Temple Guardians

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Comment by Dancing Flame on February 11, 2012 at 6:35pm

Hello all. I'm happy to have found this. I have an inexplicable attraction to all things Templar. I've watched countless Discovery and History Chanel shows on the Templars, read books, I have even bought Templar jewelry. Maybe I was a Templar in a past life, related to one or helped by one, who knows? I'm fascinated by all things Templar and look forward to learning more.      ~~ I do agree with the others on the yellow post. It's considerably difficult to read but interesting none the less.

Comment by Minque Paw on February 7, 2012 at 4:06pm

THIS IS SO COOOOL!!! Right up my alley-way???:-)) I also like that 'nothing' is Taboo ... 'cus I gotta lot!

Comment by Daniel ☯ AloeMantis on October 24, 2011 at 11:02am

A bit bright there indeed lol – Hi K Hawks :^) Just wanted to say awesome job (and amazing artwork) with these posts, there’s lots I’m gaining newly from this insightful history and enjoy the read. My gratitude. /|\

Comment by FreyjaϟAmiraϟSiofra on June 16, 2011 at 8:13am

That yellow text is awefully bright.
@_@

Comment by K Hawks on May 27, 2011 at 3:00pm

A community of Knights Templars established themselves in a castle by the lake in the 12th century – and left their name in perpetuity. Long before that, Sir Perceval earned fame and honour as one of the Knights of King Arthur’s Round Table. History records that Ascelin Goval de Perceval defended his castle of Yvery in Normandy in 897 and, a few generations later, a Perceval helped to invade England as part of the retinue of William the Conqueror. In the 16th century, a member of the family was granted land in Ireland as a reward for his services to Queen Elizabeth I and a descendant of his married in 1665 Mary Crofton, heiress to the lands of Temple House. With a short, but significant, break in the 19th century, the Percevals have owned the property since then. The house today looks down on its own ancestral dwelling, in the shape of a picturesque, ivy-covered ruin of buildings in brick and stone. There is little doubt that this is where the Templars built their fortress in 1181, but the scene in Temple House over eight hundred years has been one of unending rebuilding and refurbishing and the stones of the first castle have been recycled more than once. As every reader of The da Vinci code will know, the Templars came under suspicion of the authorities in Rome and were disbanded in 1311. Their castle by the River Owenmore was granted to another order of Crusaders, the Knights Hospitallers and they embarked on extensive rebuilding. Their work can still be seen in the form of vaulted chambers on the ground floor of the ruins. These knights, too, moved on and rented their property to local chieftains, McDonaghs and O’Haras, who seem to have enjoyed it in tranquillity for the two hundred years or so when Ireland was relatively free from invasion or warfare. Times became hard for the upper classes – and everybody else - from the later decades of the 16th century and through the greater part of the 17th. The castle changed hands several times, sometimes violently. But all seems to have been peaceful from 1665 when the first of the Percevals took up residence. The scene was set for generations of this family to enjoy the scenery and become wealthy on the produce of the farm and the rent from their numerous tenants. They rebuilt the old castle and lived there until 1760 when they built a new home for the family nearby, leaving the servants to occupy the castle. The present building dates to 1825 when Colonel Alexander Perceval decided to move a little way up the hill and embarked on the building of a new house in classical style with room once more for family and retinue together. This was his countryseat and family home, the Colonel having an honourable post in London as Sergeant at Arms in the House of Lords, while his wife Jane remained in Sligo to rear her large family. At a time when many of the owners of the demesnes of Ireland lived in feudal splendour and extracted crippling rents from their unfortunate tenants, the Percevals distinguished themselves by their concern for the welfare of their poorer neighbours – a noble sentiment which was to end in tragedy. Jane Perceval used to visit the the workers and tentantry with gifts of food and medicine. She died in the winter of 1847 of ‘famine fever’, the fate of many of those good people who had gone to the assistance of the starving peasantry. Her large portrait may be seen in the dining room. A touching letter of the time tells of her reminding those around her ‘not to neglect the tenant families between my death and my funeral’. The death of her husband, eleven years later, forced the son and heir to sell the entire property. The new owners, from Essex, had a very different view on their duties and became notorious for evicting many families. Then things took a remarkable turn for the better. Christopher L’Estrange, the Agent, a brother in law of the late colonel, reacted positively to the suggestion of some of the dispossessed families to invite Jane’s third son Alexander to buy the estate back. As the usual practice was at the time, the younger sons left the home to seek their fortunes elsewhere as the estates were passed on, undivided, to the eldest. Alexander had gone to Shanghai and Hong Kong, where he made a more than ordinary fortune and became the first chairman of the Chamber of Commerce. Not only did he buy back the ancestral home, he also paid for a number of the evicted families to return from Britain and America and rebuilt their houses. The big house created by his father did not seem big enough and in 1862 work began to transform it. He built a seven-bay entrance front at right angles to the original, which had five bays and now forms the side elevation. This explains all sorts of intriguing irregularities in the building that stands there now. Hidden from the house by trees, a palatial coach house and stable yard were created and, on the south front, a terraced garden was added. Alexander, great great great grandfather to Roderick, whose portrait hangs above the dining room fireplace, is known affectionately as ‘the Chinaman’. He died in 1866, a poorer but probably a happy man, secure in the knowledge that he had spent his fortune on undertakings which provided employment and a measure of security for an unknown number of local people. A remarkable revival of times long gone happened when his son Alec married the girl next door, Charlotte O’Hara. The Gaelic O’Hara chieftains, onetime owners of Temple House lands, had been ousted in the 16th century by the Crown and that marriage signified a happy return of their descendants. Charlotte, indeed, became more than the lady of the manor. Her husband died in 1887, only two years after the birth of their son Ascelin. For the next thirty years, she was the ruler of the demesne, seeing it through a stirring time in Irish history, from the times of Parnell and rule from England to the Easter Rising of 1916 and the beginnings of independence. In the generation that followed, many of the Irish big houses were abandoned by their owners for one reason or another. Temple House has been one of the survivors and part of its charm lies in the sense of continuity of the family and household. The kitchen has been thoroughly modernised and there is central heating. The extensive lawns are kept immaculate by the operation of a motor mower. Cars rather than carriages park in front of the house. But apart from these, you look around and have the feeling that little has changed in more than a century. Outside, the scene remains pastoral and idyllic. One or two generations of trees have come and gone, and many generations of sheep – but the appearance has scarcely changed. It’s a place where you can wander for hours or perhaps take a boat out and attempt to catch one of the monster pike that inhabit the lake. In the outside world, the immediate surroundings include the mystical caves of Keshcorran and the fabulous lonely Bricklieve Hills, with their spectacular stone-age cemetery. To the west are the wonders of County Mayo and to the north is Sligo with its mountains, lakes and immortal memories of W B Yeats. Remote in one way in both time and space, Temple House is also very much part of 21st century Ireland.

