Does anyone on Christian Forums have the real history of the Knights Templar and The Crusaders ?

[Jude1:3Contendforthefaith]

I'm asking because I have seen and heard many things and I don't know what is legit and what is not.

A few key points I want to ask about specifically :

• Were some put to death for worshipping baphomet / sorcery ?
• Did they kill Eastern Christians during the Crusades ?

Thanks in advance.

 

[tampasteve]

To answer the question we would probably do best to separate the Templar's from the Crusaders, though of course they were intimately tied together.

But for your questions:
• Were some put to death for worshiping baphomet / sorcery ?
Yes, but just because someone was tried and found guilty does not mean they actually were guilty, though some could have been. There were many other factors at play, including the massive wealth of the Templars that the states they operated in desired to take from them.

• Did they kill Eastern Christians during the Crusades ?
Yes, the crusaders absolutely did. Especially in the 4th Crusade where the crusaders sacked Constantinople.

 

[Jude1:3Contendforthefaith]

• Did they kill Eastern Christians during the Crusades ?
Yes, the crusaders absolutely did. Especially in the 4th Crusade where the crusaders sacked Constantinople.

Man, that is depressing.

 

[Jude1:3Contendforthefaith]

• Were some put to death for worshiping baphomet / sorcery ?
Yes, but just because someone was tried and found guilty does not mean they actually were guilty, though some could have been. There were many other factors at play, including the massive wealth of the Templars that the states they operated in desired to take from them.

Do you think that "Some" (not all of them) were guilty of this in your personal opinion ?

 

[Albion]

No. The Baphomet thing was an invention so that the Templars could be accused, convicted, and then divested of their wealth, as was already noted.

 

[tampasteve]

Do you think that "Some" (not all of them) were guilty of this in your personal opinion ?

Personally? No, I think that it was an excuse that seemed convenient at the time.

 

[tampasteve]

Man, that is depressing.

Yes, definitely a low point in our history. But to be fair, most of the killing was not motivated by religion in this case, it was to steal the wealth and prestige of the famous city.

 

[Jude1:3Contendforthefaith]

Personally? No, I think that it was an excuse that seemed convenient at the time.

What about the story about them finding The Goetia under Solomon's Temple ?

Goetia - Wikipedia

 

[tampasteve]

What about the story about them finding The Goetia under Solomon's Temple ?

Goetia - Wikipedia

Without any evidence I have seen, I think it is a fabrication.

 

[Quid est Veritas?]

The French Crown wanted to seize their wealth and estates, that is pretty much it. With the loss of Outremer, it seemed incongruous for them to still require it. A lot was made up about them to condemn them.

There are interesting theories on Baphomet though, from gematria of the word Sophia (Wisdom) being the most understandable. The Inquisitors had to get the concept somewhere, so while I doubt they worshipped an idol or anything of that sort, they may have misrepresented something of Templar usage - that is probably impossible to reconstruct today. Some of the accounts mention blasphemous ceremonies where they kiss various parts of the body, which actually correspond to known Sufi practice today - which gives pause. A long association with the Holy Lands may certainly have led to the order adopting practices of Eastern mystics or Orthodoxy, that may have been suspect in the West. But it is highly unlikely that an order that derived its membership from European Nobility would turn against the Christian bedrock of it.

All these stories of Templars finding relics, or the Arc, or being the origin of the Freemasons, or visiting America etc. should be taken with liberal amounts of salt. They were probably just a conventional, though initially highly succesful, miliary order like the Knights Hospitaller or Teutonic Knights, that ultimately absorbed so many of their members on the Templars' dissolution.

 

[ViaCrucis]

I'm asking because I have seen and heard many things and I don't know what is legit and what is not.

A few key points I want to ask about specifically :

• Were some put to death for worshipping baphomet / sorcery ?
• Did they kill Eastern Christians during the Crusades ?

Thanks in advance.

Short story on the Knights Templar: They made some money bringing back relics and treasure from the Holy Land during the crusades, they were among the world's first international bankers--and that made them quite wealthy. The French king wasn't a fan of how much money they had, because he wanted it. At the time the Pope was in Avignon, not Rome, and was more-or-less a puppet of the French monarch. The king more-or-less encourages the Templars to be round up and executed on trumped up charges. No more Knights Templar.

Short story on the Fourth Crusade: Venice offered to help fund the crusade, crusaders short on cash, decide to sack and pillage Constantinople. Decide they like it there, and stay. Eventually Byzantine successor states take Constantinople back. Nobody's happy, and it really sours the already terrible relations between Western and Eastern Christians after that whole Schism thing a couple hundred years earlier.

-CryptoLutheran