Templars_ History and Myth Part 9

Convento do Cris...o...b..ilt as a Templar stronghold in 1160, the Convento do Cristo sits impressively on a hill overlooking the river Nabo and the town. The castle has an outer wall and a citadel with a keep inside. The keep is one of the oldest in Portugal; the idea was introduced to the country by the Templars, as was the use of round towers in the outer walls, which were less susceptible to mining than square towers and improved the defensive lines of fire. When Tomar was founded, most of its inhabitants lived in houses enclosed within the protective outer walls of the castle. As Grand Master of the Order of Christ, Prince Henry the Navigator had his palace here; its remains can be seen immediately to the right when entering the castle walls.

The famous round church within the castle was built in the second half of the twelfth century and like several other Templar churches across Europe it was modelled after the Rotunda of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. From the outside it is a sixteensided structure, with strong b.u.t.tresses, round windows and a bell tower. Inside the church is circular and has a central octagonal structure, connected by arches to a surrounding ambulatory. After Prince Henry the Navigator became Grand Master of the Order of Christ he had a Gothic nave added to the round church, so that the rotunda became the apse of the enlarged church. The Convent of Christ of Tomar is one of Portugal's most important historical and artistic monuments and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Church of Santa Maria do Olival On the eastern side of Tomar is the Templar church of Santa Maria do Olival. Twenty-two Portuguese Templar masters were buried in the church, among them Gauldim Pais, master from 1157 to 1195 and the founder of the castle and the city of Tomar. He made a name for himself during the conquest of Santarem in 1147, followed by Lisbon in 1149, before heading off to Outremer where he took part in the siege of Gaza in 1153. The original inscribed slab still covers the recess in the wall containing Pais' ashes. His bravery in his tireless struggle against the Muslim invader made him the epitome of a Knight Templar, and his memory continues to be cherished in Portugal.

The church pa.s.sed into the hands of the successor to the Templars, the Order of Christ, and during the age of discoveries when Portugal was building up a great empire overseas, Santa Maria do Olival served as the mother church of all the churches of Africa, Asia and the Americas. The interior of the church is very simple. Its three naves are covered by a wooden roof supported by pointed arches rising from columns lacking capitals. The main chapel of the apse is covered by a Gothic ribbed vault. Above the church entrance is a window in the form of an open rose, while a window above the apse is in the form of the Signum Salmonis, that is the Seal of Solomon.

ALMOUROL.

About twelve miles south of Tomar is the remarkable castle of Almourol rising from a small rocky island in the middle of the Tagus river. An older castle stood on this site when the area pa.s.sed to the control of the Knights Templar during the Reconquista, but by 1171 they had rebuilt what they found, introducing innovations from their experience in Outremer, including the ten round towers set along the outer walls and the three-storey keep, just as at Tomar.

The castle on its island has a fairy-tale quality, as though conjured up by some medieval magician. Arriving at the island by boat, you can climb up through the trees to the well-preserved castle and keep.

Britain Place names such as Temple, Temple Hirst, Temple Bruer, Temple Balsall, Templecombe, Temple Ewell and Strood Temple Manor are scattered across England, and Scotland too, testimony to the way the story of the Knights Templar is woven into the living fabric of Britain. And that is not to mention the many other places without Temple in their name but which nevertheless have powerful Templar a.s.sociations.

For example, in London the Church of All Hallows by the Tower, right by the Tower of London, has an altar in its crypt that the Templars are said to have brought from their last foothold in the Holy Land at Athlit, south of Haifa. Saint Mary the Virgin at s.h.i.+pley in West Suss.e.x is the village parish church, but its strong Romanesque design, the high s.p.a.cious nave and chancel and the ma.s.sive central tower mark it as a Templar edifice. The manor and land were among the earliest endowments to the order, and the church was built soon after, in about 1140. The Templars also made their presence felt at the shrine of Saint Thomas Cantilupe in Hereford Cathedral. Saint Thomas, the last Englishman to be canonised before the Reformation, died in 1282. He was bishop of Hereford but also provincial Grand Master of the Knights Templar, and fourteen Templars are carved round the base of his tomb. The Old Temple Kirk in the village of Temple in Midlothian, Scotland, is Gothic in style and might be late twelfth-century Templar work, though more probably it was built later by the Hospitallers. Nevertheless the village of Temple, not far from Edinburgh, was certainly the headquarters of the Knights Templar in Scotland, and if in fact nothing tangible remains from their time, the place can justly lay claim to genuine historical a.s.sociations. In contrast, a.s.sociations of a speculative kind have attached themselves to nearby Rosslyn Chapel, just a few miles' walk away, which, since featuring in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code The Da Vinci Code, has become one of the most visited sites in Scotland.

More is said about Rosslyn Chapel below, but of indisputable historical interest there is nothing to beat Temple Church in London and Cressing Temple in the county of Ess.e.x.

LONDON: THE T TEMPLE C CHURCH.

The Temple Church is the oldest building in the Inns of Court, a quiet backwater of London south of Fleet Street, unless you are part of Britain's industrious legal profession for whom this is the mother hive. Rather like Oxford and Cambridge colleges, the Inns are divided into distinct inst.i.tutions: Inner Temple, Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn and Gray's Inn. The first two get their names from the Knights Templar whose headquarters were at this spot.

Hugh of Payns, the first Grand Master of the Templars, established the first Templar house in London in 1128, on the site of present-day Southampton House in Holborn. This became known as the Old Temple when the Templars moved to a larger site to the south between Fleet Street and the River Thames. The new site originally included much of what is now Lincoln's Inn, and the knights were probably responsible for establis.h.i.+ng New Street (now Chancery Lane), which led from Holborn down to their new quarters.

Following their custom, the Templars built a round church patterned on the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. An inscription on the Round (as the rotunda is called) recorded that it was consecrated by Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, on 10 February 1185, in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is thought that King Henry II was also present on that day, inaugurating a long a.s.sociation between the kings of England and the Temple.

Among the other buildings erected by the Templars were dormitories, chambers, storehouses, stables and two dining halls, one of them in the consecrated central portion and connected to the church by a cloister. King John was one of several kings to stay here, and during his visit in 1215 he received a deputation of barons demanding a charter of liberties; and when Magna Carta was signed later in the year, the master of the Temple was one of the witnesses. Taking advantage of their special privileges, the Templars made their sanctuary a safe place for depositing treasure, and during the thirteenth century the New Temple became a busy financial centre. The first lawyers came to live in the Temple at this time as legal advisors to the order of the Knights Templar, which was one of the foremost international organisations of the age. The Templars thrived, adding to their round church a fine nave, which was consecrated in the presence of King Henry III in 1240.

