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Knights Templars
Gnosticism flourished through various offshoots such as the Manicheans of the third century, the Euchites of the fourth century, the Paulicans of the seventh century, and the Bogomils of the ninth century.
The following teaching of the Bogomils will give us an idea of what beliefs the Knights Templars embraced before passing them on to Freemasonry. God, the Supreme Father, has two sons, the elder Satanael, the younger Jesus. To Satanael, who sat on the right hand of God, belonged the right of governing the celestial world, but filled with pride, he rebelled against his Father and fell from Heaven. Then, aided by the companions of his fall, he created the visible world, image of the celestial, having like the other its sun, moon, and stars, and last he created man and the serpent which became his minister. Later Christ came to earth in order to show men the way to Heaven, but His death was ineffectual, for even by descending into Hell He could not wrest the power from Satanael, i.e., Satan. This belief in the impotence of Christ and the necessity therefore for placating Satan, not only "the Prince of this world," but its creator, led to the further doctrine that Satan, being all-powerful, should be adored (Ibid., 63).
The Knights Templar and Freemasons
Gnosticism, although originally composed of Jewish occultists, rapidly gained Gentile followers until it soon became predominantly Gentile. As the priesthoods were forced to take on new forms, Gnosticism became a magnet for these occult adepts.The adoration or worship of the Evil existed at the base of each form of Gnosticism, as well as a profound hatred for Christ and his teachings. It was perversions such as these, handed down in an unbroken tradition from the earliest Gnostics that were eventually embraced by the Knights of the Temple (Knights Templars) in the twelfth century.
"One of the greatest secrets of the ages is the true story of the Holy Grail, the robe of Jesus, the remains of the Cross of Crucifixion, and whether Jesus actually died or if he survived and produced a child. Many myths surround the Knights Templar concerning these relics, and most myths throughout history always have at least some basis in fact. The treasure hidden in France is not the treasure of the Temple of Jerusalem. It is the Holy Grail itself, the robe of Jesus, the last remaining pieces of the Cross of Crucifixion, and, someone's bones3.
"The Knights Templar were founded sometime during the 11th century in Jerusalem by the Prieuré de Sion for the express purpose of guarding remaining relics of Jesus and to provide military protection for the religious travellers during their pilgrimage to the Holy City.
"The Prieuré de Sion was a religious order founded upon Mount Sion in Jerusalem. The Order set for itself the goal of preserving and recording the bloodline of Jesus and the House of David. Through every means available to them, the Prieuré de Sion had found and retrieved the remaining relics. These relics were entrusted to the Knights Templar for safekeeping.The Knights Templars were monks, a military and religious order who also fought in various battles of the crusades and became famous for their bravery4. "Baldwin II, King of Jerusalem, gave the Knights Templars quarters in his palace, built on the site of Solomon's Temple." From this, the order derived its name — Knights of the Temple.
During the Crusades, the Knights Templars established local offices in all the Christian countries to encourage enlistment in crusading armies and to take care of funds for the pilgrims. (The pilgrims gave donations to the Order — which existed as a tax-exempt organization — in exchange for protection to and from Jerusalem). The Templars, being composed mostly of nobles, were also granted favors by many European rulers and gained possession of property throughout the continent. Through gifts of land and money, the Templars became extremely wealthy and powerful5.
After the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin in 1187, the order established its headquarters in Acre. The Templars were forced to relocate once again in 1291 when Acre fell to the Muslims. This time their headquarters were moved to the island of Cyprus. However, by then, the Templars, through their enormous wealth and wide-spread organization, had become the bankers of Europe, and the order was no longer primarily a military one. It was especially influential in Spain, France, and England, where commanderies of knights, men-at-arms, and chaplains were organized, each under its own superior, subordinate to the Grand Master of the order (Ibid.).After the death of William Wallace (Braveheart) in 1305, Robert Bruce contended for Scottish independence with King Edward I of England. Robert's son, Robert I Bruce, was crowned king of Scots in 1314 and he declared Scottish independence after defeating Edward II at Bannockburn. Robert the Bruce was not only the liberator of Scotland but also Priest-King of the Celtic Church, Sovereign Grand Master of the Order of the Knights Templar and the founder of the Order of the Rosy Cross:
“When Hugues de Payens and the Knights Templar had first returned from Jerusalem in 1128, they brought with them the secrets of the Master Mason, Hiram Abiff, the builder of Solomon's Temple. However, their Jerusalem excavations had also led to other important discoveries, including some ancient documentation which enabled them to challenge certain Roman Church doctrine and New Testament interpretations, particularly in relation to the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. For this reason, the Knights Templar refused to bear the upright Latin Cross, and wore an eight-pointed, centered cross as their emblem...
