Knights Templar Heirs In Legal Battle With The Pope

[DeSwiss]

Knights Templar heirs in legal battle with the Pope
The heirs of the Knights Templar have launched a legal battle in Spain to force the Pope to restore the reputation of the disgraced order which was accused of heresy and dissolved seven centuries ago.

The Telegraph
By Fiona Govan, Madrid Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:55AM BST 04 Aug 2008



Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and Last Grand Master of the Knights
Templar, is lead to the stake to burn for heresy Photo: GETTY

The Association of the Sovereign Order of the Temple of Christ, whose members claim to be descended from the legendary crusaders, have filed a lawsuit against Benedict XVI calling for him to recognise the seizure of assets worth 100 billion euros (£79 billion). They claim that when the order was dissolved by his predecessor Pope Clement V in 1307, more than 9,000 properties as well as countless pastures, mills and other commercial ventures belonging to the knights were appropriated by the church. But their motive is not to reclaim damages only to restore the "good name" of the Knights Templar. "We are not trying to cause the economic collapse of the Roman Catholic Church, but to illustrate to the court the magnitude of the plot against our Order," said a statement issued by the self-proclaimed modern day knights.

The Templars was a powerful secretive group of warrior monks founded by French knight Hugues de Payens after the First Crusade of 1099 to protect pilgrims en route to Jerusalem. They amassed enormous wealth and helped to finance wars waged by European monarchs, but spectacularly fell from grace after the Muslims reconquered the Holy Land in 1244 and rumours surfaced of their heretic practices. The Knights were accused of denying Jesus, worshipping icons of the devil in secret initiation ceremonies, and practising sodomy. Many Templars confessed to their crimes under torture and some, including the Grand Master Jacques de Molay, were burned at the stake.

The legal move by the Spanish group comes follows the unprecedented step by the Vatican towards the rehabilitation of the group when last October it released copies of parchments recording the trials of the Knights between 1307 and 1312. The papers lay hidden for more than three centuries having been "misfiled" within papal archives until they were discovered by an academic in 2001. The Chinon parchment revealed that, contrary to historic belief, Clement V had declared the Templars were not heretics but disbanded the order anyway to maintain peace with their accuser, King Philip IV of France.

Over the centuries, various groups have claimed to be descended from the Templars and legend abounds over hidden treasures, secret rituals, and their rumoured guardianship of the Holy Grail. Most recently the knights have fascinated the modern generation after being featured in the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/2495343/Knights-Templar-heirs-in-legal-battle-with-the-Pope.html">LINK

- Well, well, well. This should prove interesting to see how this one plays out. The Templars seem to be trying to hold the threat of a monetary lawsuit over the Popester's head. But that move could be tricky. On the other hand, the Church probably doesn't want nor need anymore bad publicity right now either.

But Pope RatziNazizinger is really pissed at Spain right now, for ignoring his meddling into their internal affairs when they drafted laws giving homosexual couples full marital rights. Expressly after he told them NOT to. So he could be goaded into a fight.

Get out your popcorn.....
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DeSwiss


http://www.atheisttoolbox.com/">The Atheist Toolbox

[azurnoir]

1. Friday the 13th could be a lucky day after all n/t

[DeSwiss]

2. Especially...

...if they're forced to file a lawsuit. And win.

- No more Pradas for you!!!

[orleans]

3. this definitely could be interesting. and if their "good name" does get

restored, wouldn't that be all the more justification for a monetary damages lawsuit and why it would possibly win?

[DeSwiss]

4. I'm sure that the Vatican lawyers....

...will include some kind of "no-harm" clause in any agreement they draft. And maybe they'll offer the Templars special Vatican parking privileges or something.

- Besides, with all the art, artifacts, bank accounts, stock investments, businesses, land holdings and real estate that the Church owns the world over, I'm not even sure that a measley 100 billion euros will even be missed....

[soothsayer]

5. How many centuries is the statute of limitations on this thing?

[DeSwiss]

6. I don't think that figures into this case....

...since the statute of limitations is a relatively modern legal concept.

- Besides, if the Vatican is just now getting around to accepting limited responsibility for that little "Galileo thing", then they've set the precedent for their being no statute of limitations on old wrongs they've committed, themselves....

