The late Middle Ages saw the emergence of an obsession with witchcraft. Is it possible that the Knights Templar were caught up in this murderous trend? That their trial was the first of the many prosecutions of alleged witches across Europe? It’s not as far fetched as you might think.
What was witchcraft?
How was witchcraft understood in the medieval period? Witchcraft was largely associated with maleficium, the Latin term for harmful magic. This included casting curses, using potions and poisons, and manipulating objects to cause harm. Beliefs included the idea that witches could cause impotence, crop failures, diseases, and death of livestock and people. Witches were thought to use personal items of their victims (hair, nail clippings, etc.) to work their magic.
Witchcraft was frequently linked to demonic pacts and interactions with the Devil. It was believed that witches could make deals with the Devil in exchange for supernatural powers. These demonic associations contributed to the perception of witchcraft as an evil practice.
The medieval Church played a significant role in shaping the understanding of witchcraft. It viewed witchcraft as a form of heresy and a challenge to its authority. The Church actively condemned witchcraft and developed procedures for identifying and punishing witches. The Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches), published in 1486, codified many ideas about witchcraft and became a guide for identifying and prosecuting witches.
DISCOVER: Top medieval witch hunters
How was witchcraft linked to the Knights Templar?
Many of the accusations levelled against the Templars by King Philip IV of France and his advisers foreshadowed the crimes that would feature in countless future witch trials. In some ways, the trials of the Templars look like a dress rehearsal for the upcoming tidal wave of witch hunts that would sweep across Europe from the 15th to the 17th centuries – and then jump the Atlantic to the Americas.
There’s no doubt that the 14th century was a turning point in attitudes to witchcraft. Before that century, sorcery and necromancy were seen as primitive superstitions rooted in pre-Christian belief that were not worth worrying too much about because they lacked any real supernatural power. Saints could effect miracles but not witches. Their spells and potions were nonsense only believed by credulous folk in the villages.
But by the 14th century, the Roman Catholic church had faced a significant number of heretical movements, such as the Cathars and Waldensians. The Pope had amassed huge power through the Middle Ages but that came with growing resentment and hostility. Charismatic preachers and miracle workers preached in Italy, France, Germany, and elsewhere – decrying the corruption and false beliefs of the church.
Rome was terrified. It now argued that heretics weren’t just misguided people who had strayed from the path of righteousness, but agents of evil in league with the Devil. The church was engaged in a titanic struggle against those using supernatural powers to undermine its authority. This view was echoed by King Philip IV of France who pursued multiple prosecutions against people accused of sorcery including a bishop, a group of women preachers, and a dead pope. They were all on trial at the same time that Philip rounded on the Knights Templar.
The charges faced by the Templars were framed by the same prosecutors handling these other cases. So we see similar charges that would go on to become standard features of witch trials. Illicit kisses, worship of demons, blasphemous rituals, etc. Incredibly, the charges stuck and the Templars – like so many witches ahead of them – were burned at the stake.
If you would like to know more about the Knights Templar, then get your hands on a copy of my book: The Knights Templar – History & Mystery. Published by Pen & Sword and available on Amazon, Waterstones, Barnes & Noble, and WHSmith. Don’t miss out on your copy!
Now tie it together with the Portuguese Sephardic jews and the
Portuguese Knights Templars(Knights of the Order of Christ) that
protected them in 1511 during the RCC vatican inqusition that was trying to kill them,and those Templars took them to the usa and we’ll have the complete story… And Columbus was “NOT Italian”…HE WAS PORTUGUESE AND EDUCATED IN PORTUGAL AT THE BEST MARITIME COLLEGE IN THE WORLD AT THAT TIME IN HISTORY ! Here is the proof to back my statement with actual historically accurate data: https://web.archive.org/web/20150409180231/http://www.dightonrock.com/articles-Columbus.htm
And here is exactly why I know this : I can trace my family history on mothers side to “Dighton Rock” and the Portuguese Templars and the Portuguese Pilgrims that landed up the Taunton River in Dighton Mass in the year 1511 ! They were Portuguese Sephardic jews being protected by Templars .
My Grt Grandpa Domingo was/is a descendant of the
Portuguese Pilgrims & Templars (Knights of The Order of Christ),
that landed at “Dighton Rock” in Mass in 1511. That’s more than100 yrs before the English Protestant pilgrims landed at Plymouth, Mass out on Cape Cod and put the date 1620 on the big rock in Plymouth now called “Pymouth Rock”. You never were taught about this in school for some very suspicious and nefarious reasons that absolutely lead directly back to the RCC & Vatican.
Grt Grandpa Domingo owned a farm in Dighton,Mass. with a brook running through it that leads directly back to the Taunton River just north of Dighton Rock,(use google earth~ Brook
St. Dighton Mass USA ~and where the street crosses the brook was all my family land) and he’s buried in Dighton near where the video I will give a link to was created ….