After the dissolution of the Knights Templar the Pope granted their estates to the Knights Hospitaller, but King Edward II of England seized the New Temple for the Crown. Nevertheless the consecrated portion was conceded to the Hospitallers and the rest was sold to them later. But the Hospitallers do not seem to have occupied the Temple personally; instead it was let and served a source of revenue, and by the 1340s it had become tenanted by lawyers. These formed themselves into two legal societies, one using the hall next to the cloisters (the inner inn), the other using the unconsecrated buildings between the inner portion and the Outer Temple. The Temple Church became the chapel of those two societies. In 1540 King Henry VIII abolished the Hospitallers in England and confiscated their property, which the Crown continues to let to the Inner and Middle Temple. Likewise it is for the sovereign to provide a priest for the church, who to this day bears the t.i.tle of Master of the Temple.

The symbolism of the Round was all-important. Jerusalem lay at the centre of all medieval maps and was the hub of the Crusaders' world. The most sacred place in this most sacred city was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre with its Rotunda built over the site believed to be the burial place of Jesus Christ. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was the goal of every pilgrim, whose protection was the Templars' care, just as the church itself, of all buildings on earth, had to be defended from its enemies. By building round churches throughout Europe, the Templars recreated the sanct.i.ty of this most holy place. To be buried in such a place was devoutly to be desired, for to be buried in the Round was as though one was buried in Jerusalem itself. Among the knights buried in the Round was the most powerful man of his generation: William the Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, advisor to King John, regent to Henry III, and one of the instigators of Magna Carta in 1215. His sons' effigies lie around his own.

There are nine marble effigies in all as well as a stone coffin set into the floor. William, who is depicted at rest, took the cross and went crusading in the Holy Land from 1183 to 1186 where he vowed to join the Templars, a vow he fullfilled on his deathbed in 1219. But William's sons, who never took the cross, are shown with their eyes wide open, and drawing their swords from their scabbards. They are all portrayed in their early thirties, the age at which Jesus died and at which, it is said, the dead will rise on his return.

The effigies are not memorials of what has long since been and gone; they speak of what is yet to come. The Templars wore white robes with red crosses, and in the Book of Revelation 7:14 Revelation 7:14 the martyrs of Christ, clad in white robes washed in the blood of the Lamb, are those who will be called to life at the 'first resurrection'. For a millennium they will reign with Christ, and at its end Satan will lead all the nations of the earth against 'the beloved city' ( the martyrs of Christ, clad in white robes washed in the blood of the Lamb, are those who will be called to life at the 'first resurrection'. For a millennium they will reign with Christ, and at its end Satan will lead all the nations of the earth against 'the beloved city' (Revelation 20:9)Jerusalem, site of the final battle. And so these knights have good reason to draw their swords, for by being buried in the Round they are already buried 'in Jerusalem', and in Jerusalem they shall rise again. Here in the Temple Church, in this replica of the Holy Sepulchre itself, the knights are waiting for their call to life, to arms and to the last climactic defence of their most sacred place on earth.

The Second World War inflicted considerable damage on the Temple area. In 1941 at the height of the Blitz, Temple Church was. .h.i.t by German bombs. War and time account for the austere appearance of the church today, for much has been rebuilt but without the original decorations. The walls of the Round were once painted with lozenges and bands of colour and the grotesque heads were painted too. The famous stone knights were also damaged in the bombing, but they still have an eerie presence.

CRESSING T TEMPLE, ESs.e.x.

Cressing Temple is the oldest Templar holding outside London and the largest and most important in the county of Ess.e.x. The property lies along the high road between London and Colchester and was donated to the Templars in 1137 by Queen Matilda, wife of King Stephen of England and niece of Baldwin, the first king of Jerusalem. Unlike other Templar sites, which are built of stone, the monuments at Cressing Temple are two vast barns of wood, magnificent structures which dominate the landscape; the timbered interiors are of cathedral-like dimensions. The Wheat Barn and the Barley Barn, built between 1206 and 1256, are the two finest Templar-built barns in Europe while the Barley Barn is the oldest timber-framed barn in the world.

Cressing Temple, originally over 14,000 acres in extent, occupied a fertile site with good transport links by road and river, and by establis.h.i.+ng a market here the Templars developed their holding as a considerable agricultural enterprise worked by over 160 tenant farmers, its surplus providing a profit which went towards paying for the order's activities in Outremer. The property would have been in the charge of a preceptor accompanied by two or three knights or sergeants, together with a chaplain, a bailiff and numerous household servants. In 1309 the estate was recorded as possessing a mansion house with a.s.sociated buildings including a bakehouse, a brewhouse, a dairy, a granary and a smithy, as well as gardens, a dovecote, a chapel with cemetery, a watermill and a windmill. After the suppression of the order in 1312, Cressing Temple was given to the Knights Hospitaller.

ROSSLYN C CHAPEL, SCOTLAND.

Rosslyn Chapel, at Roslin, seven miles south of Edinburgh, has been co-opted into every alternative history of Britain, and among the claims made for the chapel are that it has a.s.sociations with the Holy Grail, the Templars and the Freemasons.

Originally named the Collegiate Chapel of Saint Matthew, Rosslyn was designed by William St Clair (also spelt Sinclair), 1st Earl of Caithness, whose ancestors were Norman n.o.bles. Construction of the chapel, which was built on the pattern of the choir in Glasgow Cathedral, began in 1456. The original intention was for it to be part of a much larger church, for the fas.h.i.+on in Scotland was to build ambitious private churches able to support a resident clerical community. But the grandiose scheme was never completed, and after William's death in about 1491, it fell to his son to roof over the chapel and see the interior carving and decoration to its conclusion.

