Smear campaign that led to the Templar downfall

What was the cause of the Templar downfall and could it have been avoided?

In 1307, the king of France – Philip the Fair – issued orders to arrest every Knight Templar in his realm. This was done in total secrecy in what one writer has described as the medieval equivalent of a dawn raid. A couple of ex-Templars, disgruntled with the order they had once sworn loyalty to, had spilled the beans to the king’s officials about all manner of dubious practices the Templars were alleged to engage in.

Lies that led to the Templar downfall

This included the notorious kiss on the base of the spine, the mouth and the navel. There was also the worship of a head – sometimes described as a cat’s head or a three-faced head or the head of John the Baptist or a head in the sand that spoke, etc, etc. The Templars denounced Christ, it was alleged, and stamped, urinated and spat on the cross. This was the very cross that they displayed on their tunics and yet they dishonoured it.

The heresies that the rumour mill attributed to the Templars included being closet Muslims, closet Cathars or closet Mandaeans. The latter were an eastern gnostic sect who revered John the Baptist but rejected Jesus Christ. The stamping on the crucifix was believed to evidence the Templar disdain for Christ.

The Cathars were a major heretical movement in France that threatened both royal and church power in the south of the country. Cathars rejected the Catholic church’s hierarchy and sacraments disputing the real nature of Jesus. As regards Islam, it has been argued from the medieval period to the present day by some that the Templars had got a little too close to Muslim belief and the scientific knowledge held in the caliphate’s universities and libraries.

FIND OUT MORE: Were the Knights Templar magicians or heretics?

French king’s lust for money led to the Templar downfall

Of course, all of these accusations may be utter tripe. The real reason for the Templars being rounded up, tortured and forced to confess to all of this was that king Philip of France just needed their money. He had bolted to the Paris Temple during a mob riot in the city asking the Templars for their protection but while in their safekeeping, he had seen their wealth at first hand and determined to get his hands on it. Philip had form in this regard having already mugged France’s Jewish population, Lombard merchants and even the church. Why not shake down the Templars?

But in the ‘no smoke without fire’ camp, there are those who think the Templars may genuinely have been influenced by eastern philosophical and religious ideas that crept into their ritual and belief. Maybe not in the lurid terms described by the charges at their trial – but hateful to the western church all the same. The truth is – we don’t know. But what is certain is that the allegations above were upheld at the time and dozens of Templar knights including the last Grand Master Jacques de Molay were burnt at the stake on the basis of their forced confessions.

7 thoughts on “Smear campaign that led to the Templar downfall

  1. 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

    1. 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

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