Vatican paper set to clear Knights Templar
By Malcolm Moore in Rome
Last Updated: 2:08am BST 05/10/2007

Extracted from the newspaper online:
Telegraph.co.uk



The mysteries of the Order of the Knights Templar could soon be laid
bare after the Vatican announced the release of a crucial document
which has not been seen for almost 700 years.

Guardians of the Grail


Knights Templar are rumoured to guard the Holy Grail


A new book, Processus contra Templarios, will be published by the
Vatican's Secret Archive on Oct 25, and promises to restore the
reputation of the Templars, whose leaders were burned as heretics
when the order was dissolved in 1314.

The Knights Templar were a powerful and secretive group of warrior
monks during the Middle Ages. Their secrecy has given birth to
endless legends, including one that they guard the Holy Grail.

Recently, they have been featured in films including The Da Vinci
Code and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

The Order was founded by Hugues de Payns, a French knight, after the
First Crusade of 1099 to protect pilgrims on the road to Jerusalem.
Its headquarters was the captured Al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple
Mount, which lent the Templars their name.

But when Jerusalem fell to Muslim rule in 1244, rumours surfaced
that the knights were heretics who worshipped idols in a secret
initiation ceremony.

advertisementIn 1307, King Philip IV "the Fair" of France, in
desperate need of funds, ordered the arrest and torture of all
Templars. After confessing various sins their leader, Jacques de
Molay, was burnt at the stake.

Pope Clement V then dissolved the order and issued arrest warrants
for all remaining members. Ever since, the Templars have been
thought of as heretics.

The new book is based on a scrap of parchment discovered in the
Vatican's secret archives in 2001 by Professor Barbara Frale. The
long-lost document is a record of the trial of the Templars before
Pope Clement, and ends with a papal absolution from all heresies.

Prof Frale said: "I could not believe it when I found it. The paper
was put in the wrong archive in the 17th century."

The document, known as the Chinon parchment, reveals that the
Templars had an initiation ceremony which involved "spitting on the
cross", "denying Jesus" and kissing the lower back, navel and mouth
of the man proposing them.

The Templars explained to Pope Clement that the initiation mimicked
the humiliation that knights could suffer if they fell into the
hands of the Saracens, while the kissing ceremony was a sign of
their total obedience.

The Pope concluded that the entrance ritual was not truly
blasphemous, as alleged by King Philip when he had the knights
arrested. However, he was forced to dissolve the Order to keep peace
with France and prevent a schism in the church.

"This is proof that the Templars were not heretics," said Prof
Frale. "The Pope was obliged to ask pardon from the knights.

"For 700 years we have believed that the Templars died as cursed
men, and this absolves them."