Dan Brown in The Da Vinci Code The Da Vinci Code synthesises much that has been written about Rosslyn in the alternative histories. For example, he claims that Rosslyn was built on the site of an ancient Mithraic temple, and that it is 'an exact architectural blueprint of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem'this despite the fact that the chapel follows the pattern of the choir in Glasgow Cathedral. He also claims that it stands on a north-south meridian that runs through Glas...o...b..ry, on a Rose Line from which the chapel gets its name. In fact Rosslyn's longitude is W3:08:41, while Glas...o...b..ry's is W2:42:52, centred on the Abbey, or W2:41:41 centred on the ancient Tor. And like any good Scots kirk, Rosslyn's name refers simply to it location, 'ross' meaning promontory or headland, and 'lyn' meaning pool or stream. synthesises much that has been written about Rosslyn in the alternative histories. For example, he claims that Rosslyn was built on the site of an ancient Mithraic temple, and that it is 'an exact architectural blueprint of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem'this despite the fact that the chapel follows the pattern of the choir in Glasgow Cathedral. He also claims that it stands on a north-south meridian that runs through Glas...o...b..ry, on a Rose Line from which the chapel gets its name. In fact Rosslyn's longitude is W3:08:41, while Glas...o...b..ry's is W2:42:52, centred on the Abbey, or W2:41:41 centred on the ancient Tor. And like any good Scots kirk, Rosslyn's name refers simply to it location, 'ross' meaning promontory or headland, and 'lyn' meaning pool or stream.

Brown also attempts to link the chapel with the Templars. Though Rosslyn does lie only four miles to the northwest of Temple, the Knights Templar headquarters in Scotland, the chapel was built well over a century after the dissolution of the Templars. As for any link between the Sinclairs and the order, the one thing that can be said for certain is that a descendant of William Sinclair testified against against the Templars during their trial at Edinburgh's Holyrood Palace in 1309. the Templars during their trial at Edinburgh's Holyrood Palace in 1309.

Nevertheless, Rosslyn Chapel is an extraordinary place to visit. The exterior is alive with exaggeratedly decorated stone b.u.t.tresses, arches, finials and canopies, and the interior stonework is if anything even more exotic, every surface covered in richly allegorical sculpture that draws heavily on biblical and medieval Christian symbolismthe Seven Deadly Sins, the Dance of Death and so onand also on figurative naturalistic work and pagan mythological imageslook out for the numerous Green Men.

The most remarkable of all the thousands of pieces of virtuoso stonework is the twisted Prentice Pillar, which stands at a corner of the Lady Chapel, to the right of the main altar, with entwined dragons at its foot. Local legend has it that the column was created by an apprentice subsequently murdered by his master in a jealous rage. Dan Brown's idea that a second facing pillar is an 'exact replica' of Boaz, the pillar that the Bible places on the left of the entrance to Solomon's Temple, is pure invention. There is a second column at Rosslyn dubbed the Mason's Pillar, but the name developed out of a local legend to do with stone-carving and has nothing to do with Freemasons. Nor is there a 'ma.s.sive subterranean chamber' lurking beneath the chapel, as Dan Brown claims, though high-tech efforts to find one are unceasing.

In 2005 a modern-day descendant, Dr Andrew Sinclair, denounced The Da Vinci Code The Da Vinci Code. 'The book is preposterous,' he said, 'its message pernicious, its history a bungle and a muddle. What it says about the Grail and Rosslyn is absolute invention.' But as every good conspiracy theorist knows, he would say that.

Part 7

Templarism

Born Again Templars Templars in Popular Culture.

When Anthony Burgess reviewed The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail The Holy Blood and the Holy Grailthe book that put the Templars at the heart of a millennium of conspiracieshe said, 'I can only see this as a marvellous theme for a novel.' How prescient he was. A small army of novelists, from Umberto Eco to Dan Brown, have taken the book's pseudo-history of the Knights Templar for their plots. The Templars have become screen regulars, too, and are keeping up with the times with starring roles in medieval-themed computer games.

Not that adopting the Templars in fiction is entirely a modern phenomenon. The literary trail starts in the thirteenth century with Wolfram von Eschenbach's epic poem Parzival Parzival (which reworks Chretien de Troyes' unfinished Grail romance (which reworks Chretien de Troyes' unfinished Grail romance Perceval Perceval) in which a group of knights known as Templeisen guard the Grail.

Rise of the Templar Literary Phenomenon The writer who really put the Templars on the modern literary map was Sir Walter Scott, whose first foray into medieval fiction, Ivanhoe Ivanhoe (1819), featured Sir Brian de Bois-Gilbert, a l.u.s.tful Grand Master of the Templars, as its chief villain. King Richard the Lionheartand the Templarsintrigued Scott so much that he returned to the patch in (1819), featured Sir Brian de Bois-Gilbert, a l.u.s.tful Grand Master of the Templars, as its chief villain. King Richard the Lionheartand the Templarsintrigued Scott so much that he returned to the patch in The Talisman The Talisman (1825). His creation was so successful that it even sp.a.w.ned parody, in American novelist Herman Melville's (1825). His creation was so successful that it even sp.a.w.ned parody, in American novelist Herman Melville's Typee Typee (1846) and, in more extended form, (1846) and, in more extended form, The Paradise of Bachelors The Paradise of Bachelors (1855). In this tale of a dinner at Temple Bar, Melville enjoys musing on the 'moral blight that tainted at last this sacred brotherhood' and turned them into hypocrites and rakes. (1855). In this tale of a dinner at Temple Bar, Melville enjoys musing on the 'moral blight that tainted at last this sacred brotherhood' and turned them into hypocrites and rakes.

The Templars then went quiet for a few decadesleaving aside a namecheck in Leslie Charteris' hero Simon Templaruntil the 1950s, when Maurice Druon wrote a series of seven historical novels, The Accursed Kings The Accursed Kings. These start with James of Molay's burning in 1314 and his supposed curse on the Capetian dynasty. In the 1970s Druon's novels were made into an acclaimed mini-series in France. Something was obviously stirring. In 1972 Ishmael Reed made a Templar knight, Hinkle von Hampton, the villain in his post-modernist satire Mumbo Jumbo Mumbo Jumbo and Pierre Barbet wrote and Pierre Barbet wrote Baphomet's Meteor Baphomet's Meteor, a bizarre sci-fi take on the legend in which the Templars are manipulated by aliens. The best novel to date about the order, William Watson's sadly neglected The Last of the Templars The Last of the Templars, also appeared.

The publication of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (1982) introduced the order's puzzling legend to a wider audience. That same year Lawrence Durrell's (1982) introduced the order's puzzling legend to a wider audience. That same year Lawrence Durrell's Constance Constance, the third volume in his Avignon Quintet Avignon Quintet, honoured the Templars as secret Gnosticswhich is why, he suggests, James of Molay was burned at the stake on Pope Clement V's orders. Before their destruction, imagines Durrell, the Templars buried a secret treasure near Avignon, a treasure coveted by Hitler, who hopes it will inspire his n.a.z.i 'black chivalry'. Umberto Eco, that astute student of popular culture, spoofed the Templar obsession and popularised it in his international bestseller Foucault's Pendulum Foucault's Pendulum (1988), memorably noting that you could always tell a lunatic because 'sooner or later he brings up the Templars'. (1988), memorably noting that you could always tell a lunatic because 'sooner or later he brings up the Templars'.