"In 1307...Under the auspices of Robert the Bruce and the excommuncated clergy, the Order was restructured into a Church, with a hierarchy quite independent of Rome. The Templar Church had abbots, priests, and even bishops... The Knights began to train the army of Robert the Bruce in the hit-and-run tactics of warfare established in the Crusades... The Roman Church may have betrayed the Templars, but in Scotland they found something far more trustworthy and tangible: a sacred royal house and a Priest-King of the Celtic Church succession...
"...The King of Scots was installed as the hereditary Sovereign Grand Master, and from that time, whichever descending King held that office, he was to be known as 'Saint Germain.' A new Order was then formed, called the Elder Brothers of the Rosy Cross, and several of the Rosy Cross Knights then sailed to France for a meeting with Pope John XXII at Avignon...
"Many historians have presumed therefore that the Knights Templars must have disbanded in Scotland, but this was not the case; it was simply that Bruce had contrived the secret Order to become even more secretive. Indeed, the Order of the Knights of the Rosy Cross had been established by Bruce for Templars who had been valiant at Bannockburn, and this was a very successful cover." 6In Morals and Dogma, Albert Pike adds, "Their watchword was, to become wealthy in order to buy the world. They became so, and in 1312, they possessed in Europe alone more than nine thousand seignories" (Morals and Dogma, 819-820). (A seignory refers to the estate or dominion of a noble or feudal lord).
The Knights Templars were corrupt from the beginning. But whether the order started out degenerate or became this way later, it is certain that the Templars had, during their exploits in the Middle East, become strongly influenced by both the Gnostics and the Assassins (a ruthless military order). It is a fact that several of the founders of the Knights Templars were initiates in the sect of the Assassins7. The Templars, while adopting the religious beliefs of the Gnostics, received many of their organizational and political traits from the Assassins. The Templars represented the first wide-scale attempt to organize and mobilize the forces of occultism for the purpose of gaining control of the world.
Occult historian Edith Starr Miller summarizes the demise of the Templars as follows:
"Having embraced Gnosticism while in Palestine, and in touch with the sect of the Assassins, the Templar order degenerated, and some of its members, under the influence of that sect, were said to practice Phallicism or sex-worship and Satanism and to venerate "The Baphomet," the idol of the Luciferians. The crime of Sodomy was a rite of Templar initiation." (Ibid., 144). "In 1307 the Templars were charged with heresy and immorality by a former member of the order"8. As a result, Philip IV of France launched an investigation looking into the alleged misdeeds of the organization9. On 15 October 1507 the king had the Templars of France arrested and brought before the Inquisitor for France by whom they were examined10. The knights confessed to a variety of notorious crimes and admitted to taking blasphemous oaths against Jesus Christ upon admission into the Order.
Pope Clement V, deeply resenting the King's interference with an order which existed entirely under papal jurisdiction, wrote in the strongest terms of remonstrance to Philippe le Bel urging their release, and even after their trial, neither the confessions of the Knights nor the angry expostulations of the King could persuade him to believe in their guilt (Ibid., p.53).
The pope was not only slow to respond to the confessions but actually did what he could to protect the order. Later on, however, he gave the following reasons for his actions (in his own words):
"Because it did not seem likely nor credible that men of such religion who were believed often to shed their blood and frequently expose their persons to the peril of death for Christ's name, and who showed such great and many signs of devotion both in divine offices as well as in fasts, as in other devotional observances, should be so forgetful of their salvation as to do these things, we were unwilling . . . to give ear to this kind of insinuation . . . (hujusmodi insinuacioni ac delacioni ipsorum . . . aurem noluimus inclinare)." (Ibid., p.51, Michelet, Proces des Templiers).
Due to mounting pressure from a suspicious public and because a number of the confessions before Philip IV were allegedly made under torture, the pope finally decided to mount his own investigation, consenting to receive in private audience "a certain Knight of the Order, of great nobility and held by the same Order in no slight esteem" (Ibid., 53). Upon being questioned by the pope, the Knight "testified to the abominations that took place on the reception of the Brethren, the spitting on the cross, and other things which were not lawful nor, humanly speaking, decent."
Pope Clement V then decided to examine seventy-two other French Knights at Poictiers in order to discover whether their earlier confessions before the Inquisitor for France were true. These hearings were conducted without torture, with the witnesses taking an oath promising "the full and pure truth." The Templars' Grand Master, Jacques de Molay and the French leaders of the order were likewise questioned in the presence of three Cardinals, four public notaries, and many others (Ibid.). Before these many witnesses the Templars admitted their crimes as previously confessed during the trials of King Philip IV (Ibid., 53-54). The Knights Templars, as it turned out, had been masters of deception, experts in duplicity, appearing to serve Christ on the surface while worshiping Lucifer within their inner rites.