[Occam Bandage]

11. "the statute of limitations is a relatively modern legal concept."

That would be the problem, yes--we're in the modern age, and we're talking about the actions of feudal entities. It's unprecedented for a modern court to declare legal standing for a dubious crime committed centuries ago by a sovereign entity under different governments with different laws against a now-nonexistent organization that the plaintiffs claim is some sort of ancestor group. The fact that they apologized for their organization's previous immoral actions does not set any legal precedent for any nation's courts.

Declaring that the plaintiffs have standing here would be akin to allowing me to claim I am the true heir of the Yuan dynasty, and allowing me to therefore sue the government of Italy for Marco Polo stealing a porcelain cup from the court of Kublai Khan.

[DeSwiss]

13. All points well taken.

And I don't think it was coincidental that this case (if it ever actually becomes a case) would be filed in a court in Spain. With the Spanish Inquisition hovering in the back of everyone's mind, it seems somehow apropos. However, the basis for their action is based upon documentary evidence written down by the defendant, which then Pope admits was only a ruse to calm the political waters of the time.

The problem as I see it is, if it had ended there then there would be little argument. But they "took" away the Templars property, as was their want to do in those times, and is one of the primary reasons that the church became so rich in the first place.

- And while a porcelain cup from the courts of Kublai Khan certainly would almost priceless today, it ain't worth over 100 billion Euros. Because its really the money angle that is driving this thing......

[emad]

7. I blame the Spanish Inquisition! Seriously though, they've tried

this before - these so-called Templar heirs - even taking a petition to the UN in 1972 and later in 1983.

There are better ways of screwing over the Vatican.

Unlocking the DNA data base linking Pope Pius XII to Buch1 & 2 would be a damned good start.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. "so-called Templar heirs" is right

How do they think they'll be able to prove they have some legal standing over 700 years, changes of laws and constitutions, when they have to claim they were in hiding for a lot of that time?

[struggle4progress]

15. The Templars were absolved of heresy; the Vatican published the medieval documents

last year. Incidentally, this took place more than a century before the Spanish Inquisition, and the Templars, who were burned, burned in France

The Knights Templar, officially known as the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, were founded in the early 12th century to protect Christian pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land

The order eventually fell into disfavor with King Philip IV of France, who wanted their money, or perhaps, wanted to cancel the debts he owed it. The French king arrested members of the Knights and resorting to torture, extracted confessions of heresy

Templars were burned at the stake for heresy by King Philip's agents after they made confessions .. given under duress

In the hearings before Clement V, the knights reportedly admitted spitting on the cross, denying Jesus and kissing the lower back of the man proposing them during initiation ceremonies. However, many of the confessions were obtained under torture and knights later recanted or tried to claim that their initiation ceremony merely mimicked the humiliation the knights would suffer if they fell into the hands of the Muslim leader Saladin

In 1308 .. Pope Clement V decided to save the order, as recorded by the "Parchment of Chinon"

<Prof Barbara Frale> says "the Pope was obliged to ask for pardons from the knights... the document we have found absolves them"

Pope Clement V, under pressure from King Philip IV of France, disbanded the order in 1312

The leader of the order, Jacques de Molay, ... was burned at the stake in Paris in 1314

[TechBear_Seattle]

9. I believe the window for filing claims has closed

I can't imagine that the statute of limitations allows for claims to be made more than 700 years after the fact.

Murder, however, has no statute of limitations. I wonder if any modern pagans would be interested in filing murder charges against Maladict as former head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly known as the Office of the Holy Inquisition?

[Occam Bandage]

16. I don't believe it's a crime to hold a seat once held by a criminal. n/t

[Occam Bandage]

10. Hey, no fair! I am the true heir to the Knights Templar,

my line having been forced into secrecy for centuries, and those billions are totally and completely mine!

[struggle4progress]

12. The Telegraph: for when you're tired of The National Enquirer

Who is "Association of the Sovereign Order of the Temple of Christ"?

There's not even a modern name (other than the Pope's) mentioned in the article ...

[JerseygirlCT]

14. "Get out your popcorn"... Exactly!

This will be a good one! Can't wait for the movie.