Time Frames and Taboo Data Blog

Seven hundred years is an unholy amount of time to absolve, or at least admit, a holy distortion of justice. But in 2007 a 300 page limited edition of 799 copies was released by the Vatican in which were reproduced entire documents concerning the trumped-up charges against the Knights Templar in the 14th Century–charges which amply benefitted Pope Clement V and King Philip IV or France.

In 1307 King Philip contrived to have English and French members of the Templar order arrested, imprisoned and tortured on fabricated charges of worshipping an idol Baphomet (probably a corruption of the word Mahomet i.e. Muhammad), and accusations that the Templars indulged in homoerotic sins. Fictional testimony had it that the idol was a small stone symbol of a human figure having two heads, male and female, and surrounded with serpents, the sun and moon.

Material greed motivated Philip more than any personal spiritual integrity, for Philip was in debt to the Templar banking system. False accusations and conviction would conveniently cancel out his debt and provide excuse for seizing Templar wealth. In the pope’s favor, Clement decided in 1308 to attempt saving the Templar order, and the document called “Parchment of Chinon,” reproduced in the limited edition in 2007, stands as proof. Indeed, Clement initially absolved the Templars of heresy, but still regarded them as guilty of immorality which he thought could be reformed. Thus many Templar Knights continued to be held in confinement and tortured in France.

But Pope Clement V, himself a Frenchman, soon recognized that conspiracy with Philip might prove profitable. Thus he sent three top cardinals on a long furitive journey to France to interrogate an unstated person. It is known that Jacques de Molay, the military grand master of the Templars, and other Templars were secretly imprisoned in a castle in “Chinon on the Loire.” The document called “Parchment of Chinon” thus indicates the destination of the cardinals sent by Clement.

Whatever caused the pope to reverse his decision and suppress the Templar order can only be speculated. What is known is that the persecution of the Templars dragged on until 1314 when Jacques de Molay was burned to death at the stake. (See Time Frames and Taboo Data, pages 286-287) Perhaps it is just coincidence that the pope acquired Avignon in France and then moved the headquarters of the Catholic Church there in 1309 where it would remain until 1377.

This entry was posted on March 21, 2009 at 2:22 am and is filed under Atheist, freethought, Middle Ages, with tags Avignon, Baphomet, Jacques de Molay, King Philip IV, Knights Templar, Mahomet, Pope Clement V, Vatican. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.