2012-02-07T03:10:31Z Knights Templar Vault Copyright 2012, Knights Templar Vault SPHPBLOG

The recent events in Norway are extremely disturbing in their own right. But it should not go unnoticed that the historic order of the Knights Templar has been once again grossly misunderstood and misrepresented. The issue is very complex, of course, and the history of the Crusades will forever remain a subject of debates. It is very important to remember, however, that if someone were to pick a symbol of anti-multiculturalism, choosing the Knights Templar is simply ridiculous. In fact, you'd be better off blaming these knights for being the original multiculturalists! Here is one excellent tidbit of history to illustrate this point.

Usama ibn Munqidh, Amir of Shaizar (1095–1188) included an interesting story in his autobiographical "Book of Instruction with illustrations" which can be found in Francesco Gabrieli's "Arab Historians of the Crusades", p.48 of the English translation published by Routledge in 2010. Usama relates how, while being in Jerusalem, he used to go to the al-Aqsa mosque, which was controlled by the Templars who were his "friends." They would always provide a small room for Usama's prayers. One day, as he began to pray, a Frank grabbed him and turned him to face east, adding "That is the way to pray!" (Muslims, of course, turn in the direction of the Kaaba). Several Templars immediately interfered and Usama was able to proceed with his prayers. As soon as they stopped monitoring the Frankish intruder, he once again forcefully turned the Muslim around. At this time, the Templars took the Frank away and apologized to Usama, explaining that the man had just arrived today and was unfamiliar with the customs of Islam.

I would like to point out that Usama is telling this story in order to illustrate "Frankish barbarism," so from a historian's point of view this account gains credibility when it comes to assessing the degree of tolerance displayed by the Templars.
]]> http://www.knightstemplarvault.com/index.php?entry=entry110727-010349 2011-07-27T00:00:00Z 2011-07-27T00:00:00Z

I have not been particularly impressed by Barbara Frale's "The Templars: The Secret History Revealed". Here is just one reason, something I found rather confusing:

On page 24 one reads the following: "Al-Aqsa mosque, built on the ruins of the Temple of Solomon, was known as the Dome of the Rock because it contained the block of stone from which the prophet Mohammed is believed to have ascended into heaven." It has always been my understanding that the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock (Masjid Qubbat As-Sakhrah) were two distinctly different structures (they certainly are today). Leaving aside the history of these mosques (not terribly well documented), it suffices to say that medieval writers certainly describe two separate buildings. The Dome of the Rock is known to them as Templum Domini, and the Al-Aqsa mosque is referred to as Templum Salomonis. Saewulf, for instance, describes the Dome of the Rock (In cuius Templi medietate rupes conspicitur alta et magna et subtus concavata, in qua erant sancta sanctorum: ibi imposuit Salomon archam federis, habens manna et virgam Aaron, quae ibidem floruit et fronduit et amigdalum protulit, et duas tabulas testamenti.), but adds: "In atrio Templi Domini ad meridiem est Templum Salomonis mirae magnitudinis, ad cuius orientalem plagam est oraculum quoddam, habens cunabulum Christi Iesu et balneum ipsius et lectum beatae matris eius testantibus Assyriis." Initially I thought that an unfortunate translation error caused the conflation of the two buildings. However, on page 85 the Al-Aqsa mosque is again mentioned as the location of a "sacred rock" in connection with the famous story of ibn Munqidh. And yet, on page 111, Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock are listed as two separate Temple Mount buildings that remained in Muslim hands after Frederick's treaty with Al-Kamil.

The confusion does not end with Ms. Frale, by the way. J. Phillips in his "Holy Warriors: A Modern History of the Crusades", on page 59, identifies Templum Domini as modern day al-Aqsa Mosque.

Personally, I have always found it confusing that the Crusaders, certainly aware of the fact that the Foundation Rock was located in the Holy of Holies of the original Temple of Solomon, chose instead to refer to the nearby Al-Aqsa mosque as Templum Salomonis. However, medieval sources are very clear on this account. ]]> http://www.knightstemplarvault.com/index.php?entry=entry110723-141833 2011-07-23T00:00:00Z 2011-07-23T00:00:00Z Les Templiers (1805) was probably among the first modern literary portrayals the Order of the Knights Templar. Here you can see the costume of Jacques de Molay, the grand master, one of the main characters in the play. The quote below the picture says:

Nous laisserons de nous une illustre mémoire,
Et qui meurt innocent, meurt toujours avec gloire

We shall leave illustrious memories of ourselves.
One who dies innocent always dies with glory.


