Friday, 13th October, 1307

 

I am Brother Everard, a Templar, also called Knight Templar, member of the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, a religious military order of knighthood established at the time of the Crusades that became a model and inspiration for other military orders. Originally founded to protect Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land, the order assumed greater military duties during the 12th century. Its prominence and growing wealth, however, provoked opposition from rival orders. Falsely accused of blasphemy, homosexuality, and other grievous sins, the Order was blamed for Crusader failures in the Holy Land.

Take a step further back with me, please. Following the success of the First Crusade (1095–99), a number of Crusader states were established in the Holy Land, but these kingdoms lacked the necessary military force to maintain more than a tenuous hold over their territories. Most Crusaders returned home after fulfilling their vows, and Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem suffered attacks from Muslim raiders. In late 1119, pitying the plight of these Christians, eight or nine French knights led by Hugh de Payns vowed to form a religious community specifically for the purpose of protecting these pilgrims. Baldwin II, king of Jerusalem, offered these knights quarters in a wing of the royal palace in the area of the former Temple of Solomon, and from this they derived their name.

Many opposed the Templars. Some rejected the idea of a religious military order while, later, the order was criticized for its wealth and influence, but we were supported by many secular and religious leaders. Beginning in 1127, Hugh undertook a tour of Europe and was well received by many nobles, who made significant donations to the knights. The Templars obtained further sanction at the Council of Troyes in 1128, and in 1139, Pope Innocent II issued a bull granting the order special privileges. The Templars were allowed to build our own oratories and were not required to pay the tithe. We were also exempt from episcopal jurisdiction, being subject to the pope alone. By the turn of the 14th century, the Templars had established a system of castles, churches, and banks throughout Western Europe.

From these grand beginnings, we come to the early morning of Friday, October 13, 1307, and the beginning of the end of the Templars. At dawn, King Philip IV ordered de Molay and scores of other French Templars to be simultaneously arrested. The arrest warrant began: Dieu n'est pas content, nous avons des ennemis de la foi dans le Royaume" ("God is not pleased. We have enemies of the faith in the kingdom")

Unbeknownst to the order, a month earlier, King Philip IV of France sent secret documents by couriers throughout his country. The papers included lurid details and whispers of black magic and scandalous sexual rituals. In preceding years, this avaricious monarch had attacked the Lombards, a powerful banking group, and on France’s Jews, expelling the letter to confiscate their property for his depleted coffers.

In the days and weeks that followed that fateful Friday morning, more than 600 Templars were arrested, including Grand Master Jacques de Molay, and the Order’s treasurer. Philip’s evil net not only entangled the highest-ranking members of the order, but also hundreds of non-warriors—middle-aged men who managed the day-to-day banking and farming activities that kept the organization running smoothly. The men were charged with a wide array of offenses including heresy, devil worship and spitting on the cross, homosexuality, fraud and financial corruption.

 

The Templars were kept in isolation and fed meager rations that often amounted to no more than bread and water. Nearly all were brutally tortured, using the strappdo and the rack to force confessions to these false charges.

 

The Templars lingered in their cells until 1310 when King Philip had more than 50 of us burned at the stake. Two years later, Pope Clement V formally dissolved the Templars. However, he did so without saying the order had been guilty of these false charges. In the wake of that dissolution, some Templars again confessed to gain their freedom, while others died in captivity.

And so, the mighty fall. I did say this was a sad tale. You can readily see how the Templars and that evil Friday the 13^th have become associated with the superstition surrounding the date. I leave it to you to decide whether you believe King Philip’s allegations or in the innocence of an austere and chaste religious order formed to protect pilgrims. I firmly believe it was the wealth amassed by the order that caused its downfall.

Yours in God,

Brother Everard