Temple House, Ballymote, Co. Sligo, Ireland T: +353 71 9183329

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Comment by K Hawks on May 15, 2011 at 12:57pm

The Knights Templar trace their origin back to shortly after the First Crusade. Around 1119, a French nobleman from the Champagne region, Hugues de Payens, collected eight of his knight relatives including Godfrey de Saint-Omer, and began the Order, their stated mission to protect pilgrims on their journey to visit The Holy Places. They approached King Baldwin II of Jerusalem, who allowed them to set up headquarters on the southeastern side of the Temple Mount, inside the Al Aqsa Mosque. Since the Temple Mount was the site of biblical King Solomon's Temple the Order took the name "The Knights of the Temple of King Solomon", which later became abbreviated to "Knights Templar".

Little was heard of the Order for their first nine years. But in 1129, after they were officially sanctioned by the church at the Council of Troyes, they became very well-known in Europe. Their fundraising campaigns asked for donations of money, land, or noble-born sons to join the Order, with the implication that donations would help both to defend Jerusalem, and to ensure the charitable giver of a place in Heaven. The Order's efforts were helped substantially by the patronage of Bernard of Clairvaux, the leading churchman of the time, and a nephew of one of the original nine knights. The Order at its outset had been subject to strong criticism, especially of the concept that religious men could also carry swords. In response to these critics, the influential Bernard of Clairvaux wrote a multi-page treatise entitled De Laude Novae Militae ("In Praise of the New Knighthood"), in which he championed their mission and defended the idea of a military religious order by appealing to the long-held Christian theory of just war, which legitimated “taking up the sword” to defend the innocent and the Church from violent attack. By so doing, Bernard legitimised the Templars, who became the first "warrior monks" of the Western world.^{[citation needed]} Bernard wrote:

[A Templar Knight] is truly a fearless knight, and secure on every side, for his soul is protected by the armor of faith, just as his body is protected by the armor of steel. He is thus doubly-armed, and need fear neither demons nor men.^[1]

Saint Bernard de Clairvaux, the Order's patron

Donations to the Order were considerable. The King of Aragon, in the Iberian Peninsula, left large tracts of land to the order upon his death in the 1130s. New members to the Order were also required to swear vows of poverty, and hand over all of their goods to the monastic brotherhood. This could include land, horses and any other items of material wealth, including labor from serfs, and any interest in any businesses.

In 1139, even more power was conferred upon the Order by Pope Innocent II, who issued the papal bull, Omne Datum Optimum. It stated that the Knights Templar could pass freely through any border, owed no taxes, and were subject to no one's authority except that of the Pope. It was a remarkable confirmation of the Templars and their mission, which may have been brought about by the Order's patron, Bernard of Clairvaux, who had helped Pope Innocent in his own rise.

The Order grew rapidly throughout Western Europe, with chapters appearing in France, England, and Scotland, and then spreading to Spain and Portugal.