However, with Spielberg's film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), an order that had officially died out seven hundred years ago suddenly came to feel like part of the zeitgeist. In the next decade, Katherine Kurtz, an American novelist (who claims to be a 'Templar at heart') launched a series of heroic Templar fantasy novels; British writer Michael Jecks penned various Cadfael-esque murder mysteries starring a Templar called Sir Baldwin; and Swedish author Jan Guillou entered the fray with a trilogy about a Swedish Templar. The pace was hotting up, and as (1989), an order that had officially died out seven hundred years ago suddenly came to feel like part of the zeitgeist. In the next decade, Katherine Kurtz, an American novelist (who claims to be a 'Templar at heart') launched a series of heroic Templar fantasy novels; British writer Michael Jecks penned various Cadfael-esque murder mysteries starring a Templar called Sir Baldwin; and Swedish author Jan Guillou entered the fray with a trilogy about a Swedish Templar. The pace was hotting up, and as The Da Vinci Code The Da Vinci Code (2003) became one of the bestselling books ever, the Templars entered the book charts centre stage, with Raymond Khoury's (2003) became one of the bestselling books ever, the Templars entered the book charts centre stage, with Raymond Khoury's The Last Templar The Last Templar (2005) and Steve Berry's (2005) and Steve Berry's The Templar Legacy The Templar Legacy (2006). (2006).

Templar PlotsThe blockbuster Templar plot draws loosely on history and myth. Here are some of the more crucial ingredients.

James of Molay (Jacques de Molay) is a hero. Steven Berry, in The Templar Legacy The Templar Legacy, dares to suggest that the last Grand Master broke under torture, although, to compensate, he says it is James of Molay's image on the Turin Shroud. But most of the time, Molay is so brave and far-sighted that it is a mystery how he failed to handle King Philip.

The Templars have secret knowledge. What they know varies but it is often suggested that in the Holy Land they became acquainted with some profound, esoteric wisdom after hobn.o.bbing with their Muslim opponents. For example, a Templar killing of an a.s.sa.s.sin envoy becomes a thread with which the most elaborate fantasies can be spun.

The Templars criss-cross the globe. Scotland, Paris, New York, Israel, the Languedoc, Turin, Copenhagenno place on earth is safe as these complex plots unravel as surrogate travelogues.

A modern-day Templar geek is usually a villain, just like Sir Leigh Teabing in The Da Vinci Code The Da Vinci Code and the less eccentrically monikered Vance Williams in Khoury's and the less eccentrically monikered Vance Williams in Khoury's The Last Templar The Last Templar.

Popes are devious and none more so than Leo X (14751521), who is forever quoted as saying, 'It has served us well, this myth of Christ.' In fact this remark was put into the Pope's mouth by John Bale (14951563), a rabidly anti-Catholic propagandist. and none more so than Leo X (14751521), who is forever quoted as saying, 'It has served us well, this myth of Christ.' In fact this remark was put into the Pope's mouth by John Bale (14951563), a rabidly anti-Catholic propagandist.

Never hesitate to draw on the theories of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail The Holy Blood and the Holy Grailbut in appendices and bibliographies designed to suggest that a fiction is grounded in fact, don't credit this (nonsensical) book.

Heresy and Satanism make good copyespecially the Templars' supposed wors.h.i.+p of an Anti-christ called Baphomet.

The Templars still exist. And they are behind everything.

TEMPLAR N NOVELS.

Templar novels are beginning to outweigh historical accounts of the period. Here's the pick of the crop, from Scott to the present.

Sir Walter Scott Ivanhoe Ivanhoe (1819) and (1819) and The Talisman The Talisman (1825) (1825) The Scottish novelist was obviously fascinated by the Templarsthey provide the pantomime villains in these two famous novelsbut not so fascinated that he looked much beyond the charges used to justify the order's suppression. So in The Talisman The Talisman the Grand Master presides over an order accused of heresy, suspected of being in league with the devil, and so arrogant that it would risk the downfall of Western civilisation to preserve itself. Scott even finds something sinister in the Grand Master's abacus, 'a mystic staff of office, the peculiar form of which has given rise to such singular conjectures and commentaries, leading to suspicions that this celebrated fraternity of Christian knights were embodied under the foulest symbols of paganism'. Some traditions suggest that the Templar abacus was modelled on the staff carried by Moses' brother Aaron, which hardly makes it pagan, even if it later became a.s.sociated with Freemasonry. the Grand Master presides over an order accused of heresy, suspected of being in league with the devil, and so arrogant that it would risk the downfall of Western civilisation to preserve itself. Scott even finds something sinister in the Grand Master's abacus, 'a mystic staff of office, the peculiar form of which has given rise to such singular conjectures and commentaries, leading to suspicions that this celebrated fraternity of Christian knights were embodied under the foulest symbols of paganism'. Some traditions suggest that the Templar abacus was modelled on the staff carried by Moses' brother Aaron, which hardly makes it pagan, even if it later became a.s.sociated with Freemasonry.

Willing to glorify any calumny against the Templars, Scott has these reckless knights entering into a rash alliance with the Austrians against King Richard I and Saladin in The Talisman The Talisman. In reality Richard was as obsessed by the Crusades as the Templars, which may be why he confirmed the order's land holdings in England and granted them a kind of diplomatic immunity from English law.

Scott's most iconic Templar villain is hard-hearted Sir Brian de Bois-Gilbert, who, the novelist hints, personifies the order. Ivanhoe's father Cedric describes him as 'valiant as the bravest of his order but stained with their usual vices, pride, arrogance, cruelty and voluptuousness'. Bois-Gilbert may have about as much in common with the real Templars as the Arthur in Disney's The Sword in the Stone The Sword in the Stone has with the historical King Arthur. But he has, through sheer charismaand a wonderful portrayal by George Sanders in the 1952 moviebecome the most famous fictional Knight Templar of them all. has with the historical King Arthur. But he has, through sheer charismaand a wonderful portrayal by George Sanders in the 1952 moviebecome the most famous fictional Knight Templar of them all.

