From: elton@sybase.com (Elton Wildermuth)
Newsgroups: alt.pagan
Subject: Re: Templars not Masons <flame risk HIGH>
Date: 8 Sep 92 17:37:32 GMT
Organization: Paratheo-Anametamystikhood of Eris Esoteric, Edwin Meese Cabal

Leigh Ann Hussey:
>	THE TEMPLARS WERE THEMSELVES PERSECUTED BY THE CHURCH.
>They were a large, savvy business organization.  They had a lot of
>money, and more influence than King Louis IV of France thought they ought
>have.  [...]
>The destruction of their order was as carefully planned a campaign
>as the suppression of the Gnostics and the take-over of Languedoc

This is subject to some possible misinterpretation.  Clement (Il Papa at the
time -- 1310 or thereabouts) really couldn't care less about the Templars,
except for Louis IV's arm-twisting on the subject.  I don't know what bribery,
blackmail, or behind-the-scenes blowjobs caused Clement to issue his papal
bulls of 1307, and even after that it took a lot of legwork on Philip's part.
The first time, the pope told him to go screw himself -- in 1312, Clement was
forced to admit that there wasn't enough evidence to prove the charges.  (Of
course, this didn't help the Templars, arrested throughout Europe, and 54 of
whom burned in 1310 at Philip's direction.)

I don't know that you could call this being "persecuted by the Church", any
more than you can call the current Republican Fundamentalism a Church
persecution.  It was more a case of a government using the Church's name to
advance its own causes.  We wouldn't know a thing about that, would we?

Additionally, Philip's primary purpose in the entire sordid affair was a lot
more personal than just thinking that the Templars had too much money:  Philip
IV of France *personally* owed the Templars a *whole*lot* of money, since they
had been his bankers for more than one failed military campaign.  Having them
declared anathema seemed like an easy, convenient way to avoid paying a bunch
of money that he didn't have ... sort of like turning informer to the Fed in
order to get out from under a deal with La Cosa Nostra.

I also don't think it's fair to call the Templars victims of the Inquisition.
They were a victim of a government that knew how to use the Inquisition for
its own ends.  (See above.)

However, the charges brought against the Templars were a perfect picture of
the Inquisition's favorite subjects:  heresy, Devil worship, and homosexuality
(that is, the ones with the biggest scare value, and the hardest to disprove;
again, we wouldn't know a thing about that, now, would we?).

For the record, the specific charges were:

 - the knights put their order before every other principle, swearing to
   enrich it by any means;
 - at initiation, a neophyte was required to spit on the cross and renounce
   christ;
 - indecent kisses and unnatural sex were commonly practiced and encouraged;
 - they worshipped Baphomet;
 - the cord they wore over their shirts was hallowed by being wrapped about
   the statue of Baphomet;
 - the statue was anointed with ointment made from murdered babies;
 - the statue was (take your pick) a stuffed human head, or a head with
   3 faces, or a skull;
 - they betrayed the Crusades;
 - they did not consecrate the host during Mass;
 - they worshipped the Devil in the form of a black cat.

And not only that, they talked back to their elders and refused to eat
their broccoli.  So there!  pththththt!

>The fire burned just as hot for Jacques deMolay as it did for the rest of
>the Church's victims.  If the history is true, deMolay was a pretty
>heavy magician as well: from the stake, he cursed both Louis IV and Pope
>Innocent, [...]

Clement.  I misinformed you when we talked about it earlier.  So sorry -- I
can't tell one inaptly named Pope from another without a scorecard.  And,
let's not call de Molay a victim of the Church, but a political execution by
a medieval Jesse Helms.  (Or maybe Georgie is a better analogy?)

			-- Elton
+++
There are two kinds of people in the world:  good ones and bad ones.
The good ones get to choose which is which.
	(Readers' Digest, from 'way back when; author unknown to me.)