Wednesday, May 17, 2006

The Knights Templar - real military order

The Knights Templar were a real military order, a collective of Christian soldiers, who were pilgrims to Jerusalem. The order was born out of a desire to do something practical for God, and since they were fighting men, they used their sword-power to protect other Christian pilgrims to the East.

They formed shortly after the Crusades began in around 1120 and were headed by a French knight called Hugues de Payens. Their true name is Knights of Christ in the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. They had indeed established themselves in the Temple of Solomon but became known as the Poor Knights of the Temple, or The Knights Templar.

There is tell that the order became guardians of the Holy Grail after they discovered it hidden under the floor of the Temple of Solomon. The Grail was reportedly secreted there sometime during the Herodian Dynasty after the death of Christ. The trouble is that by the time The Knights Templar were in the temple, they would have had to dig down about 47 metres to reach the level of the Herodian Dynasty. There is no existing evidence of a huge dig like this, which makes it seem unlikely.

In time, the Templars garnered favour with noble families who travelled under their protection. They began attracting recruits from the ranks of these families as well. They received donations of vast material wealth and succeeded in setting up the first system of international banking.

Now wealthy and enormously well connected, the Templars were an obvious target for those who believed they could better use their riches. Philip IV of France condemned them as heretics and organised a brilliantly orchestrated coup. On 13 October 1307, the Templars were individually hunted down and tortured or destroyed for their crime. The order, which had been officially recognised by the Vatican, was denounced by Pope Clement V at the same time. It's not known if any knights survived or whether the Templar still exists.

Sunday, May 07, 2006

TemplarsInSlovakia.com

Templar activity in Slovakia

During their existence the order of The Templar Knights firmly established their position in Europe to finance their activity in the “Holly Land”. Because it has proven its ability in banking, farming and in military, royalty from all around of Europe did call on to their services.

Templar knights came into Ugrian Kingdom approximately in 12th century during the government of king Gejza II. They formed their first monastery in the town of Stoliczny Belehrad (today Belgrade). After a short time they have formed another 10 monasteries and have acquired a strong influence in the country. King Imrich has confirmed all of the liberties. The Templar Knights have settled on the castles guarding the borders of Ugrian Kingdom and at all of the strategic places of the empire (trade crossings, mines). It is also mentioned that the Templar Knights were acting as a financial advisors to the kings. There are many remains which have survived until today. Many of them belong to different orders, because after destroying of the hated templar knights nobody would care about memory of once strong order.

Many times during our investigation we have came across documents that right after disestablishment of Templar’s order new religious or knight’s orders has started to function at the same place. Documents mentioned the owners of buildings, monasteries or castles, from certain date only, but there is no mention about previous owners. This is mostly in the early 14th century where as we know is dated the disestablishment of the order of The Knights Templar.

Many of the places where there is no written proof the connection with The Templar Knights are just by mouth of native people as well as traditions and legends. People did not create legends bases on fiction but on the historic facts. Our people did not named hills, rivers and did not create myths without realistic foundations. How would simple people come up with the names as monks, templar knights without their ascendants seeing them or hearing about them? Yes these verbal testimonies could not be created just by pure fantasy, without real motive, they never mention monastery or castle on the place that there was nothing. But they always mention monasteries and castles where there are castles and that is why all of the legends are based on some kind of actual historic truth. We can assume that they mention different names of people and places or about disorder of chronology or historic facts but always based on historic truth.

We do not try to convince you that all of the information is true, maybe not even the places which we mention on our web page may not be connected to the activities of templar order. All of the information presented on our web page is backed up by at least one reference in literature, archive papers. The original authors may be mistaken or may base their writings on wrong assumptions and information. History is fascinating and that is why we can always explore it and prove or disprove our work.

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