A Look at the History and Legend of the Knights Templar (II)
The history of the Knights Templar may be fascinating, but it does not compare with the history of their legend. It is hence regrettable that insufficient research has been done in Knights Templar mythology. Whether the Templars were truly in possession of some wondrous knowledge, the Grail, or they were devil worshippers, we will probably never know. What we can record is what the people believed, and some continue to believe, about the Templars.
From what I have been able to fathom, the Templar-mania is no coincidence. Even during the existence of the knighthood, they were the object of an intense medieval propaganda. At the beginning, the propaganda was positive, even idealistic, initiated by high church figures and popular troubadours. Then, as Philip IV and Pope Clement began to defame the order, the publicity became very negative. The story they told about the Templars resembled a modern ‘conspiracy theory’. In any case, in the 13-14th centuries, the Templars were, as it were, “big news”. Today, books like those of Dan Brown or Michael Baigent only perpetuate a medieval news story.
The positive propaganda was initiated by an influential monk, St. Bernard of Clairvaux. St Bernard was an amazing figure: he single-handedly organized the reformist Cistercian order in Europe, preached the Second Crusade and even arbitrated the choice of the Pope (for more on him, see 1). In addition, St Bernard was a staunch supporter of the Templar order. In fact, much of Templar ideology came from St Bernard’s vision. In 1128, at the Council of Troyes, he penned down the outline of the Templar Rules, which became a standard of chivalry in the epoch (2). Later on, he wrote “In the Praise of the New Knighthood”, which portrayed the Templars as an ideal knightly order that combined military chivalry and monk dedication (3). In his view, the Templars were probably meant to be more than an order – but an archetype of the ‘new knighthood’. In this spirit, he urged the entire European knightly class to join the Templars (4).
St Bernard did not claim that the Templars were in possession of some amazing secret knowledge of sorts. However, an enigmatic passage written by the medieval troubadour Wolfram von Eschenbach in his famous Parzifal may have helped create, or propagate that belief. In his story, Eschenbach referred to the guardians of the Holy Grail as the Templeisen, which was construed to mean the “Templars” (5). Eschenbach was contemporary with the Templars, and could not have missed the propaganda St. Bernard and his Cistercian order had erected around the Templars. It is also likely probable that the wealth and fame of the Templars were creating legends even before they were destroyed.
Yet the violent demise of the order in the 14th century could only expand the Templar mythology. Some people connected Philip IV’s actions to an attempt to come into possession of the Grail or other Christian artifact, while others make a somewhat spurious link between the Templar persecution and the Gnostic Cathar persecution in Southern France in the 1200s (for an overview, see 6). Many still believe that the Templars were in possession of a secret knowledge exemplified by their worship of a figure called “Baphomet”. This legend was supported by the claims of a writer, Hammer-Purgstall, in 1818, who advanced the idea of the Templars being heretics connected to the Gnostics (7). The Baphomet image was then widely popularized by the influential French esoteric, Eliphas Levi, of which I have written before (8). To him were aligned other 19th century writers, including Walter Scott, who perpetuated the idea of the Templars belonging to a “Gnostic” tradition going back for millennia (9). It is this mostly 19th century tradition that today’s writers on Templar occultism refer to. Today, a wide flurry of Templar speculation survives, most of which connects the Templars to underground Gnosticism and the possession of legendary objects such as the Grail, the Ark of the Covenant (10). Of course, there is no evidence that the Templars had any connection with Gnosticism or another tradition. At best, if one trusts the trial records, Templars could be accused of witchcraft or devil worship; however, most scholars regard their confessions under torture as being false, and in fact the Templars themselves denounced their confessions after they were released (i.e. 11, 12).
This brings me to ‘the other side of the story’ – the negative views on the Templars. The “conspiracy theory” about the Templars undeniably came through Philip IV’s propaganda channels. Philip IV published far and wide that the Templars were in fact a group that denigrated Christianity, worshipped the devil, and were heretical (13). Despite the denials of the Templars later on, some of these accusations survived. For instance, most historians of the Middle Ages believed some of Philip IV’s perspectives, considering that the Templars had caused their own downfall due to the corruption of wealth (14). Besides the common “wealth” accusation, others continued to believe that the Templars were part of some secret sect that wanted to destroy Christianity or even civilization. In one manifestation, French writer Charles de Cassicour accused the Templars of being behind the French Revolution and the execution of Louis XVI, as a late form of retribution to the execution of their Grand Master Jacques de Molay in 1314 (15). Hammer-Purgstall himself ‘demasked’ Templar origins in Gnosticism with the whole purpose of discrediting them. Ironically, his attempt only enhanced Templar mythology. Today, there are few that believe Templars may be planning a world conspiracy: that “honor” has passed to another order, that of the Freemasons. A Google search in “knights templar conspiracy” gives disappointingly few results. It is somewhat surprising that the conspiracy theorists have not latched enough onto the fact that Templar degrees were incorporated into Freemasonry orders as far back as the 1700s (16).
References
(1) Wikipedia. (2009). Bernard of Clairvaux. Online. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_of_Clairvaux. Accessed: 4 June 2009.
(2), (3) Gervers, M. (1992). The Second Crusade and the Cistercians. Palgrave Macmillan.
(4) Grabois, A. (1992). Militia and Malitia: the Bernardine View of Chivalry. In: Gervers, M. The Second Crusade and the Cistercians. Palgrave Macmillan.
(5), (6) Ralls, K. (2003).The Templars and the Grail: Knights of the Quest. Quest Books.
(7), (9), (12), (15) Nicholson, H. (2001). The Knights Templar: A New History. Stroud: Sutton Publishing.
(8) Eliphas Levi. (1896). The Dogma and Ritual of High Magic, trans. by A.E. Waite. London: Rider & Company.
(11), (13), (14) Barber, M. (1995). The New Knighthood: a history of the Order of the Temple. Cambridge University Press.
(10) Wikipedia. (2009). Knights Templar Legends. Online. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar_legends. Accessed: 4 June 2009.
(16) Faivre, A. (1994). Access to Western Esotericism. SUNY Press.
Tags: baphomet, bernard of clairvaux, cathars, conspiracy, devil worship, eschenbach, grail, Knights Templar, legend, Mythology, parzifal
