http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1379629,00.html
November 29, 2004
The last crusade of the Templars
By Ruth Gledhill
The knights want a Papal apology nearly 700 years after they were
disbanded and hounded into exile
THE VATICAN is giving "serious consideration" to apologising for the
persecution that led to the suppression of the Knights Templar. The
suppression, which began on Friday , October 13, 1307, gave Friday the
Thirteenth its superstitious legacy.
A Templar Order in Britain that claims to be descended from the original
Knights Templar has asked that the Pope should make the apology.
The Templars, based in Hertford, are hoping for an apology by 2007, the
700th anniversary of the start of the persecution, which culminated with
the torture and burning at the stake of the Grand Master Jacques de Molay
for heresy and the dissolution of the Order by apostolic decree in 1312.
The letter, signed by the Secretary of the Council of Chaplains on behalf
of the Grand Master of the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Jesus Christ and the
Temple of Solomon Grand Preceptory, with a PO box address in Hertford,
formally requests an apology for "the torture and murder of our
leadership", instigated by Pope Clement V.
"We shall witness the 700th anniversary of the persecution of our order on
13th October 2007", the letter says. "It would be just and fitting for the
Vatican to acknowledge our grievance in advance of this day of mourning."
Apologies have already been made by the Roman Catholic Church for the
persecution of Galileo and for the Crusades. The Templars hope that these
precedents will make their suit more likely to succeed.
Hertford Templar Tim Acheson, who is descended from the Scottish Acheson
family that has established Templar links and whose family lived until
recently in Bailey Hall, Hertford, said: "This letter is a serious attempt
by a Templar group which traces its roots back to the medieval Order to
solicit an apology from the Papacy."
He added: "The Papacy and the Kingdom of France conspired to destroy the
Order for reasons which modern historians judge to be primarily political.
Their methods and motives are now universally regarded as brutal, unfair
and unjustified.
"The Knights Templar officially ceased to exist in the early 1300s, but
the order continued underground. It was a huge organisation and the vast
majority of Templars survived the persecution, including most of their
leaders, along with much of their treasure and, most importantly, their
original values and traditions."
The Hertford Mercury newspaper has reported newly discovered Templar links
with Hertford, including a warren of tunnels beneath the town. At the
heart of the maze of tunnels is Hertford Castle, where in 1309 four
Templars from Temple Dinsley near Hitchin were imprisoned after their
arrest by Edward II, who believed that they were holding a lost treasure.
The treasure was never found.
When Subterranea Britannica, a group of amateur archaeologists, expressed
an interest in investigating Hertfords tunnels last month, they received
anonymous threats telling them not to.
The Templars captured Jerusalem during the Crusades and were known as
"keepers of the Holy Grail", said to be the cup used at the Last Supper or
as the receptacle used by Joseph of Arimathea to catch Christs blood as he
bled on the Cross, or both.
Interest in the Templars and the Holy Grail is at an unprecedented high
after the success of books such as The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown, and
the earlier Holy Blood Holy Grail, by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and
Henry Lincoln, which claimed that Jesus survived the crucifixion and
settled in France.
The Knights Templar were founded by Hugh de Payens, a French knight from
the Champagne area of Burgundy, and eight companions in 1118 during the
reign of Baldwin II of Jerusalem, when they took a perpetual vow to defend
the Christian kingdom. They were assigned quarters next to the Temple. In
1128, they took up the white habit of the Cistercians, adding a red cross.
The order knights, sergeants, farmers and chaplains amassed enormous
wealth.
In Rome, a Vatican spokesman said that the demand for an apology would be
given "serious consideration". However, Vatican insiders said that the
Pope, 84, was under pressure from conservative cardinals to "stop saying
sorry" for the errors of the past, after a series of papal apologies for
the Crusades, the Inquisition, Christian anti-Semitism and the persecution
of scientists and "heretics" such as Galileo.
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R. A. Hettinga