Maurice Druon The Accursed Kings The Accursed Kings (195577) (195577) A Prix Goncourt-winning novelist, a minister of culture under Georges Pompidou, and the co-author of an anthem sung by the French resistance, Maurice Druon's life is almost as interesting as his fiction. In the 1950s he began a series of novels, Les Rois Maudits Les Rois Maudits ( (The Accursed Kings), on the story of James of Molay's supposed curseflung at King Philip as he burnt at the stake. At the heart of Druon's saga is a real historical puzzle. When Molay burned, Philip was in good health and had three grown sons. Yet within twenty-five years, lack of male issue forced the Capetian dynasty to hand the throne to their Valois cousins.

Druon's seven novelsThe Iron King, The Strangled Queen The Strangled Queen, The Poisoned Crown The Poisoned Crown, The Royal Succession The Royal Succession, The She-Wolf of France The She-Wolf of France, The Lily and the Lion The Lily and the Lion, When a King Loses France When a King Loses Francespan six tumultuous decades in French history, starting with Philip being refused a loan by the Templars and ending with the Valois dynasty. Although the series is named in honour of Molay's curse, the plot is driven, in part, by another real story of the era: the campaign by Robert III of Artois, related through marriage to the first Valois king, to reclaim land from his aunt. Robert's pursuit of this grievance led to exile and war.

Druon takes care to achieve a level of historical accuracy but nonetheless bends the facts to suit his story. The dissolution of the Templars is a spur of the moment enterprise, not the fruit of meticulous planning. Philip does get his hands on Templar gold, but, when the Pope dies, becomes obsessed by James of Molay's curse and, in the second novel, wastes away to death. Nonetheless, these first two novels are of genuine interest to any Templar aficionado.

Pierre Barbet Baphomet's Meteor Baphomet's Meteor (1972) (1972) As the Templars have long existed in an alternative dimension, between fact and fiction, it was smart of pseudonymous French sci-fi author Pierre Barbet to write a fictional alternative history in which Baphomet, the mysterious head the knights were accused of wors.h.i.+pping, is a stranded extraterrestrial who gives the Templars the scientific expertise and atomic weaponry they need to take over the world and develop the technology he needs to repair his s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p. Alas, Baphomet has not allowed for human deviousness.

The mysteries of Christianity were obviously of lifelong interest to Barbet, who was a doctor and wrote A Doctor at Calvary A Doctor at Calvary, one of the definitive medical accounts of the crucifixion.

William Watson Last Of The Templars (1979) (1979) If you only read one Templar novel, try this. Watson brings a novelist's insight into his historically scrupulous account of the Templars' precipitous decline from the fall of Acre in 1291 to the burning of James of Molay in 1314. For once the Templars are not mystics, seers or heretics blackmailing the Church but the soldiers and bankers of historical record. Watson's clever, dreamlike narrative offers a cogent a.n.a.lysis of the factors that doomed the order: the rise of nationalism, the order's arrogance, the greed of King Philip, Papal acquiescence and, most of all, the loss of the Holy Land and the end of the Crusades, which left the Templars, without a mission, suddenly superfluous.

Beltran, the last of the order, is a soldier-monk whose personal allegiance lies with Thibaud Gaudin, the penultimate Grand Master, who effectively dies from the strain of trying to reverse the decline in the Templars' fortunes. Watson convincingly records the milestones on the order's road to nowhere. While most novelists describe Molay's death as a ceremony accompanied by pomp and circ.u.mstance, Watson presents the burning as a hurried, slightly disorganised spectacle, unforgettably noting, 'The Grand Master has become a cinder.'

Watson sees the brutal, unpredictable reality behind the n.o.ble stereotypes of conflict in the Holy Land and handles his historical castespecially King Philip, his unscrupulous aide William of Nogaret and Pope Clementwith aplomb, even offering an intriguing explanation for the fact that all three were dead by Christmas 1314. Last of the Templars Last of the Templars is worth reading both for its insight into the order and as a brilliant historical novel. is worth reading both for its insight into the order and as a brilliant historical novel.

Umberto Eco Foucault's Pendulum Foucault's Pendulum (1988) (1988) In Eco's second novelfollowing his hugely successful medieval whodunit, The Name of the Rose The Name of the Rosethree Italian intellectuals jokingly prepare The Plan, a ludicrously comprehensive plot which will explain everythingthe Templars, the Rosicrucians, the Count of St Germain (an eighteenth-century con man who claimed to be immortal), the Merovingians, Jesus, the n.a.z.is. A plot that antic.i.p.ates, in some ways, the central premise of The Da Vinci Code The Da Vinci Code.

In Eco's book, the Templars, according to a history written by a sinister colonel, were guardians of a secret treasure and ought to have taken over the world in 1944 but were mysteriously foiled. From this, Eco spins all manner of conceits with such enthusiasm that, at times, you can feel as if you are listening to a monologue by a very erudite pub bore. But you can forgive him a lot for inventing a secret society drolly known as the Synarchic Knights of Templar Rebirth.

Jan Guillou The Crusades Trilogy The Crusades Trilogy (19982000) (19982000) Swedish author Guillou's novels are characterised by macho, politically correct heroes. In this trilogy set in the twelfth century, Swedish knight Arn Magnusson arrives in the Holy Land, condemned to serve twenty years as a Knight Templar for a youthful indiscretion, with the usual preconceptions about infidel Muslims being a brutish and uncivilised lot. But he soon casts off those prejudices and becomes a pro-Muslim multiculturalist who only fights for the Christians out of a sense of duty. Guillou blends fact, legend and fiction to make his point, even having his hero pardoned by Saladin because he once saved the great Muslim leader's life from robbers.

Guillou has a sure feel for the nuanced relations.h.i.+p between the Templars and their royal allies in the Holy Land and for the detail of historical battle. He blames the destruction of the Christian armies and the fall of Jerusalem on certain non-Templar military leaders and the King of Jerusalem. His Templars are brave, n.o.ble, well trained and ruthless; it is the incompetence that surrounds them that dooms their cause. A Templar spin doctor could not have put it better. Guillou does a similarly eloquent PR job for Saladin.

