblazoned above the heart or on the chest, as seen in many portrayals of crusading knights.
Fall of the Templars
Philip IV, King of France needed cash for his wars and asked the Templars for money, who refused. The King tried to get the Pope to excommunicate the Templars for committing religious heresy, but Pope Boniface VIII refused. Philip sent his councillor, Guillaume de Nogaret, in a plot to kidnap the Pope. Boniface VIII died only a month later, it is said from shock due to the attempt and ill treatment. The next Pope, Benedict XI, lifted the excommunication of Philip IV but refused to absolve de Nogaret. It is suspected that the Pope's death was from poisoning through an agent of Nogaret. The next Pope, Clement V, agreed to Philip IV's demands about the Templars, and later moved the papacy to Avignon. On October 13 (the unlucky Friday the 13th), 1307, what may have been all the Knights Templar in France were simultaneously arrested by agents of Philip the Fair, later to be tortured into admitting heresy in the Order. The dominant view is that Philip, who seized the treasury and broke up the monastic banking system, was jealous of the Templars' wealth and power, and sought to control it for himself. Much of the Templar property outside of France was transferred by the Pope to the Knights Hospitaller, and many surviving Templars were also accepted into the Hospitallers. Debate continues as to whether the accusation of religious heresy had merit by the standards of the time. Conspiracy theories related to the suppression of the Knights Templar often go far beyond the suggested motive of seizing property and consolidating geopolitical power. It is the Catholic Church's position that the persecution was unjust, that there was nothing wrong with the Templars, and that the Pope at the time was manipulated into suppressing them. The Chinon Parchment found 2001 in the Vatican Secret Archives shows that Pope Clement V secretly pardoned the Knights Templar in 1314.
As he burned at the stake, Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, cursed King Philip and Pope Clement V to meet eternal justice within the year. Pope Clement V died only one month later and Philip IV seven months after that. Commentators were extremely pleased with such a development and often featured this story in their chronicles.
The Templars play strongly in both the ritual and the foundation of various branches of modern Freemasonry.
Legends and Legacy
The Knights Templar became surrounded by legends concerning secrets and mysteries handed down to the select from ancient times. Perhaps most well known are those concerning the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant, and secrets of building. Some sources say the Holy Grail, or Sangreal, was found by the order and taken to Scotland during the scourging of the order in 1307, and that it remains buried beneath Rosslyn Chapel. Some say that the order also found the Ark of the Covenant, the chest which contained sacred objects of ancient Israel, including Aaron's rod and the tablets of stone inscribed by God with the Ten Commandments. Fringe researchers and aficionados of esotericism have claimed that the order stored secret knowledge, linking them to the Rosicrucians, the Priory of Sion, the Rex Deus, the Cathars, the Hermetics, the Gnostics, the Essenes, and, ultimately, lost relics or teachings of Jesus such as the Shroud of Turin or a "Judas Testament." Interest in some of these claims has been sparked by Dan Brown's bestseller, The Da Vinci Code (2003).
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