THE KNIGHT TEMPLAR'S PART VI

Close to a year before the lethal date of 1307 the Temple had gained intelligence that King Philippe was to begin a persecution of the order. They started making preparations, they called in many of the order financial records, books, rules, and had them burned.  A knight that was withdrawing from the order was told by the Treasurer that he was making a very wise decision, because something was in the winds!  An official decree was issued to all preceptories in France instructing them not to release any information  on  the Orders policies, rituals and procedures.

Many knights fled the preceptories  in France, there was an orderly evacuation of certain knights all of whom were associated with the Treasurer.   Under torture one knight confessed that the Templar treasure was taken from the Paris Preceptories, and was taken shortly before the arrests.  The same witness also stated that the Precepitor of France also left France by sea with fifty horses.

Historians believe that the Templars were acting under orders when they were arrested because these fierce warriors went passively, without hostility, as though they had been waiting for the event.

At dawn on Friday the 13th, 1307. The Atlantic fleet had already departed Rochelle France during the preceding night.  Orders were unsealed throughout the country of France, with actions that were sudden swift and lethal.

  But only six hundred twenty Templars were arrested, including the leadership of the order.  They were all tortured, most killed, some were tortured for years.

 The Grand Master of the order Jacques de Moray was tortured extensively for several years.   He was blinded by red hot irons stuck into his eyes, his genitals were boiled in oil, and then pulled off with cords, most of his bones had been broken or dislocated on the rack and was finally after seven years of torment slowly burnt alive by order of the King and Pope.  

There were only two knights who confessed under torture to charges of homosexuality, blasphemy, spitting on the cross and heresy

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The Templars had at least two fleets of ships, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic fleet.  There is also a possibility that they had a separate fleet that serviced the Hanseatic League, in the Baltic sea.  The ships left their respective home ports and the whole order of the Templars went through an immediate reorganization, they went underground, they regrouped joined several already existing Knight groups and started a few of their own.

The fleet out of La Rochelle with 13 ships sailed as a fleet, for security they had merchant ships and armed galleys they used for protection.  They moved  on  the night of October 12, 1307 out of le Rochelle harbor and begat one of the greatest mysteries of the world.  From that point no one has ever seen the ships again.  Or have they?

 Legends have it that They initially stopped in the Sein River, where they picked up fleeing Templars from the Paris Preceptories, fifty horses, and at least part of the Solomon/Cathar/Templar treasure which has been known to history as the Holy Grail.  There was a material portion to the Holy Grail, a knowledge portion, and a secret that they held

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 From the Sein River they headed for Scotland, they went by the west coast of Ireland to avoid detection from the English or French forces.  They went to Scotland which wasn't under the control of the Pope. But was under the control of the St. Clair family.   

                                                                           PORT-O-GRAIL             

The Mediterranean fleet came around to Portugal where the Templars had reorganized into the Order of the knights of Christ.  Almourol  Castle was a Templar strong hold, on an Island in the Tagus River near Abrantes  Portugal (Port of Grail) 

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The castle was built in 1171 over the foundation of a Roman castle, which in turn was built over the foundation of a Phoenician castle.  It was built by Master Templar Gualdim Pais, who was also an excellent navigator and sailor.

Portugal is extremely important in the history of the world but little credit is given to them.  The history of Portugal is directly related to the Templars and their “lost fleet”.   King Alphonso IV, became the Grand Master of the Order of the Knights of Christ and later Prince Henry the Navigator and also Christopher Columbus became Grand Masters.

Portugal has always had close ties to England, where the Templars were very strong, England was like Portugal’s big brother.  To be as small as Portugal  is and to remain independent in the Middle Ages it helps to have a very strong army and to be strong in seafaring. The entire country of Portugal was a Templar strong hold and I wouldn't be over stating it if I said it actually was a Templar country!

                           ORDER OF THE TEMPLE TO THE ORDER OF CHRIST

On December 30th 1308, while the case of the Knights Templar had already been a burning issue in France over the past year, the pope ordered King Denis of Portugal to arrest the Knights Templar under his jurisdiction.

 A commission of enquiry was created in the country and was chaired by the Bishop of Lisbon and attended by the superior of the Franciscan Order and a jurist, Joao de Luis.   Twenty-eight  knights were then questioned, as well as six other witnesses.  To prevent the Temple's possessions from falling into other hands, the king ordered the possessions to be confiscated in January 1310, until such time as the Church had officially reached a verdict concerning the accused order.

 The enquiry conducted in Portugal, though without resorting to torture, could not find any blame concerning the Temple or its members, and a provincial council held shortly after to decide on any follow-ups came to the same conclusion.

 CREATION OF THE ORDER OF CHRIST

King Denis was worried about the rumors that the pope was apparently thinking of awarding all the Temple's possessions to the Hospitallers. The Hospitallers already owned several possessions on the south bank of the Tagus, and giving them the Templar holdings on the north bank of the same river would provide them with such a build-up in what was a strategic area that they would undoubtedly be capable of undermining the royal authority. After various negotiations, the king  obtained the ruling in 1319 whereby the Temple's possessions would go to a new, specifically Portuguese order.

The bull of foundation( Ad ea ex quibus) granted by Pope John XXII on 14 March 1319 first proclaimed the creation of a new order called the "Order of the Knights of Christ" (Ordem de Cavalaria de N. S. Jesus Cristo) and established the fortress of Castro Marim as the knights' house in the south-easternmost part of the country, at the mouth of the Guadiana.

   Then it imposed the rule of Calatrava on the new brotherhood,  and appointed Dom Gil Martins as Grand Master, the previous Grand Master of the Order of Aviz.

 It transferred all the possessions and rights of the Knights Templar to the new militia, but placed it under the eminent authority of the Cistercian abbot of Alcobaça Monastery, in the diocese of Lisbon. The abbot was therefore entitled to visit and collect all the houses belonging to the Order of Christ.

 Each master of the order had to pledge his loyalty to the abbot, ultimately representing the Supreme Pontiff.  Finally, should the master's position be left vacant, the bull stipulated that the new master should be someone both military and religious, and specifically professed by the new order.

Unfortunately, in the following century, this protective framework could not hold up against the greediness of the Portuguese sovereigns, attracted to the order's considerable wealth.

                                 THE NEW ORDER

                                           

Historians believe that the Order of Christ was the main refuge for the Knights Templar that escaped the spate of arrests on Friday, 13 October, 1307.  From the Mediterranean  the new Portuguese order became the (only?) resurgence of the Order of the Temple.

 As a result, the Order of Christ inherited the Templars' knowledge in terms of construction and maritime navigation.  It was used a century later by the  Henry the Navigator, the Grand Master of the Order of Christ, to develop his famous caravel, whose sails proudly flew the Templar cross, and later still by Christopher Columbus, who was also a Grand Master of the Order of Christ.

There are two aspects to the Knights Templar. The Templars were protectors of the Holy Grail, part of their methods of operation was by compartmenting information. As you grew in rank you were given more responsibility and knowledge. There were only three Templars including the Grand Master who knew the location of the secret,  and the Holy Grail.

Their covert aspect was the Priory of Sion whose entire reason of existence was to protect the Bloodline or descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. The descendants were the Merovingian Royal family of France, and their offspring that exist today.  And yes the Priory of Sion still exists and is very active.