Peter Partner (1924–2015)

The Order of Poor Knights of the Temple of Solomon came into being sometime around 1120, in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Knights Templar were sworn to chastity, poverty, and obedience; their original purpose was to protect pilgrims on the way to the Holy Land but they eventually developed into an army giving assistance to the various Crusader states. They were not very successful at it; the area controlled by the Crusaders only diminished in size after the Templars were founded. The last Christian stronghold, Acre, fell in 1291; the surviving Knights took ship for Cyprus and eventually to mainland Europe, where they had considerable holdings that had been given as gifts from the pious over the years. On October 13, 1307, agents of the King of France arrested every known Templar in French territory; they were accused of sorcery, heresy, and sodomy: specifically that Knights being initiated had to denounce Christ three times; kiss their Master on the mouth, the navel, and points south; worship an idol named Baphomet; and engage in orgies with other Knights. After some persuasion by the royal torturers, all the Knights confessed. They were then apparently set up by being given an opportunity to answer the charges. The trick was they had already confessed; those that now attempted to defend themselves became “lapsed” heretics, for which the penalty was burning alive. A batch of 54 were burnt in May 1310; the Grand Master and the Preceptor of Normandy were burnt in 1314. The others emigrated to Spain or Germany and joined military orders there; joined the Hospitalers; or just disappeared.


Author Peter Partner notes there is a legitimate historical mystery about the Templars; was there the slightest shred of truth to the accusations or were they just a cynical ploy by Phillip the Fair of France and his bishops to confiscate Templar land and treasure? Most members of the Order were not knights but various auxiliaries – priests, clerks, foot soldiers, farriers, armorers, and so forth. In fact it was possible for any man to become a “lay Templar” for a relatively small annual subscription. The catch here was that the Templars – and all their co-fraternity – were directly under the Papacy, and therefore immune to local bishops and archbishops. A bishop’s main weapon against disobedience was the interdict; but Templar clergy were not subject to it, and therefore could administer sacraments even if a local bishop had interdicted them. That made the Templars unpopular with the upper clergy. The reputed wealth of the Templars was real, but it was mostly in land holdings. They did act as bankers, loaning money at interest (which also made them of mixed popularity with the clergy). Thus there was no great treasure to be seized, but there were a lot of land titles and promissory notes, so there was an incentive for Phillip and his clergy to act.


Partner’s cautious, noting that past historians have gone with the “cynical ploy” idea, because they are projecting their own disbelief in magic back into the past. However, at the time of the Templars, everybody believed in the power of sorcery. He also notes that almost all the Templar Knights were illiterate and uneducated; thus they may possibly have been duped into performing some ceremony that they didn’t really understand.


The Templars faded from history; then the woowoo started and they popped back up again. Templar woowoo divides into several categories:


* The Templars managed to hide their “treasure” from Phillip and his henchmen and it’s still out there somewhere. But, of course, like anybody who hides a treasure, the Templars left all sorts of cryptic clues to its whereabouts and if the clues can be deciphered the finder will be rich beyond the dreams of avarice. The “treasure” is sometimes just gold and jewels, but it may also include various artifacts – The Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant, the “real” Shroud of Turin, the True Cross, and etc. Seekers after Templar treasure include harmless fanatics and con artists who will guarantee finding the treasure with just a little more financing from their sponsors.


* The Templars actually were sorcerers and had uncovered the mystic secrets of the universe, which were hidden somewhere in the Holy Land. This may include some of the aforementioned artifacts of power and/or the standard paraphernalia of magic – The Philosopher’s Stone, the secret of turning base metal to gold, etc. Somehow the Templars failed to use any of this power to avoid being burned alive, but they left clues – cryptic, of course – for future seekers. Once again, promoted by individual harmless loons and un-harmless con men.


* The Templars didn’t disappear at all, but just went under cover. Various Templar Masters are still scattered around the world and still running things behind the scenes. The number of entities Partner has tracked down that claim some association with the Templars is astounding and reads like a list of everybody’s favorite conspiracies – the Freemasons (including numerous subsets), the Bavarian Illuminati, the Young Pretender, the French Revolutionaries, Mozart, Aleister Crowley’s Order of the Temple of the Orient, the British Union of Fascists, and just about every other conspiracy-fodder entity you can think of (although not, strangely, the Jews). Enumerating and tracing the cladistics of these organizations takes up a good half of the book.


Scholarly but still readable in the historical sections; just subtly tongue in cheek in the woowoo sections. Illustrations from medieval and Renaissance sources. Lots of endnotes and an extensive bibliography. Recommended as an addition to a library of woowoo source material.… (mais)

What I liked about this book is that it attempts to put the story of the Knights Templar into an historical context. I've read a few books about the Templars over the years, but they've been more or less of the grand conspiracy or hidden mysteries types. This is the first one that that I've seen that even attempts to take a scholarly approach and put events into some sort of historical perspective. The first half of the book explores the Templar history within its own times. The second half of the book attempts to trace how the various mythologies surrounding the Templars got started and exploited. Fascinating stuff! Turns out that all sorts of people tried to use the Templars for all sorts of reasons - ranging from apologists to Masons to political movements to hucksters to the seriously deluded. Lots of fascinating stuff in this book for anyone interested in history.
The tone of the book is a bit on the dry side, but is still quite readable. The logic and arguments are presented in a clear fashion, with notes and a bibliography for further reading. Anyone trying to present a case for any of the more exotic theories about the Templars will have to work pretty darn hard to overcome the cold realities presented by this book.… (mais)