The Knights Templar were a military religious order, founded during the Crusades but continuing to function for another two centuries, international, almost a sovereign power, collectively rich from banking although most individual members, including many who remained soldiers or sailors, continued to be monastically poor but also unpopular because unacceptably arrogant even by medieval standards.
On Friday 13 October 1307, King Philip the Fair, backed by Pope Clement IV, arrested every Templar in France on charges of idolatry, blasphemy, sodomy etc but really in order to confiscate their wealth, having already ruined Jews and Lombards. Leading members were executed and the Order was destroyed. The Templar fleet escaped because of a security leak by a Time Patrolman - a clever insertion of a fictional explanation for a historical event.
"'The Babylonian Captivity of the Popes in Avignon begins in Philip's reign. They'll return to Rome eventually, but they'll never be the same.'" (p. 751)
To this day, tourists visiting Avignon learn about the Babylonian Captivity.
Other activities call, o people. Maybe less posting today.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I've said this before, but it bears repeating, in ROGUE SWORD we see Poul Anderson accepting a more hostile view of the Templars than is later seen in "Death and the Knight." Plainly, further research convinced him the charges leveled against the Templars were, at the very least, exaggerated.
It's also interesting to note how ROGUE SWORD shows us another military religious, the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem. Better known today as the Knights of Malta. And in a much more favorable light. This order is in fact the very last surviving Catholic military religious order. Albeit, the Order is better known now for running charities and hospitals.
Sean
Sean,
I knew three guys who joined the Knights of Malta. One was devout and saw Knighthood as a way to continue and deepen his practice of Catholic spirituality. The others saw it only as enhancing their social status. But none of them had ever chosen to be those kinds of guys. They just were like that. Spirituality, if we can practice it and in whichever tradition, has to help us to understand why we are the way we are at the deepest level.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I have to regret how two of these men you knew who joined the Knights of Malta did so for imperfect reasons. And was the man who joined the Order for religious reasons a Knight of Justice/Professed Knight? This is the most senior rank in the Order and comprises men who take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Iow, like the soldier monks we see in ROGUE SWORD, such as Brother Hugh de Tourneville.
I have to disagree with your statement: "But none of them had ever chosen to be those kinds of guys." I believe in freedom of the will, which means these men COULD have chosen not to have joined the Knights of Malta. I have no objection to your last sentence.
Sean
Sean,
All three were Knights of Honor and Devotion, the lowest rank. I was told that, to have a higher rank, it was necessary to have some degree of European nobility.
I believe in free will on one level but not on another. An aggressive drunk automatically kicks a dog that bites him whereas a pacifist saint doesn't. Neither man chose to be born with the inclinations, dispositions, motivations, inner capacities etc that have brought him to his present state. The drunk can start to change, of course, but not easily.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, Knights of Justice/Professed Knights had to be men from aristocratic families before taking the monastic vows of the Knights of Malta. But that rule has been relaxed to some degree in the 1990's. I said "some degree" because I'm not sure how far it went.
Of course I have to agree that we are not responsible for the kinds of inclinations, dispositions, capacities, etc., we are born with. That reminded me of what St. Paul about how often the human will is torn between desiring the good but so often doing the bad. I think we agree in saying we do have free will in how we use or react to those things.
Sean
Post a Comment