The Order of the Knights Templar is long gone, but its secrets have not yet been solved. There may be a select few today who have access to the true history of the Order, but they also continue to keep the secrets of the Templars.
What secrets do the Knights Templar keep?
The First Crusade was organized by Pope Urban, a power-hungry and cruel man, as an aid to the Byzantine Emperor Alexy, who requested military support because he was very worried about the growing pressure from the Seljuk Turks. The cry of the campaign was to protect the Holy Land and make it possible for religious pilgrims to visit it. But the real purpose of this campaign was to weaken the position of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, centered in Byzantium, which did not give an opportunity to expand the sphere of influence of the Roman Papacy to the eastern countries.
The army, which received absolution for past and future sins, consisted of all sorts of dubious personalities, and even real thieves and bandits, and were driven solely by the thirst for profit in future possible robberies. In 1099, the campaign reached the city of Jerusalem, destroying more than one city in a bloody massacre along the way. History knows the unthinkable atrocities committed by the defenders of the Holy Sepulcher from Europe in cities such as Lycia, Antiochus, Marrat, whose population, by the way, was Christian!
Jerusalem at that time was a city of peaceful existence of three religions - Orthodox Christianity, Judaism and Islam, a thriving, cultural, commercial city, without military protection. The population of the city for several weeks desperately resisted the bloodthirsty "liberators" who were storming it, but still they had to surrender. The fallen city was plundered and covered with blood, which was the end of the First Crusade. The so-called "knights" have departed little by little to their homes, laden with numerous trophies and telling tales about their exploits in the liberation of Jerusalem. And defenseless religious pilgrims, who saw their duty to God in visiting the Holy Land, remained absolutely defenseless against the revenge of the Seljuk Turks for the desecrated and devastated lands. The busy roads of Asia Minor, along which streams of pilgrims flowed,became the scene of action for small armed detachments. On some days, hundreds of pilgrims became victims of the Turks, they were captured for ransom, for the sake of being sold as slaves in eastern markets, and simply killed.
During this difficult period, the French nobleman Hugo de Payen and his nine comrades organized the military-religious Order of the Templars to protect the pilgrims from attacks. The full name of the order is "The Secret Chivalry of Christ and the Temple of Solomon", but in Europe it was better known as the Order of the Knights of the Temple (the Order of the Templars from French tample - "temple"). This name was explained by the fact that his residence was in Jerusalem, on the site where the temple of King Solomon was once located. The knights themselves were called templars. On the seal of the Templars, two knights were depicted galloping on one horse, which was supposed to indicate poverty and brotherhood. The symbol of the order was a white cloak with a red eight-pointed cross. In 1119, the Order offered its protective and guard services to King Baldwin I of Jerusalem.
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Symbol of the Order Personal courage and courage, the nobility of the first members of the order won respect and recognition among pilgrims, and the news of disinterested and fearless knights, ready to come to the aid of a person in trouble, was spread throughout Europe. Soon the Order received the blessing of the Pope and began to flourish. The members of the order, who took the monastic vows of "purity", "poverty" and "obedience", were practically "saints" in the eyes of most people, and as far as they could, citizens sought to donate donations to people who disinterestedly and voluntarily took upon themselves a difficult burden. In addition to monetary donations, some wealthy people who did not have heirs left estates, castles, and estates to the Order. So, after his death, the Aragonese king Alfonso I left to the Order part of his kingdom in northern Spain,and the Duke of Breton Conan is an entire island off the coast of France.
Subsequently, it turned out that:
By the middle of the XXII century, the Order of the Knights Templar owned vast land resources with estates and castles under the management of people appointed by the Order.
The importance of the Order exceeded many states, and in 1139 Pope Innocent granted the Order independence, which freed each unit from submission to the local sovereign and the laws of the country where this unit was located
Instructions to the Order could only come from the Supreme Master or the Pope himself
We are also indebted to the Knights Templar for the creation of the first "banking" network. Pilgrims, heading to holy places, were forced to take bags of money with them on the journey, which was extremely difficult and unsafe. The Order made it possible to hand over money in one place and receive a receipt in return, to receive it in any city convenient for travel, since the representatives of the Order were very numerous. Also, the Templars provided services for the transportation of cash and jewelry, and there is not a single case known when the convoy guarded by them would have been robbed. The network created also helped to quickly pay ransom for the captives, because there was no need to transport ransom money, say, from Germany to Jerusalem, but it was enough to transport only letters quickly.
