From Indiana Jones to The Da Vinci Code - the truth behind the fiction
By Sharan Newman
[Excerpt - Author's Page - Linked Above]
Quote:
When I was asked to write THE REAL HISTORY BEHIND THE TEMPLARS I thought I knew quite a lot about them already. I was wrong. The story of the Templars is much more complex than I ever guessed. During the two hundred years of their existence they went through many changes. They fought steadily to protect the Crusader kingdoms and even when they were driven out of the Holy Land they never gave up the dream of returning. Some Templar knights were heroes and some villains. Some of their leaders were brave and competent; others were brave but unintelligent.
The image of the Templar Knights was always greater than the men themselves. Living up to that image wasn’t always possible. This is the story of the reality of the Templars. It is also the story of their legend. Tales about the deeds of the knights existed from the beginning, some less flattering than others. But it was not until five hundred years after the order was dissolved that the myths really started. What is there about the Templars that attracted the mythmakers? Why does the modern world still need these medieval knights?
THE REAL HISTORY BEHIND THE TEMPLARS addresses both the facts and the legends of this group that ended seven hundred years ago but refuses to disappear. It was fascinating to research and write. I hope you’ll be as enthralled as I was with the true story.
Joined: Jun 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 3,456 Location: Newcastle, Australia
Re: Templar Transmission Theory « Reply #15 on Aug 25, 2009, 7:59am »
Exaggerating noble connections is easy where the connection can no longer be authoritatively qualified or denied. Not surprisingly, many groups claim to be descended from the Knights Templar:
Here is the Rosamond family crest showing a cross, made up of a weaver's needle, surrounded by roses. Godstalk Rosemondt corresponded with Erasmus who some say "Laid the egg that Luther hatched." The Protestant heresay was not the first. Did weavers join the Templars?
The Waldensian weavers, the Lollards, and other religious groups formed by weavers led to the Reformation and the founding of the Protestant church. The Cathars were weavers, and are associated with the Knight Templars. Some of Rosamond/Rougemont Recusants in Spitalfields were forced to flee to America and Canada where they founded historic weaving mills and the city of Altemonte. There is a weaver museum there located on Rosamond St. My Rosamond kin may be the most ongoing religiously persectuted family in history.
Joined: Jun 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 3,456 Location: Newcastle, Australia
Re: Templar Transmission Theory « Reply #16 on Nov 3, 2009, 6:52am »
The Knights Templar in Scotland: The Creation of a Myth
[Conclusion - Article by Robert L.D. Cooper, AQC, v.115, pp.94/152]
Quote:
The stimulating and though[t] provoking ideas of a variety of writers must be seen as but one way of attempting to understand the past. What has been attempted here, albeit very briefly, has been to examine some of the more common elements of the Scottish version of the myth, by testing them as if they were hypotheses. That testing has been carried using sources and evidence well known in the academic world but not so well known elsewhere. That process has revealed some major shortcomings with the Popular Approach. It is somewhat disappointing that so many authors obviously have a limited knowledge of Scottish Freemasonry, or more correctly, a limited knowledge of the difference between Freemasonry in Scotland and that practiced elsewhere. More serious is the dismissal, virtually without discussion, of enormous bodies of relevant material. That relating to the Battle of Bannockburn is a prime example.
On the darker side it is of concern to note that the modern myth had its roots in late 18th and 19th century anti-masonic attacks by Barruel and Robison. Those Freemasons who devised a ‘traditional history’ in which the medieval KT and modern Freemasonry were intimately connected, had no way of knowing that ‘their’ myth would be adopted and embellished for purposes other than the innocuous pleasure of their fellow Freemasons. The perversion of the myth into anti-Semitic and anti-masonic diatribes that led to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and ultimately the Holocaust, can be traced from the writings of Barruel and Robison. One wonders where today’s constant repetition of the myth might next lead.
This myth is unusual in that it does not appear until after the history of Freemasonry itself first appears in print, with the publication of Anderson’s Constitutions in 1723. Even then the myth does not begin to obviously resemble the myth as it is known today until the mid-19th century when it was created from a variety of ‘Traditional Histories’ by a relatively few authors. The influence of the Romantic Movement, and its promotion of medieval notions of chivalry etc., cannot be understood as a major impulse in its creation. This myth is, therefore, part of a long line of mythologizing begun by stonemasons beginning in the 1628 St Clair ‘Charter.’ The myth has a dynamism that is markedly different from that of other myths, particularly those of classical antiquity, which demonstrates that it is ‘young’ and has not, yet, reached the fixed maturity of other myths. Fortunately, the origin and development of this myth took place at a time when it was easily recoded and thus future generation of masonic historians will, hopefully, continue to chart its progress and development.
This limited survey of material relating to how Scottish Freemasons perceived their past demonstrates that they were as susceptible to outside influence, then as now. Originally Scottish Freemasons had an understanding of their past that was reasonably straightforward and simple. Once printed histories began to appear which suggested a more exotic past, especially those with the sanction, tacit or otherwise, of those in authority these new versions were eagerly consumed and no doubt believed. Anderson, Ramsay, Lawrie, Brewster, Hutchinson, Walker Arnott and assorted others were writers who initiated, and perpetuated a fantastic history of Freemasonry. Each built on, and elaborated, the mythical work of their predecessors whether or not they were Freemasons. That process continues today.
All the essential elements of the modern myth were created during the Romantic period when a nostalgic view of the chivalric codes of the middle ages was fashionable and which culminated in, not only of physical displays of chivalry (i.e. the Eglinton Tournament), but also were manifest in a host of artistic and literary works. At a time when Scottish culture was fashionable and when there was a widespread belief that chivalry could still be relevant, a romantic Scottish masonic chivalric Order was synthesized — the present KT.
The myth as we know it today was created by the Masonic KT of Scotland. They appear to have done so for a number of reasons:
To legitimise the newly created Order.To provide themselves with a ‘Traditional History.’To differentiate the Order from other branches of Scottish Freemasonry.To create an Order superior to ‘ordinary’ Freemasonry.To demonstrate a particularly ‘Scottish’ interpretation of the myth, that is, a different version from the then dominant French version.
Here lies the crux of the matter. None of the ‘Traditional Histories’ of any of the branches of Freemasonry are, or were, intended to be taken literally. Our forebears in all the Orders manufactured suitable ‘pasts’ for allegorical purposes. They did so with romantic notions at heart but understood that these histories were not literal truths. It seems that, after all, Freemasonry is: A peculiar System of Morality, Veiled in Allegory and Illustrated by Symbols.
The Knights Hospitaller, the other great Order of warrior monks, has certainly welcomed women since the Twelfth Century (Sire, p.102) (and the term `Masone' was associated with both Orders (Sire, p.162)). Full brothers and sisters had to be of noble birth and they wore the cross of their Order, (lay members wore the half cross or square; i.e., the chevron, now used as the stripes of a sergeant or other N.C.O.) (Sire, p.102). The issue of women does not seem to have been regarded as an obstacle to proposals to merge the two Orders.
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