Morals and Dogma confirms this character. "The Templars, like all other Secret Orders and Associations, had two doctrines, one concealed and reserved for the Masters . . . the other public . . . Thus they deceived the adversaries whom they sought to supplant." 11.
"The Pope, however, still refused to take action against the whole Order merely because the Master and Brethren around him had gravely sinned" (Webster, Secret Societies, 54). Instead, he decided to hold a papal commission in Paris which took place in November 1309. But by then, the word about the Templars was out and the public had become outraged. In addition to Italy and France, "Templars in England, Germany, Spain, and Portugal also stood trials, but most were acquitted" 12.
Philip IV of France, more than any other monarch, pursued the members of the Order and sentenced many of them to death, charging them with conspiracy and Satan worship. On 12 May 1310 he had fifty-four French Templars burned alive in Paris13. In 1312, Pope Clement V was finally persuaded to abolish the Order14. And on 18 March 1314, the Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, along with three of his highest ranking officers, were burned at the stake15. It is this diabolical knight after whom today's Masonic Order of De Molay, reserved for young men, was named.
Following the death of De Molay, the Templars found refuge in Portugal under King Dinis II who became their protector (Ibid., 145). The Order suffered a temporary setback resulting from the confiscation of most of its property; but it remained influential, continuing to operate underground. Morals and Dogma attests to the survival of the Knights Templars stating that De Molay, prior to his execution, created four Metropolitan Lodges, at Naples for the East, at Edinburgh for the West, at Stockholm for the North, and at Paris for the South. [The initials of his name . . . found in the same order in the first three Degrees, are but one of the many internal and cogent proofs that such was the origin of modern Freemasonry16 . . . ].In a continued reference to the Templar order, Morals and Dogma adds: ". . . it lived, under other names and governed by unknown Chiefs, revealing itself only to those who, in passing through a series of Degrees, had proven themselves worthy to be entrusted with the dangerous Secret." (Ibid., 821). Many believes that the Knights Templars, in their desire to seek vengeance on King Philip IV, had a hand in starting the French Revolution.
The Knights Templar survive today as a branch of the Illuminati and guard the remaining relics of Jesus, which are hidden in a location known only to them...
The Rosicrucians
Evidence suggests that the surviving Knights Templars either founded or merged with an existing secret order in the early 1300s, later referred to as the Order of the Rose-Croix (the Rosicrucians). Morals and Dogma however, establishes a definite link between the Rosicrucians and the Templar Order. By the early 1600s, more than three hundred years had passed since the Templars had been abolished. As a result, the secret order decided to test the waters to see how the public would respond to its occult philosophies. For obvious reasons, the Order could not share its real history linking it to the Templars, so it devised an allegory of its history around a mythical character by the name of Christian Rosenkreuz.
This tale was published in a document known as the "Fama Fraternitatis," which the Order circulated throughout Europe. The story elaborates how Rosenkreuz traveled to Syria and then Egypt to study the occult. After learning from all of the great masters of occult philosophy in the Middle East and Northern Africa, he returned to Europe to spread his "enlightenment" throughout that continent. But he was unfavorably received and therefore, returned home to Germany where he hoped to establish a society based on his teachings17. This fictitious life of Christian Rosenkreuz symbolically conveyed the story of the Templars.
According to Mackey's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, ". . . the fiction was readily accepted as a truth by most people, and the invisible society of Rosenkreuz was sought for with avidity by many who wished to unite with it" (Ibid., 640). However, the Order only wanted to test the reaction it would prompt and did not respond. (A number of societies sprang up claiming to possess the occult secrets of Rosenkreuz; but these aberrations were not the real Rosicrucian Order.)
This well calculated move by the secret Order allowed them to monitor Europe's openness to the occult without revealing the true identity of the Order or the names of its members. It also created a renewed interest in the occult throughout the Continent. But nearly another century would pass before the Order would begin to expand by publicly enlisting initiates.
Some contemporary leaders of the Masonic movement have denied any connections between their Order and the Knights Templars and Rosicrucians. However, enough evidence exists, which, if considered along with earlier statements from Morals and Dogma, clearly reveals that modern-day Freemasonry is a continuation of the preceding Orders. One outstanding example is in the names of the last three degrees of the York Rite — the Knight of the Red Cross, Knight of Malta and Knight Templar — and the eighteenth degree of the Scottish Rite — Sovereign Prince of Rose-Croix, which together with the seventeenth degree is known as the Chapter of Rose Croix.
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Salauddine Mohammed Faruque on July 25,2007, last updated on 12.08.2009