During its heyday, the Knights Templar found another and very powerful source of income, it was usury. Of course, the Templars did not lend to ordinary citizens, but the Order secretly, and always on good collateral, provided loan loans to monarchical large families. This allowed the Order to have a powerful lever of influence over the rulers of many states, they were aware of almost all intimate and political secrets. Although ideological and religious power over states was still in the hands of the Pope, the political and economic power was concentrated in the Supreme Master of the Order.
Analyzing the economic state of Western Europe in the XII-XIII centuries, one cannot fail to notice the ubiquitous construction of numerous cathedrals, monasteries, abbeys and churches. Only large cathedrals and churches during this period were built about 180. The question arises, and with what funds was carried out this construction? In those days there was a huge shortage of money. There was very little gold in circulation, and there was absolutely not enough silver, which was the main metal for minting money. It is clear that silver exported from the countries of the Middle East as mining could not significantly solve this problem. Precious metals were practically not mined in Europe, and deposits in Germany, the Czech Republic and Russia had not yet been discovered. And despite this, in France alone, in less than a hundred years, 80 huge cathedrals and 70 smaller temples were built. Although it is knownthat most of the French cities had very limited funds for development, and if the magistrates had such, they were primarily spent on strengthening the city walls.
The only one who could have the necessary money at that time was the Order of the Templars. The order minted its own silver coin, and during the XII-XIII centuries, so many silver coins were issued in cash that they became a common means of payment, in particular for the grandiose construction campaign we have mentioned. But where did the raw material come from? It is known that the Templars took out about a ton of silver from Palestine, this is clearly not enough. The masters of the Order were silent about the origin of the bulk of the metal.
It should be noted that the Order had a serious fleet and achieved a monopoly on voyages across the Mediterranean, in fact controlling trade routes from Asia. But it is known that ports and bases were also on the Atlantic coast, although the interests of the Order seemed to be concentrated in the Mediterranean.
It is known that the Order owned the notorious La Rochelle fortress at the mouth of the Gironde River. Not so long ago, Jean de la Varand, a French historian, put forward a hypothesis about the possibility of the Templars mining the mentioned silver in Mexico. The assumption is quite probable, since the Order showed interest in various sciences and discoveries made, studied the works of Arab scientists and Greek sages, and of course could find out about the existence of lands overseas. Having our own fleet made it possible to carry out such a journey in reality. And the answer, whether the Templars were in Mexico, can be obtained by carefully examining the painting on the pediment of the Temple of the Order in the city of Verelai, the construction of which dates back to the XII century. There, among the people around Christ, a group of three figures is striking: a man, a woman and a child with disproportionately large auricles. The man's outfit of feathers is very similar to that of the North American Indians, while the woman has a bare chest and is wearing a long skirt. It is unlikely that in those days they could simply invent something like that.
There is one more fact in favor of this hypothesis. In the National Archives of France, the seals of the Order, seized back in 1307 by the royal gendarmes, were relatively recently discovered. Among the papers from the office of the Grand Master is one that says “the mystery of the temple,” and in the center is a man wearing a loincloth and a headdress made of feathers, such as the Indians of North America (or Mexico and Brazil), holding a bow in his right hand. So it is likely that the Templars visited the American continent long before Columbus (this theory is also confirmed by the Kensington Runestone) and the existence of the New World was one of the great secrets of the Order, owned only by the highest hierarchs.
The collapse of the Knights Templar
The increased power of the Order has served him in disservice. Ascended over the world, he began to fall into the abyss. Initially having established themselves as noble knights, the templars begin to act treacherously with people who trusted them. So, having provided asylum to the influential Arab Sheikh Nasruddin, who wanted to accept Christianity, a contender for the throne in Cairo, they, without hesitation, sell for 60 thousand dinars to his enemies at home, which led to the immediate execution of the unfortunate.
And in 1199, there was a huge scandal when the Templars refused to return the funds of the Bishop of Sidon, which he had put in storage, for which the latter, in a rage, anathematized the entire Order. The interests of the Templars often did not coincide with the interests of the crusading states or other orders, because of which they thwarted diplomatic agreements, fought in internecine wars, and even raised a sword against members of the brotherly Order of the Hospitallers.