Dan Brown The Da Vinci Code The Da Vinci Code (2003) (2003) Everyone loves a conspiracy. Brown is so convinced this is true, he tells us twice. The a.s.sumption being that our obsession with a nothing-is-as-it-seems version of history might blind us to the way this compelling story edits, stretches and wilfully misunderstands the facts. Any reader who took Brown's guidance on the Templars literally would conclude that they were founded by a mysterious order called the Priory of Sion, busied themselves by ensuring that motifs of the v.a.g.i.n.a, womb and c.l.i.toris were incorporated into many medieval cathedrals, and wors.h.i.+pped their own fertility G.o.d. Alas and alack, the Priorywhich Brown seems to think was a real ent.i.tywas the fanciful invention of one Pierre Plantard, a French forger who came up with the idea in 1956, elaborated and reinforced his claims with a series of further forgeries, then finally admitted under oath that he had made the whole thing upbut of course if you are a true conspiracy theorist you know what that means! Apart from possibly those knights who jousted in drag at Acre in 1286and the chronicler does not say that there were any Templars among themthere is no evidence that the Templars ever made any attempt to get in touch with their feminine side. In fact, their rule warned: 'The company of woman is a dangerous thing.'

The novel's central anti-clerical message means that the downfall of the Templars is attributed not to King Philip IV but to 'Machiavellian' Pope Clement V, who, fed up with being blackmailed about the secret of the Grail, unleashed an 'ingeniously planned sting operation' on the innocent order and saw to it that the tortured knights' ashes were 'tossed unceremoniously into the Tiber'. This would have been some toss as Clement V never stepped foot in Italy, never mind Rome.

Kate Mosse Labyrinth Labyrinth (2005) (2005) Labyrinth reads like one of those books where the author is more worried about achieving the desired blockbuster pagination (700 pages) than how the story is told. But after 250 pages, the narrative begins to gather momentum as the threads of her parallel livesCathar Alais and modern-day volunteer archaeologist Alice Tannerintersect compellingly. Mosse takes many themes a.s.sociated with the Templarsthe Grail, the Cathars, the implication of secret knowledge from the Eastbut only mentions the order in pa.s.sing as she builds to a finale in which the Grail is revealed as a chalice, something that enables initiates to live for 800 years and 'the love that is handed down from generation to generation'. reads like one of those books where the author is more worried about achieving the desired blockbuster pagination (700 pages) than how the story is told. But after 250 pages, the narrative begins to gather momentum as the threads of her parallel livesCathar Alais and modern-day volunteer archaeologist Alice Tannerintersect compellingly. Mosse takes many themes a.s.sociated with the Templarsthe Grail, the Cathars, the implication of secret knowledge from the Eastbut only mentions the order in pa.s.sing as she builds to a finale in which the Grail is revealed as a chalice, something that enables initiates to live for 800 years and 'the love that is handed down from generation to generation'.

When she researched the novel, Mosse writes, she felt sure there would be a role for the Templars but decided 'the connections people like to make between the Albigensian heresy and the Knights Templar are based on nothing more than historical coincidence'. On her website www.mosselabyrinth.co.uk www.mosselabyrinth.co.uk she has published her notes on the man she refers to as 'the great Jacques de Molay' and speculates that the Knights Templar may have been the 'fair-headed people using the power of the covenant' who, in Ethiopian tradition, raised the ma.s.sive obelisk at Axum. While many rumours and legends link the Templars to Ethiopia (usually in connection with the Ark of the Covenant), the obelisk is 16001700 years old. So not historical nor a coincidence. she has published her notes on the man she refers to as 'the great Jacques de Molay' and speculates that the Knights Templar may have been the 'fair-headed people using the power of the covenant' who, in Ethiopian tradition, raised the ma.s.sive obelisk at Axum. While many rumours and legends link the Templars to Ethiopia (usually in connection with the Ark of the Covenant), the obelisk is 16001700 years old. So not historical nor a coincidence.

Julia Navarro The Brotherhood of the Holy Shroud The Brotherhood of the Holy Shroud (2006) (2006) This is one of the best Templar-inspired novels, Navarro alternating between a modern-day investigation into a mutilated body at Turin Cathedral and a well-told, and in large part nicely conceived, secret history of the Shroud. In this, the Templarsand a ruthless secret brotherhood from the biblical town of Edessaare the antagonists.

The Templars are portrayed, as one of the investigators says, 'as supermen who can do anything' whose most sacred mission, once they have blackmailed the Byzantine emperor to hand it over, is to protect the Shroud. They manage to smuggle it out of Acre just before the Holy Land falls in 1291, but their annus horribilis, 1307, forces the order into desperate measures. One of the plotters trying to get his hands on the Shroud is said to be a direct descendant of Geoffrey of Charney, who burned with James of Molay. This makes possible sense as the widow of a man called Charney, who may have been the nephew of Geoffrey of Charney, put the Shroud on display in 1357. Navarro suggests that the Templars survivedinitially in such places as Portugal, where, as she correctly notes, the order was simply nationalised, and in Scotlandand are so powerful today that they can, with impunity, organise the a.s.sa.s.sination of policemen who get too close to their secret.

Navarro tantalises readers with the idea that 'there was a figure to whom the Templars prayed throughout the world though His name was not Baphomet'. In secret chapel meetings, she suggests they wors.h.i.+pped 'a painting, an image of a strange figure, an idol'. Wisely, she does not elucidate, so the reader can take their pick from the usual suspects: Sophia the Greek G.o.ddess of wisdom, the Prophet Mohammed, the mummified head of Jesus, an Egyptian cat or the head of a Sufi martyr.

Raymond Khoury The Last Templar The Last Templar (2005) (2005) Khoury used to write for BBC TV's superior spy drama Spooks Spooks and he kicks off his bestselling novel with a stunning conceit, as four hors.e.m.e.n dressed as Templars storm the opening of an exhibition of Vatican artefacts in New York. As FBI agent Sean Reilly and archaeologist Tess Chaykin investigate, they discover a secret that has lain buried for a thousand years. and he kicks off his bestselling novel with a stunning conceit, as four hors.e.m.e.n dressed as Templars storm the opening of an exhibition of Vatican artefacts in New York. As FBI agent Sean Reilly and archaeologist Tess Chaykin investigate, they discover a secret that has lain buried for a thousand years.

