Q : Were Templars Heretics?

Last words of Jacques de Molay: “I confess that I am indeed guilty of the greatest infamy. But the infamy is that I lied. I lied by admitting to disgusting charges laid against my Order. I declare that the Order is innocent. Its purity and saintliness have never been defiled. In truth, I have testified otherwise, but I did so from fear of horrible tortures.”

Adam of Murimouth and Christian Spinoza vouched for the Templars’ innocence. 

Baptised and confirmed Catholics, the Templars took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience and accepted further rules of restriction and aceticism not required of other monks. They honoured the Cistercian monastic rule from their founder St Bernard (which can be found online). They were monks and not priests, so therefore they had no initiation beyond what the ordinary person had. When they joined the Order, they gave up their ancestral lands, often placing female relatives in convents. Templars, like all monks, attended mass - a public event - and there they recited The Apostles Creed (which can be found online), so we know what this man of integrity believed without doubt. They heard the old and new Testaments readings and exegesis, they gave public confessions where they would be humiliated for the least personal sins, and they received holy communion, wine and unleavened bread, celebrated in remembrance of the last supper before Jesus was betrayed, judged, tortured and crucified. They kept the canonical hours with prayer 8 times throughout day and night. 

The title of the Order to which they voluntarily joined was The Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon. This is where their life long allegiance resided, and what they gave their lives to protect. They cared for pilgrims on the roads to holy places, cared for their money and got them home. They also fought in armour on horseback on the front lines of the Crusades to take the holy land for Christianity often sustaining injuries or dying abroad in this onerous and courageous task. 

Did they worship John the Baptist? Only God is worshipped, not his cousin. We know that John’s birth was miraculous, that his father was High Priest of the Jerusalem Temple. Named after Jonathan, King David’s best friend, not after his father, the high priest, as had been expected. We know John was an ascetic with a simple diet. We know he bathed people in the Jordan river, calling for forgiveness and prophesying about the coming of the messiah. He was imprisoned and beheaded for political activism. We don’t know a lot more about him, very little compared to the huge body of prophetic and other testimony we have about the life and death of Jesus, who was the equivalent to Elisha taking the coat from Elijah in the Old Testament. 

When the Templars were arrested, many were tortured and murdered. James (sometimes called Jacob, sometimes Jacques, as James was often corrupted to Jacques as in Jacques de Compostella). He was approx 70 years of age and had recently been made Grand Master. With complex intrigue, he was pressured to join his Order to the Hospitallers which he refused. The Templars had not had a success in the Holy Land. God had not been on their side in battle .He was arrested and imprisoned. The Vatican archives are clear on the strategy to discredit the Order. With little evidence beyond accusations (for which there were no consequences for falsehoods), the inquisition tortured the soldiers. One Templar was foot roasted to such a severe degree that the flesh fell off exposing the bones which he carried in a bag as he crawled along the judgment hall. De Molay is said by some to have been scourged and crucified - but lived = the Shroud of Turin, an early photograph of his body. Whilst under extreme torture, the men confessed to all kinds of sinfulness. As all sin is forgivable, they could go free after receiving absolution, which was granted to them by the Pope. However, they were not guilty of these sins, and despite being able to go free, they retracted their confessions, saying they only confessed because they were tortured. This retraction, proving their innocence of the sins, signed their death warrant, and they were deemed a recalcitrant heretic and would be burnt alive, a slow and horrific death that demonstrated to the world that they were innocent of the accusations and died Christian martyrs. 

If the Templars were guilty of heresy, what were their sins? Homosexuality was a very serious matter in those days, but these healthy, strong, intelligent, vibrant men may have needed their sexual needs met, and, as they were forbidden association with women, some might have indulged in forms of homosexuality. Today, we do not consider this a crime and compassion is the way to view this if it indeed did happen. Did they spit upon a crucifix? Their Catholic faith caused them huge deprivations, their decision to sell their estates, constantly travel in arduous country while responsible for poorly prepared pilgrims, illness, money and animals, to search for relics for cathedrals, to go to war in another country to fight for land to be turned over to Christ must have been horrendous! These fighting men in men’s company could have done this deed as an act of anger. Who could have asked these privations of other human beings? The personal cost was too great and a small sign of anger such as this was only human. 

By Wendy Stokes https://wendystokes.co.uk