Of great importance for the further fall of the Order was the failure to defend Jerusalem from Saladin's troops. Master Gerard de Ridfort was an advisor to the last Jerusalem king, Guy de Lusignan, and persuaded him not to avoid participating in the battle with the Muslims at Hattin, which became decisive and in which all the Templars who took part in it died. Those who did not die during the battle were executed. And Ridfor himself, being captured by Saladin, ordered the Gaza fortress to be surrendered to the enemy. And when, after the fall of Jerusalem, Saladin offered to redeem the lives of the pilgrims and residents of the city from him, the incredibly rich Order, which was responsible for protecting these people, did not give a penny. About sixteen thousand Christians then became slaves.
The charges against the Order rolled into a growing snowball. And on Friday, October 13, 1307, by order of the strong, independent and imperious king of France, Philip IV (the Handsome), a simultaneous operation was carried out to seize all the representations and bases of the Templar Order. Since these searches and arrests were illegal, due to the Order's legal disobedience to any rulers and laws, it took almost five years of torture and interrogation to compile an evidentiary basis for the accusation against the Knights Templar. So only in 1312, upon the provision of the collected materials, the Order was excommunicated, and the actions of King Philip were justified. It is also surprising that having only a courier connection at that time, the royal services managed not only to keep the preparation and time of the operation secret,but also how to coordinate their actions with England, Spain, Germany, Italy, since the blow was struck simultaneously in these states too.
The Templars were judged by a church court - the Inquisition. They accused them of heresy and apostasy, as well as idolatry. Under torture, most of the Templars confessed their guilt, including the High Master Jacques de Mollet, but in 1314, when the verdict was read in Notre Dame Cathedral in front of a huge crowd of people, he publicly declared that all confessions were torn out by torture, the accusations were a lie, and The Order is innocent. Jacques de Molay was burned at the stake on an island in the middle of the Seine, while the other unrepentant Templars were hanged on Montfaucon.
The Last Grand Master Jacques de Mollet And now we come to the most important secret of the Order of the Knights Templar. After a simultaneous search of all the "offices", NO treasures were found. No torture was able to loosen the tongues of those arrested in confessing where the wealth is hidden. It is a known fact that the name of the Master of France Gerard de Villiers, one of the most influential dignitaries of the Order, for some unknown reason does not appear in the materials of the trial. There is an assumption that the Templars were nevertheless warned of the impending danger and had the opportunity to transport the most valuable and important treasures to the La Rochelle fortress through the dungeons of Paris (and they had a detailed map of the dungeons) and then take them to an unknown place on naval ships.
In addition to gold and jewelry, it was assumed that the Order owned Christian relics taken out of Jerusalem, among which was the notorious Holy Grail. Biblical legends say that the Grail is a kind of cup from which Jesus Christ and the apostles received communion during the Last Supper, and after the crucifixion of Jesus on Calvary, Joseph of Arimathea collected the blood of Christ in this cup. It is believed that this fact gave the Holy Grail extraordinary opportunities, it became the key to understanding the world, and the one who drinks from it receives forgiveness of sins, deliverance from diseases and eternal life.
Among the possible options for where the Templar treasures went, there are the following. The money was sent to England and paid for the Hundred Years War between England and France. It is the support of the secretly preserved Order that some historians explain the military successes of the weaker England in this confrontation. Perhaps the riches settled in Italy, and thanks to them, the Renaissance began in this country, an unprecedented flowering of culture and all kinds of sciences and arts. There is no doubt that some part of the capital became the basis for the creation of banking houses, the descendants of some of them were able to survive to this day. There is an assumption that the treasury of the Order would most likely have been removed to a place where the influence of the French king did not extend. Maybe it was Portugal or Spain. Later, it was the Portuguese Order of Christ that became the heir to the local branch of the Templars. And the white sails of Columbus' ships that set off to discover new lands were decorated with Templar red crosses.
Tomar Castle, which was the headquarters of the Templars in Portugal, is still striking in its grandeur and size. And who knows, maybe some castle in the Pyrenees still keeps the treasures of the Knights Templar underground.
Tomar Castle in Portugal (Covent de Cristo).