As a page turner, Khoury's 'deadly game of cat and mouse across three continents' is as compelling as Dan Brown's novels. Like Brown and Berry, he finds the idea that the Templars' real treasure was gold, money or the medieval equivalent of traveller's cheques just too mundane. So he has a Templar s.h.i.+p called Falcon Temple Falcon Temple setting sail on the order of the Grand Master days before the fall of Acre with a mysterious chest that contains the writings of 'a man the entire world knew as Jesus Christ'. This seems to conflate two historical events: the real removal of the Templar treasure from the Holy Land and the activities of a disgraced Templar sergeant called Roger of Flor who made a fortune by ferrying the desperate and wealthy out of Acre in his galley called the setting sail on the order of the Grand Master days before the fall of Acre with a mysterious chest that contains the writings of 'a man the entire world knew as Jesus Christ'. This seems to conflate two historical events: the real removal of the Templar treasure from the Holy Land and the activities of a disgraced Templar sergeant called Roger of Flor who made a fortune by ferrying the desperate and wealthy out of Acre in his galley called the Falcon Falcon. Khoury also mentions the legend of the Templars' maritime escape, specifically the fleet of eighteen galleys that sailed out of La Roch.e.l.le the night before the Templars were arrested in 1307, never to be seen again.

For Khoury's Templars, the treasure is a sideshow. Their real purpose is to unite the three religions that held sway in medieval timesChristianity, Judaism and Islamby exposing the fraud at the heart of the resurrection myth and humbling the arrogant clergy. It is at this point that fiction and history finally part company for good. But this final implausibility does not spoil the fun.

Steve Berry The Templar Legacy The Templar Legacy (2006) (2006) This blockbuster never quite recovers from having a hero named Cotton ('it's a long story,' he says whenever someone asks, which they do tediously often) and an evil Templar mastermind called Raymond de Roquefort who wants to bring Christianity to its knees and restore the Templars to their former power by publis.h.i.+ng a secret gospel which proves that Jesus never physically came back from the dead.

In interviews, Berry talks as if the Templars are old chums so it would be intriguing to discover where he gets some of his ideas from. He often quotes the Templar Rule in the novel, suggesting that it forbade knights from was.h.i.+ng, though n.o.body who comes into contact with his Templars seems deterred by body odours. And his imagination goes into overdrive when it comes to James of Molay's burning. He has King Philip watching dispa.s.sionately, though the historical sources seem pretty clear that he was not present, and then a crack squad of Templars swimming across the Seine to fetch the Master's burnt bones back in their mouths. That said, Berry gets quite a lot of stuff right. Like the battle cry ('Beauseant') and the fact, recently confirmed, that the Templars were absolved by Clement V of the charges brought against them.

The novel's most original suggestion is that James of Molay's image, not Christ's, is mysteriously preserved on the Turin Shroud. The order is linked with the Shroud and the famous carbon-dating does suggest that the portion of tested cloth comes from the thirteenth to fourteenth centuries, the Templar era. Berry says he got the idea from The Second Messiah The Second Messiah by Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, two Freemasons turned amateur historians. The book suggests that James of Molay was tortured and crucified in a parody of Christ's agony by Philip's henchman William of Nogaret, a theory Berry draws on in some truly excruciating scenes. But historians find a conflict of evidence about whether James of Molay confessed with or without torture, let alone that he underwent a kind of crucifixion. by Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, two Freemasons turned amateur historians. The book suggests that James of Molay was tortured and crucified in a parody of Christ's agony by Philip's henchman William of Nogaret, a theory Berry draws on in some truly excruciating scenes. But historians find a conflict of evidence about whether James of Molay confessed with or without torture, let alone that he underwent a kind of crucifixion.

Robyn Young The Brethren Trilogy The Brethren Trilogy (200608) (200608) The rise of the Mamelukes and their mounting pressure against the Crusader states during the last decades of the thirteenth century provides the setting for Robyn Young's Brethren trilogy. Brethren Brethren is the first volume of the trilogy, and the plot turns on a mysterious book that goes missing from the order's vaults which holds the key to a secret group of knights. The locations run from the filthy backstreets of medieval London and Paris to the s.h.i.+mmering light and burning heat of Syria and Palestine where the Mameluke Sultan Baybars is renewing the struggle against the Christians. Also there are girls, and love. The second volume, is the first volume of the trilogy, and the plot turns on a mysterious book that goes missing from the order's vaults which holds the key to a secret group of knights. The locations run from the filthy backstreets of medieval London and Paris to the s.h.i.+mmering light and burning heat of Syria and Palestine where the Mameluke Sultan Baybars is renewing the struggle against the Christians. Also there are girls, and love. The second volume, Crusade Crusade, brings the reader to Acre where 'a ruthless cabal of Western merchants, profiteering from slaves and armaments, has devised a shocking plan to reignite hostilities in the Holy Land'. Also there are girls, and love. Requiem Requiem, the final volume, covers the downfall of the Templars at the hands of Philip IV of France. And there are girls, and love. The tragedy of the Crusades, and of the Templars, we are led to understand, was that n.o.body listened to the Brethren, that secret group of social workers operating within the heart of the Knights Templar who might have made everything nice. The trilogy's las.h.i.+ngs of love interest ensures that where historical fiction fails, as it does throughout, Mills and Boon rushes to the breach.

THE T TEMPLARS IN M MOVIES.

For decades, Hollywood's perception of the Templars began and ended with George Sanders' suave villainy as Sir Brian de Bois-Gilbert in Ivanhoe Ivanhoe (1952). Apart from perennial inferior remakes of Scott's saga, the Templars did not get much of a look-in until the 1970s when Spanish director Amando de Ossorio brought the order back to life as zombies in his (1952). Apart from perennial inferior remakes of Scott's saga, the Templars did not get much of a look-in until the 1970s when Spanish director Amando de Ossorio brought the order back to life as zombies in his Blind Dead Blind Dead movies. movies.

And then came George Lucas. There is a theory that the Jedi knights in Star Wars Star Wars (1977) are thinly disguised Templars and that their ma.s.sacre (in 2005's (1977) are thinly disguised Templars and that their ma.s.sacre (in 2005's Revenge of the Sith Revenge of the Sith) is a reference to the destruction of the order in 1307. There are rumours that in the original script the knights were known as Jedi Templar. The Jedi, like the Templars, were warrior monks whose behaviour was governed by a code. And the Templarsthrough their supposed a.s.sociation with the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenantare often credited with mysterious, even supernatural powers which, some Star Wars Star Wars aficionados insist, resembles the Force that the Jedi knights must master. aficionados insist, resembles the Force that the Jedi knights must master.