]]> http://www.knightstemplarvault.com/index.php?entry=entry110417-010828 2011-04-17T00:00:00Z 2011-04-17T00:00:00Z
The following symbols were used by the Knights Templar as a means of asserting their identity. Sometimes they were combined in a single image (e.g. the cross on a banner)

Beauseant banner



This black and white flag, perhaps signifying the strife between good and evil, was probably the most important symbol for each individual Knight Templar. According to the statutes of the Order, knights were supposed to always be aware of the flag's location on the battle field. Whenever the knights would become scattered and disoriented they were supposed to gather in a formation under Beauseant. If the Templar banner was not visible, the knights headed towards the Hospitaller flag or, lacking one, to any other Christian standard on the battle field.


Knights Templar Banner
by Marto of Toledo, Spain (Double faced)
Two knights on one horse

This famous image of two Templars riding one horse signifies the vow of poverty. The symbol is found on many Knights Templar seals.


Modern reproduction of a Templar Seal Ring
by Marto of Toledo, Spain Red cross

The red cross symbolized martyrdom. It could be seen on the Knights' Templar garb. This symbol is distinctly different from the White Cross of Hospitallers (who eventually adopted the red cross) and the black cross of the Teutonic Order.

Temple Dome



There are various theories regarding the identity of the dome seen on many templar seals. It may be the Dome on the Rock, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, or simply a representation of the original Temple of Solomon. ]]> http://www.knightstemplarvault.com/index.php?entry=entry100811-152618 2010-08-11T00:00:00Z 2010-08-11T00:00:00Z

I have a strong suspicion that many readers of this blog enjoy Renaissance-inspired rock by Blackmore's Night. Good news! They are about to release a new album on September 3, 2010. It will contain 15 songs + bonus track. Songs include: All The Fun of the Faire; Journeyman; Vagabond (Make A Princess of Me); and Strawberry Girl
plus many others... Can't imagine it being anything but a treat!

Available for pre-order at Amazon right now. Should ship on September 14. I will keep looking for ways to buy the album as soon as it is released as a download.

]]> http://www.knightstemplarvault.com/index.php?entry=entry100810-153058 2010-08-10T00:00:00Z 2010-08-10T00:00:00Z
Ci sono anche i matti senza Templari, ma quelli coi Templari sono i più insidiosi.
There are lunatics who don't talk about the Templars, but those who do are the most insidious.

I Templari c'entrano sempre.
The Templars have something to do with everything.

See also:
Italian, please! - Italian language, culture, customs and Italy's impact on civilization ]]> http://www.knightstemplarvault.com/index.php?entry=entry100506-150118 2010-05-06T00:00:00Z 2010-05-06T00:00:00Z
A 19th century Irish historian states that "It does not appear that the Templars of Ireland were as hardly dealt with as those on the Continent; perhaps their conduct was not so flagrant" ("The Knights Templars in Ireland", The Dublin Penny Journal, Volume 2, Number 87, March 1, 1834). Despite lesser harshness directed towards individual Irish Templars, the fate of the Order on the whole was no different in Ireland than in most of Europe. It was disbanded, and its property was given to the Knights of St John, the Templar's bitter rival in the fight for a common goal.]]> http://www.knightstemplarvault.com/index.php?entry=entry100408-181442 2010-04-08T00:00:00Z 2010-04-08T00:00:00Z

Well, I finally got to watch Arn: The Knight Templar (Swedish title "Arn - Tempelriddaren"). The movie is based on a trilogy by Jan Guilou, available in English. I am mentioning the book because the main thing you will notice if you watch the movie is that most plot lines are only initiated in the movie and will need to find their resolution later. So, you just may have to get a hold of the books, to learn what happened.

