Did the Knights Templar bring down Pope Benedict?

(The Gawker website no longer exists after folding in 2016. This was a rather bizarre story it ran after Pope Benedict stepped down).

The Gawker website has listed some of the current online speculations and theories about the sudden resignation of Pope Benedict – an event I blogged about when he made his announcement. There’s some pretty fanciful stuff out there and one theory I couldn’t resist sharing was the the Knights Templar had a hand in it.

But hang on? I hear you cry. Which Knights Templar? Ah – details!

Well, the Gawker article quotes what seems to me a pretty feeble “prophecy” from Nostradamus about somebody from “ancient France” who will be elected to steer the “trembling ship”. As with many of his predictions, I find them woefully unconvincing. But you can tell me otherwise!

Why is France mentioned?

Because the next pope is going to restore the Merovingian dynasty – the line of monarchs that included Clovis, the Frankish king who accepted Christianity having driven the Romans out of what was then Gaul. This is proved by the writings of a fifty century bishop of Arles called Saint Caesar – who did indeed exist. The good saint said that a ‘great monarch’ will assist the new pope in the reformation of the whole earth, etc.

The Merovingians – you will recall – were part of the bloodline of Jesus according to Dan Brown in the Da Vinci Code. The end of the dynasty gave rise, it’s claimed, to the Order of Sion, which was behind the formation of the Knights Templar. I hope all this isn’t hurting your head – it’s certainly giving me brain ache.

One final thought on the Templars and Pope Benedict – a group of people claiming to be descendants of the Knights Templar did in fact attempt to sue the pontiff in 2008. The Daily Telegraph report – click HERE to read – detailed how the Association of the Sovereign Order of the Temple of Christ was seeking £79bn from the Vatican for assets seized by the church from the Templars after their destruction.

Needless to say Pope Benedict didn’t pay up – could they have got their final revenge!?