Or maybe ships with treasures and archives went to the New World, and somewhere in Mexico or Brazil they were hidden in a secluded place, and later were involved in the activities of branches that remained from the defeat in countries where the king of France did not reach.
There is one more interesting point. During the investigation of the Templars by Pope Clement V, several prisoners, the highest dignitaries of the Order, were forced to stay for some time in the Chinon castle, near the city of Tours. During the days that the knights were in the castle, they managed to carve interesting drawings on its stone walls. These are symbolic images - flaming hearts, a cross, a triple fence, carbuncles, a field with squares. By themselves, these symbols were not a big secret, but the question was how to use them. There is no doubt that they were carved for a specific purpose - to convey a message to initiates, to those who understand the sacred meaning of these symbols. Or maybe these were indications of where to look for the treasure?
Temple Castle - the seat of the Order in Paris.
For several centuries, interest in the disappeared treasures subsided. But in 1745 the focus was on a document published by the German archivist Schitman. It contained a speech that Jacques de Molay conveyed before his death to the young Count Guitar de Beauje, the nephew of the previous Grand Master, a message, which said that in the grave of his uncle were not the remains, but the secret archives of the Order and relics, including the crown of the Jerusalem kings, and four golden figures of the Evangelists that once adorned the Tomb of Christ and were saved by the templars from Muslims. The rest of the treasure is kept in caches inside two columns, which are located opposite the entrance to the crypt. The document claimed that the young Comte de Beauje had allegedly obtained and hid all the valuables and the archive a new cache. This message, which rocked the whole of Europe, received indirect confirmation:one of the columns was indeed hollow.
Historians, who have intensively studied the chronicles of the period of interest, have found confirmation that after the execution of Jacques de Molay, the young Count Guichard de Beauges did indeed receive permission from King Philip the Fair to take out the remains of his noble relative from the castle of Temple. And, it was then, perhaps, that the count removed gold and other jewelry from the columns.
The assumption that the treasures of the Templars could be stored in the family crypt of de Beauges led to the fact that after the Great French Revolution, treasure hunters sorted out the family estate of de Beauge, stone by stone, turning it into a well-plowed field. But it would have been too easy a way, it is clear that there were no treasures in the crypt, in the basements, or in the ground … Later it turned out that the de Beauges family, in addition to the already surveyed estate, also belonged to the medieval castle of Arginy in the Rhone department with arched towers entrances and deep ditches. In 1307, it was outside the possession of Philip IV and therefore did not suffer. This castle, despite its venerable age, was well preserved and was all covered with signs of the Templars, allowing one to guess if this was the key to the treasures?
The main tower of the castle, the Tower of Eight Beatitudes, was also dotted with strange signs. In the middle of the 20th century, the castle was owned by Jacques de Roseman, and he and his father were looking for the supposed cache of the Templars, but this time they could not find anything. There is an interesting suggestion by historians Erlig Haarling from Denmark and Henry Lincoln from England that the Templars' treasures should be sought on the small Baltic island of Bornholm. It is known that in 1162 the Danish Archbishop Eskil visited the Grand Master of the Templars Bertrand de Blanchefort in order to attract the knights of Christ to the baptism of the Baltic peoples, then still pagans. Historians believe that during this meeting, it was also possible that the very enlarged treasures of the Order were transferred to a new safe place. They believe that the cathedrals built by the Templars on the island are in strict accordance with geometry,accepted by the templars, and it is in this geometry that the key to the location of the treasure must be sought. And in Latvia you can look for relics hidden by the Templars.
After the defeat of the Order, its remnants merged with the modest Livonian Order at that time. And, by a strange coincidence, the same period was marked by an extraordinary flourishing of the Order's beggar so far. The richest castles, cathedrals, fortresses were built, the land holdings of the Livonians increased many times over. Maybe this prosperity was helped by the exported treasures of the Templar Order. The patroness of both Orders is Mary Magdalene. But only in Catholic cathedrals in Latvia she was depicted with a dagger, the handle of which was in the form of a Templar cross, in cathedrals of other countries the image of the handle is different. So the Templar Order could well have hidden its treasures, including the Holy Grail, in the territory of modern Latvia.
Many were blinded by the legendary splendor of the Templar treasures. Among the seekers of this treasure were scientists and adventurers, politicians and many others.