The main character's story follows a generic hero plot line. Nothing unusual. Arn Magnusson is likable and for the most part believable. He seems to journey from naivete to experience quite quickly in a well-depicted atmosphere of a Medieval feudal society. Arn's Templar activities are really not the main focus of the movie. However, if you would like to see some scenic views of Scandinavia, this is a movie for you! There is just a little bit of fighting and violence throughn in for good measure. On the whole, no masterpiece, but if you like the subject matter (I would stress that it is primarily Middle Ages vs. Templar history specifically) you might enjoy it. Oh, yeah, there is a nice shot of a Templar sword with the "In Hoc Signo Vinces" motto. That explains why I have seen replicas of this sword for sale! ]]> http://www.knightstemplarvault.com/index.php?entry=entry100406-151755 2010-04-06T00:00:00Z 2010-04-06T00:00:00Z
Fulcher of Chartres says: "O, how fitting and how pleasing it was for us all to see those crosses, stitched in silk or in gold, or made out of any kind of material, which the Pilgrims, following the order of the Pope, fashioned on their shoulders after pledging to set out on this march".

It is quite evident that there was no color or design required of the Crusaders. If any of the original nine members of the Knights Templar Order came to Palestine during the first crusade they would have worn crosses on their garments, but there is nothing to be said about how exactly those crosses looked.

In 1128 Pope Honorius II granted the Knights Templar the right to use white cloaks for distinction and as a symbol of innocence, but without any crosses ("absque aliqua cruce", says Jacques de Vitry). Only Eugene III (1145-1153) instituted that the Templars wear red crosses as a sign of martyrdom.

It would seem that the specific shape of the cross was not that crucial (sorry for the pun). Considering the Knights Templar humility and their desire to avoid ostentation, a simple cross of two equal beams would have been the most likely to be used at the time. Even a cross with a longer vertical line requires additional measuring in order "to make it look good", right?



I believe that only later the cross that is typically seen as the Templar cross because widely used by the Knights:



The Maltese cross is very similar. It is possible that the Templars did not at all feel that this design is all that different. In addition, the eight points of the Maltese cross have their own special significance as the eight beatitudes of Christianity proclaimed by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount (Mathew 5-7).


The main reason why I would advise modern Templar enthusiasts, writers etc. to use the second design (i.e. the Templar cross proper, the cross patee) is that the Maltese cross is too recognizable and has a longer history as a distinct symbol of the Knights Hospitaller, the order which still exists today under a different name.
]]> http://www.knightstemplarvault.com/index.php?entry=entry100317-141324 2010-03-17T00:00:00Z 2010-03-17T00:00:00Z
Christianismus: Barbara Frale e le scritte sulla sindone di Torino

In essence, the method consists of removing the "fish bone" texture of the canvas, in order to bring up the writing. Unfortunately, I don't have any Photoshop filters to achieve the same result...

It must be added that by simply looking at the untraced results of the two most important words in the inscription, one can see that they are by no means distinct and unmistakable.

This one is supposed to be (Ι)ΗΣΟΥ(Σ) - Jesus:




This one is being interpreted as ΝΑΖΑΡΕΝΝΙΟΣ - Nazarite:



To say the least, I am not convinced that there is much to this theory. But I would still like to try the same imaging techniques!]]> http://www.knightstemplarvault.com/index.php?entry=entry100309-160747 2010-03-09T00:00:00Z 2010-03-09T00:00:00Z

Need a good proof of the fact that Masonic Templarism that became so prominent in the 19th century is in no way connected with the original Order of the Knights Templar? Here it is.

Templar Freemasonry amongst its various symbols uses what is termed abacus - a wooden staff of office. You will spend countless unfruitful hours trying to find a single dictionary where this word is defined in a suitable sense. It just so happens that the originator of this most solemn Masonic term was none other than Sir Walter Scott. In his novel Ivanhoe, which features rather unsavory Templar Knight character, we find this passage:

In his hand he bore that singular abacus, or staff of office, with which Templars are usually represented, having at the upper end a round plate, on which was engraved the cross of the Order, inscribed within a circle or orle, as heralds term it.

Abacus, of course, is a primitive computational device. As any Latinist should know the word for 'staff' in Latin is 'baculus'. This is, in fact the word used by the Knights Templar in their documents to describe the Grand Master's staff. The similarity of 'abacus' and 'baculus', coupled perhaps with the fact that a diminutive of 'abacus' would be 'abaculus' we may suppose a possible chain of events that took place in the novelist's mind: "a baculus" - "abaculus" - "abacus". But that's really not all that important.