The name Domingo is Latin meaning “Belonging to God” ! His daughter(granny) married a Pacheco who’s bloodline goes back to pre-roman times. Try to debunk this
truth…I dare you !
https://youtu.be/Ik984pBAZWM
FYI~ my dads family are directly connected to the Narragansett RI Masonic Lodge #33 , which is the 2nd oldest Lodge in the USA, and The Order of Eastern Star too. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“The Odyssey of the Portuguese Jews”
By ManuelLuciano da Silva, MD
It was a remarkable success. The cultural conference,entitled “The Odyssey of the Portuguese Jews”, was held on Sunday, February 21,1999, in the main amphitheater of the new building of the Faculty of Economics at Roger Williams University (Bristol, Rhode Island). Even before the
scheduled time the room was filled to capacity including the lateral corridors.
The subject matter had awakened such avid interest
in the cultural history of NewEngland that a large audience was drawn from numerous localities in Rhode Island as well as from neighboring states: Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire and even New York. Various groups had to be turned away because there was no more room in the amphitheater!
The conference was convened by Mr. Steven
Gorban, director of the group called “Saudades-Sephardic Project”, whose objective is to converge all the good intentions of Portuguese SephardicJews, uniting in a brotherly manner and in communion with all the Portuguese scattered throughout theworld. continued here: https://web.archive.org/web/20150409212806/http://www.dightonrock.com/odyssey_of_port_jews.htm
another snippet :Five hundred years ago, due to the Inquisition, the Portuguese Sephardic Jews had been separated from all other Portuguese. The time has come for us to initiate a new period called “The Next 500 Years”and employ all our energies to stimulate the friendship and the spirit of mutual respect among all Portuguese Sephardic Jews, Catholics and Moors.
After a short introduction by Mr. Gorban, I began my lecture with color slides. I started by presenting, systematically, geographic information in order to provide a better
understanding of the relationship between Judea or Palestine and the land that much later gave birth to Portugal.
Complete article here : https://web.archive.org/web/20150409212806/http://www.dightonrock.com/odyssey_of_port_jews.htm
another snippet:
Until the Inquisition (1497) ALL Portuguese kings were
medically treated by Portuguese Sephardic Jews! In general, the Portuguese kings treated the Portuguese Sephardic Jews with kindness because they admired their professional capacity not only in medicine and surgery but also in mathematics,finance, banking, and even as artisans.
THE RCC INQUISITION~~
With the marriage of King Manuel I to the daughter of the Catholic Spanish Kings in 1496, the Inquisition, which had begun in Spain in1492, was introduced to Portugal in 1497.
With this tragic move Portuguese Jews began to leave Portugal. Even the famous Abraão Zacuto was forced to leave Portugal! The Inquisition Law ordered that all the Jews be compelled to convert to Catholicism or risk being burned at the stake (Auto-de-Fé). For this reason many Portuguese Sephardic Jews hid in the mountains of Beira Alta and Beira Baixa (the highest mountains in Portugal) and became crypto-Jews. Those who converted to Catholicism were called “Marranos” (in reference to pigs) or “Conversos”,
meaning “New Christians.” The slide that I showed depicting an Auto-de-Fé on the Praça do Comércio today’s center of Lisbon was,undoubtedly, the darkest page in Portuguese history!
The most famous physician of the 16th century was the Portuguese Sephardic Jew, Garcia de Orta, who became a brilliant professor and author of medicine in the Goa Medical School. Even after his burial, the nquisitors exhumed his bones, burned them, and threw the ashes into the sea!
EXPULSION OF THE JEWS~~With the expulsion of Portuguese Sephardic physicians, as well as other Jewish erudites, Portugal suffered such a terrible loss of intellectual treasure that even to this date it has not recovered from such a”deseperatum,” or despair. Portugal lost a good deal with the Inquisition but many other nations gained from the intelligence and professional
qualities of the Portuguese Sephardic Jews.
#Crestedduck64 #Robert W Shutt
Thank you for taking the time to write a very interesting contribution. I’m aware that in Portugal Columbus is believed to have been Portuguese because…I’m half Portuguese myself. And it is true that the Portuguese basically nationalised the Templars creating the Order of Christ, which as you say played such a huge role in discovering the New World. The role of Jewish thinkers in Portuguese history is fascinating and I read about Garcia de Orta when I visited a museum this year in Porto about the Navigators. Do you know that Queen Elizabeth I of England was also treated by a Portuguese Jewish doctor hanged, drawn and quartered on false allegations as a spy for Spain? http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/this-day-in-jewish-history/.premium-1.528398