More easily identifiable Templar and Grail myths came to the fore in two Steven Spielberg blockbusters that Lucas produced: Raiders of the Lost Ark Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and (1981) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). And these created something of a genre, being followed by the confused Dolph Lundgren thriller (1989). And these created something of a genre, being followed by the confused Dolph Lundgren thriller The Minion The Minion (1998), the entertaining Indiana Jones clone (1998), the entertaining Indiana Jones clone National Treasure National Treasure (2001), the baffling (2001), the baffling Revelation Revelation (2001), Christophe Gans' horror movie, (2001), Christophe Gans' horror movie, Brotherhood of the Wolf Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001), and Ridley Scott's sword and sandal epic, (2001), and Ridley Scott's sword and sandal epic, Kingdom of Heaven Kingdom of Heaven (2005). Not to mention the movie version of (2005). Not to mention the movie version of The Da Vinci Code The Da Vinci Code (2006). (2006).

The Blind Dead Blind Dead movies (197175) movies (197175) The Blind Dead Blind Dead series kicked off with series kicked off with Tombs of the Blind Dead Tombs of the Blind Dead (1971) in which the Templarsknown only as Knights of the East but identifiable from their garbare brought back from the dead as blind mummies. Slow, creepy and bizarrethe zombie-Templars are blind so they hunt by soundthe film was successful enough for Ossorio to make three more: (1971) in which the Templarsknown only as Knights of the East but identifiable from their garbare brought back from the dead as blind mummies. Slow, creepy and bizarrethe zombie-Templars are blind so they hunt by soundthe film was successful enough for Ossorio to make three more: Return of the Blind Dead Return of the Blind Dead (1973), (1973), The Ghost Galleon The Ghost Galleon (1974) and (1974) and Night of the Seagulls Night of the Seagulls (1975). The series inspired a New York punk band called The Templars. (1975). The series inspired a New York punk band called The Templars.

The Indiana Jones Indiana Jones Trilogy (198189) Trilogy (198189) 'All of a sudden, whoosh, it was gone.' That remark by one of the US intelligence officers who recruits Indiana Jones to save the Ark from the n.a.z.is pretty much sums up what we know about the fate of the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). The Ark was supposed to make armies invinciblehence Hitler's interestthough it mysteriously failed to prevent the occupation of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and, in Spielberg's version of history, by the Egyptians too. This first film in Steven Spielberg's series bases its plot on the historically nonsensical proposition that the Ark was taken to Egypt by Pharaoh s.h.i.+shak, which if true would have made it impossible for the Templars to have made off with it two thousand years later, as some would have us believe. (1981). The Ark was supposed to make armies invinciblehence Hitler's interestthough it mysteriously failed to prevent the occupation of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and, in Spielberg's version of history, by the Egyptians too. This first film in Steven Spielberg's series bases its plot on the historically nonsensical proposition that the Ark was taken to Egypt by Pharaoh s.h.i.+shak, which if true would have made it impossible for the Templars to have made off with it two thousand years later, as some would have us believe.

The third film in the series, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), has a suggestively Templar theme and features a scene in which the weary Templar-like guardian of the Holy Grail looks forward with quiet relief to ending his 800-year watch. Jones (Harrison Ford) and his father (Sean Connery) combine to prevent the chalice falling into n.a.z.i hands. Even though the sets are full of eight-pointed stars and talk of chivalrous knights abounds, the Templars are not mentioned once. Instead we get a secret military order called the Knights of the Cruciform Sword. (1989), has a suggestively Templar theme and features a scene in which the weary Templar-like guardian of the Holy Grail looks forward with quiet relief to ending his 800-year watch. Jones (Harrison Ford) and his father (Sean Connery) combine to prevent the chalice falling into n.a.z.i hands. Even though the sets are full of eight-pointed stars and talk of chivalrous knights abounds, the Templars are not mentioned once. Instead we get a secret military order called the Knights of the Cruciform Sword.

But the story does capture the Grail's mythic significance. When the heroes and the villains find the cave where the knight keeps watch over the hidden treasure and the Holy Grail, the knight warns them to choose wisely. The shallow, mercenary villain picks the blingiest goblet and dies. Indy, who has no real interest in the Grail but knows his father is obsessed by it, drinks from a plain wooden cupthe kind of cup a carpenter might have, he suggestsand it heals his troubled relations.h.i.+p with his father. In spirit, the denouement is consistent with Eschenbach's poem Parzival Parzivala vague source for this moviewhich suggests that you have to be truly selfless to be worthy of the Grail.

The Minion (1998) (1998) The budget for this film was $12 million. A pity they did not spend a cent on research. Dolph Lundgren is a b.u.t.t-kicking Templar monk with a spiked leather glove whose sacred duty it is to do what the Templars have always done and stop a key that has kept the Anti-christ imprisoned for thousands of years from falling into the wrong hands. The laughs start as soon as Francoise Robertson's Native American archaeologist stares at some skeletons in a hidden chamber in New York and decides the Templar garb they are wearing was made in Ireland in the sixth century. Although ostensibly a Templar, Lundgren fails to point out that she is six hundred years out. The idea that the order was founded in the twelfth century, we are told later, is merely conventional wisdom. There are rumours, we are a.s.sured, that the Templars may have started a thousand years before and, the film suggests, it may even have been started by Saint Peter. After such revelations, we barely pause to wonder how a bunch of warrior monks in Jerusalem come to be wearing Irish weave and ended up in New York. It is those Templars, you see. They can do anything.

National Treasure (2001) (2001) Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, two thirds of the trinity behind The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, suggested in their book The Temple and the Lodge The Temple and the Lodge that the Knights Templar survived their dissolution by hiding in Scotland and centuries later, as Freemasons, plotted the independence of the United States. The seductive idea of a Templar-mason continuum was first floated in France in the 1740s, by Scottish-born Freemason Andrew Michael Ramsay, and provides the slender hook for this that the Knights Templar survived their dissolution by hiding in Scotland and centuries later, as Freemasons, plotted the independence of the United States. The seductive idea of a Templar-mason continuum was first floated in France in the 1740s, by Scottish-born Freemason Andrew Michael Ramsay, and provides the slender hook for this Indiana Jones Indiana Jones-style adventure in which Nicolas Cageand eventually his dotty dad Jon Voightseek the lost Templar treasure with the aid of a map some Templars thoughtfully drew, in invisible ink, on the back of the Declaration of Independence. The clues seem inordinately complex, as if a Templar Einstein had conceived them for other Einsteins to crack. And there is no credible reason for the treasure to be in America at allother than box-office takings. The film also goes into the business of unfinished pyramids and all-seeing eyes as found on American dollars being masonic symbols.