The important question is:

How would it be possible for a group that claims to have been descended from the medieval Order of the Knights Templar to use Walter Scott's novel for inspiration and freely borrow the author's clearly misplaced term? If Masonic Templars were unable to get a word right, being so influenced by Walter Scott's usage, how on earth could they possess a single morsel of the Knights Templar spiritual tradition (provided such a tradition really existed at some point)?]]> http://www.knightstemplarvault.com/index.php?entry=entry100302-195429 2010-03-02T00:00:00Z 2010-03-02T00:00:00Z

It seems to me that the role of Cornelius Agrippa in originating modern myths about the Knights Templar has been exagerated. I will not bore the reader with multiple references to the works of modern researchers who borrow from each other's books the quote from Agrippa's De Occulta Philosopha. Nobody even bothers to indicate the exact place in the treatise that the quote originates from. So, first things first.

Chapter 39 of De Occulta Philosophia begins as follows:

Nemo ignorat malos daemones malis ac prophanis artibus allici posse, quemadmodum narrat Psellus gnosticos magos consuevisse, quos penes execrandae et abhominabiles turpitudines exequebantur quales olim in sacris Priapi et in servitio idoli quod vocabatur Panor, cui pudendis discoopertis sacrificabatur. Neque istis dissimile est (si modo veritas et non fabula est) quod legitur de Templariorum detestanda haeresi et similia horum de maleficis mulieribus constant, quae quidem anilis dementia saepe in eiusmodi flagitiis errare deprehenditur.

Everyone knows that evil spirits can be summonned through evil and profane practices (similar to those that Gnostic magicians used to engage in, according to Psellus), and filthy abominations would occur in their presence, as during the rites of Priapus in times past or in the worship of the idol named Panor to whom one sacrificed having bared shameful parts. Nor is any different from this (if only it is truth and not fiction) what we read about the detestable heresy of the Knights Templar, as well as similar notions have been established about witches, whose senile woomanish dementia is often caught causing them to wander astray into shameful deeds of the same variety.

Michael Haag ("The Templars. The History & the Myth") believes that by placing the Templars in the same context with witches Agrippa "thrust the order into the phantasmagoria of occult forces which were subject of the persecuting craze for which the Malleus Maleficarum was a handbook." Obvious anachronism aside (the Templars have been well put away by the early 16th century), Cornelius Agrippa says absolutely nothing that his contemporaries did not know. Marino Sanudo (c. 1260 – 1338) in his Historia Hierosolymitana comfortably discusses the worship of the gilded head, the practice of dissolving the ashes of deceased knights and drinking them for increased strength of their comrades, and of course smearing the idol with fat produced by roasting baby girls engendered Knights Templar. This account is often repeated by later writers. In Agrippa's time, for instance, Pietro Crinito (Peter Crinitus, 1475 - 1507) relates these horrific details in his work De Honesta Disciplina (incidentally, a book used by Nostradamus). The tradition continued in such works as Hofmann's (1635-1706): Lexicon Universale. Nicholas Guertler also mentions these allegations, but clearly does not find them to be grounded in reality.

As far as I am concerned, Cornelius Agrippa's brief mention of the Knights Templar is of very little importance. Agrippa himself certainly did not make much of it.

]]> http://www.knightstemplarvault.com/index.php?entry=entry100301-005312 2010-03-01T00:00:00Z 2010-03-01T00:00:00Z
]]> http://www.knightstemplarvault.com/index.php?entry=entry090918-203012 2009-09-18T00:00:00Z 2009-09-18T00:00:00Z

I can imagine there will be added interest in all things Masonic after Dan Brown's new book. How about a little excursion into masonic ring inscriptions?

As the novel would have us believe there is some level of freedom in the inscriptions one chooses to have engraved, there are, however, some traditional inscriptions:

P.D.E.P - (on Masonic Templar rings) stands for Pro Deo et Patria - For God and the Country

In Hoc Signo Vinces (Templar Motto, going back to Emperor Constantine) - With this sign thou shall conquer.

Deus Meumque Jus - (on Inspector General rings, i.e. 33rd degree) - God and my Right.

Virtus junxit, mors non separabit - (14th grade) Virtue has united (us), death shall not part (us). Curiously, I have seen this inscription quoted with the comma after mors and it just does not make much grammatical sense that way.

Ordo ex chao - Order out of chaos.]]> http://www.knightstemplarvault.com/index.php?entry=entry090917-195331 2009-09-17T00:00:00Z 2009-09-17T00:00:00Z