Unabashed

The Knights Templar (or at least one sect of them) are suing the Vatican for €100Bn. This comes on the heels of the release of trial documents released by the Vatican last October in which the Vatican admitted that the dissolution of the Order was purely political and baseless. The property of the Knights themselves was seized by the then Pope, circa 1307, and the Grand Master of the Order was executed.

Since then, the Knights have been fringe at best. Probably the best known sect exists as a subsect within the Masonic Guild (Freemasons), but they claim no parentage by or connection to the original Order. There is another Spanish Order of Knights Templar who are recognized by UNESCO (for whatever that’s worth), but the way of the warrior monks of the Crusades is long gone and lost forever. It would be interesting to know if the rites of any of the modern versions of the Knights is in any way similar to the original, but no: Four hundred years passed between the time DeMoley (the final Grand Master) was executed and the Freemasons adopted the charge. I know of no order of the Knights that endured from then until now.

The Knights were considered, from what I’ve been able to gather, one of the most powerful fighting forces of the dark ages and the first Crusade. They were even referred to as “warrior monks,” which is in itself something I don’t think that has ever been duplicated in Christianity. And that’s the largest part of my fascination with the Order. It conjures images of Shao Lin monks, etc., of the Far East, but of European peoples. I know, I know: Christianity wasn’t practiced then the way it is now (evidenced by the Crusades), and it’s very likely the warrior monk mantle was just a label, and that all the Knights themselves were money-grubbing landlords. But as usual, I like the romantic side of things, I like to envision them as cavalier truth seekers, wise and skilled in the arts of war.

But as for the Association of the Sovereign Order of the Temple of Christ, the Knights sect that is actually suing the Holy See, well, first they would have to do the impossible by proving they are actually descendents of the original Knights, and then, well, since the “primary” objective of this lawsuit is to have the name of their ancestors cleared, that was already done by the Vatican back in October. What will come of this? Probably nothing. The Vatican could probably offer up the money out of petty cash, but they won’t. They’ll launch a legal grind at the “Knights” and drain them of their ardour.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: Crusade, Crusades, Freemason, Freemasonry, Guild, Knights Templar, Masonic, Masons, order, Pope, Rome, Sect, Vatican

Purchase a copy of the trial minutes for a mere $8,333 which more or less proves the king of France conjured the charges as a way to eliminate the immense debt he owed the Knights.

written by Matt Mitchell

Here’s something interesting, by imomus:

On the bus to work I’m scribbling notes on “Blings v. Organics”. The idea is that the very rich and the very poor are united by a Darwinian-materialist philosophy of Bling. The middle class are the “Organics”, guilty, responsible, tasteful, environmentally-conscious. Trouble is, the birthrate amongst the Organics is low. The Blings screw more, and will screw up the world.

One more, again by imomus:

You have to walk along the upper story of a decaying church to get to the theatre. A man plays Beethoven on a viola on the stage. There are all sorts of dingy community center areas with noticeboards sporting conspiracy-theory-type rants against the Bush administration (detailing how Prescott Bush helped the Nazis, etc).

That’s the second reference to Prescott Bush I’ve heard today. The first was in an article about a 1918 letter that claims Geronimo’s skull was removed from Fort Sill, OK, and taken to the stone tomb in New Haven, CT, the lair of the fabled “Skull & Bones” society. Speculation holds that while they may actually have a skull in their tomb, it’s very unlikely that it is the one that sat on Geronimo’s shoulders. Prescott Bush, W’s grandfather, was supposedly one of the graverobbers.

I’ve always had a particular interest in secret societies. Freemasons and Skull and Bones being the foremost, both for their size, the first being a huge, multi-national fraternity and the latter being ultra-selective, offering membership to only 15 Yale seniors per year. Current members: Pres. George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry. Remember that atrocious movie “The Skulls” starring Joshua Jackson and Craig T. Nelson? I remember being really excited about it, only to watch it and find out it starred Joshua Jackson and Craig T. Nelson, who are actors, in my belief, who were not suited to the roles they were handed. But I’m often at odds with the casts of movies; too often it’s a popularity contest rather than an attempt to put the right personality in place. I still say Michael Chiklis would have done better as Wolverine than Hugh Jackman, but with a little more digging I’m certain the perfect actor exists out there somewhere. Of course, anyone who’s ever read Wolverine knows that the short, ruddy, hairy character couldn’t possibly have been represented by pretty-boy Hugh Jackman. Now that I think of it, they could have gotten somebody other than Chiklis to play the Thing in the Fantastic Four.

From Hell is a decent movie about secret societies, the Freemasons in particular, and was based on the book by Alan Moore, Genius At Large. The book, of course, as is always the case with Hollywood it seems, is much better than the movie. From Hell should have been a “Godfather” caliber movie, but instead it was just another Hollywood scab. Coppola took Puzo’s masterpiece and created another masterpiece; the same should have been done with “From Hell.” That’s all I’m saying.

Other invasions of secret societies into modern pop culture: the phenomenally popular “The Da Vinci Code.” Which I haven’t read, and will not watch the movie, either. My wife read it and said it was written like a book for a highschooler. Every chapter ended, she said, with a “But when he looked it WASN’T THERE!!!” kind of moment. Opus Dei is the secret society in question, but I haven’t read the book and am not very impressed by the grandification of the sect by Brown, so I’ll just let that one go for now. The real reason I brought up the Da Vinci Code is because the author’s next book is supposedly titled “The Solomon Key” and will concern Freemasonry. Still, I can’t say I’ll read it… but I may give it a try.

Other popular references to secret societies: Freemasons in National Treasure; Knights Templar in “Birds of Prey” by Wilbur Smith–this is an amazing book, along with its sequels: “Monsoon” and “Blue Horizons.”

Fictional secret societies:
The Talamasca in Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles
Fight Club from the book/movie of the same name–”The first rule of Fight Club - Don’t talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club - Don’t talk about Fight Club”

There are many, many others, this is just a sampling. There’s the Death Eaters society in the Harry Potter books. Also, the Order of the Phoenix. The Sith, in the Star Wars films, I believe could be counted as a secret society. There have got to be thousands of others…

written by Matt Mitchell