Comment by K Hawks on May 1, 2011 at 11:05am

Ballad to the Templars
by ~matt-thorn

Bleeding Heart, Dying Soul.
Bound to the ground through immense skill,
entrusted to protect, trained to kill.
That wasy the day,
that dark and dreary day...
when the Templars' Fall;
When thier keeps were distroyed...
when they burned our Hall.
The Dark Templars Destroyed;
the priestesses raped....
13,000 fell, and died that night.
Heros and legends sent to burn in hell;
slain by men who had no cause...
men who hated thier flaws.
screams and cries filled the night;
the blood ran in rivers, to some's delight.
A burned out hall, and a written copy...
are the only records left of the Templar's Fall.

Battle of Montgisard by ~Giacobino on deviantART

Comment by K Hawks on April 29, 2011 at 9:43am

<br /><a href="http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/90298706/">Valley of the Dragons</a> by *<a class="u" href="http://linzarcher.deviantart.com/">LinzArcher</a> on <a href="http://www.deviantart.com">deviant</a><a href="http://www.deviantart.com">ART</a>~TheTemplarsFortune Jul 17, 2008
Cool, have you ever read the book The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury?
It said that there was one more templar who simply stayed hidden until on his death bed when he convessed something to a priest.
The priest face had turned white and he never said anything again... (If I tell more I might spoil the book)
--
the Knights Templar
1119 - 1307
'Kill them all; God will know his own.'
- Pope Innocent III
'It has served us well, this myth of Christ."
- Pope Leo X
Reply
~TheTemplarsFortune Jul 17, 2008
O yeah, Jacques de Molay (the last grand master) and Geoffroi de Charnay (The Preceptor of Normandy) were both burned at the stakes.
here's a nice quote from The Last Templar:
"Despite his frail and broken appearance, the Grand Master's voice was strong and steady. 'In the name of the Order of the Knights of the Temple,' he rasped, 'I curse you, Phillipe le Bel, and your buffoon pope, and I call on God Almighty to have you both join me before his seat within the year, to suffer his judgement and burn forever in the furnaces of hell...'
If de Molay said anything else, Martin didn't hear it. as the fire roared, obliberating any screams of the dying men"
- page 438 of 439
--
the Knights Templar
Valley of the Dragons by *LinzArcher on deviantART

Comment by K Hawks on April 28, 2011 at 6:53pm

The last Templar on Friday 13 by *RoberLeSage on deviantARTReal story: [link]
At dawn on Friday, October 13, 1307, scores of French Templars were simultaneously arrested by agents of King Philip, later to be tortured in locations such as the tower at Chinon, into admitting heresy in the Order. Over 100 charges were issued against them, the majority of them identical charges to what had been earlier issued against the inconvenient Pope Boniface VIII: accusations of denying Christ, spitting and urinating on the cross, and devil worship. The main interrogation of the Templars was under the control of the Inquisitors, a group of experienced interrogators and clergy who circulated around Europe at the beck and call of any European noble. The rules of interrogation said that no blood could be drawn, but this did nothing to stop the torture. One account told of a Templar who had fire applied to the soles of his feet, such that the bones fell out of the skin. Other Templars were suspended upside-down or placed in thumbscrews. Of the 138 Templars (many of them old men) questioned in Paris over the next few years, 105 of them "confessed" to denying Christ during the secret Templar initiations. 103 confessed to an "obscene kiss" being part of the ceremonies, and 123 said they spat on the cross. Throughout the trial, however, there was never any physical evidence of wrongdoing, and no independent witnesses - the only "proof" was obtained through confessions induced by torture.[4] The Templars reached out to the Pope for assistance, and Pope Clement did write letters to King Philip questioning the arrests, but took no further action.
Despite the fact that the confessions had been produced under duress, they caused a scandal in Paris, with mobs calling for action against the blaspheming Order. In response to this public pressure, along with more bullying from King Philip, Pope Clement issued the bull Pastoralis Praeeminentiae, which instructed all Christian monarchs in Europe to arrest all
Templars and seize their assets.[17] Most monarchs simply didn't believe the charges, though proceedings were started in England, Iberia, Germany, Italy, and Cyprus,[18] with the likelihood of a confession being dependent on whether or not torture was used to extract it.
The dominant view is that Philip, who seized the treasury and broke up the monastic banking system, was jealous of the Templars' wealth and power, frustrated by his debt to them, and sought to control their financial resources for himself, by bringing blatantly false charges against them at the Tours assembly in 1308; it is also likely that, under the influence of his advisors, he actually believed many of the false charges to be true. However, it is widely accepted that Philip had clearly made up the accusations and did not believe any of the Templars to have been party to such activities. In fact, he had invited Jacques de Molay to be a pall-bearer at the funeral of the King's sister on the very day before the arrests.

Comment by K Hawks on April 23, 2011 at 11:18am

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