BEHOLD A COOPERPEDIA
Mystery Babylon #12: The End of the Templars
Catalog title: Mystery Babylon #12
Bill Cooper, aka Milton William Cooper, aka William Cooper
Catalog date: 1993-03-03
Tape: 43
Catalog source: https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/78e68b7b-1af2-472b-8e7b-260879e201a4/HOTTCatalog2014ver1effective01Jan14.pdf#page=1
Catalog locator: PDF page 1, left table, row 43, tape 43
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[00:00:00.000 to 00:00:25.850] The Hour of the Time may be contacted at HOT, that's H-O-T-T, P.O. Box 940, Eager, spelled E-A-G-A-R, in the state of Arizona, 85925. Our phone number is 928-333-2942, and our website is www.hourofthetime.com. I'm

[00:01:31.580 to 00:01:34.580] Cooper, and you're listening to The Hour of the Time.

[00:01:36.140 to 00:02:05.530] Well, folks, we've been getting calls from all over the nation and even in some foreign countries. They have been worried. They've called Stan. His phone has been ringing off the hook. It seems some rather spurious and ambitious individuals have been spreading the rumor by word of mouth, by the written word, and even on talk radio all across this country that I'm dead. Well, folks.

[00:02:06.030 to 00:02:07.970] Here's my answer to that.

[00:05:36.520 to 00:05:46.370] all my regular listeners and all the ships at sea around the world, it's me, William Cooper, speaking to you from the dead, where I have indeed seen the light, and I turned it off.

[00:05:49.490 to 00:06:07.090] One of the most disgraceful acts which stained the annals of the Templars, says even one of their ardent admirers, occurred in the year 1155, when Bertrand de Blancfort, whom William of Tyre calls a, quote, pious and God-fearing man, unquote,

[00:06:07.870 to 00:06:38.600] was master of the order. In a contest for the supreme power in Egypt, which the Viziers, bearing the proud title of Sultan, exercised under the phantom Caliphs, Sultan Abbas would put to death the Caliph. His master found himself obliged to fly from before the vengeance of the incensed people. With his harem and his own and a great part of the royal treasures, he took his way through the desert.

[00:06:39.490 to 00:07:08.740] Well, a body of Christians, chiefly Templars, lay in wait for the fugitives near Ascalon. The resistance offered by the Moslems was slight and very ineffectual. Abbas himself was either slain or he fled, and his son, Nisardin, professed his desire to become a Christian. The far larger part of the booty, of course, fell to the Templars, but this did not satisfy their avarice.

[00:07:09.410 to 00:07:23.980] They sold Nisirdin to his father's enemies for 60,000 pieces of gold. Now, if you think that's a lot of money in this day and age, it was a veritable king's ransom in that.

[00:07:26.980 to 00:07:38.580] And they stood by to see him bound hand and foot and placed in a sort of cage or iron-ladded sedan on a camel to be conducted to Egypt, where a death by a protracted torture awaited him.

[00:07:40.450 to 00:07:57.540] It was not the Templars alone, folks, who were guilty of arrogance and worse. The Hospitallers had deteriorated from their first fine beginnings, and the annals of both orders are not innocent of unpleasantness, though they are indeed well filled with tales of glory.

[00:07:59.640 to 00:08:23.370] The hospitalers, for instance, refused to pay tithe to the patriarch of Jerusalem, even going so far as to erect immense buildings in front of the church of the Holy Sepulchre as a practical demonstration of their own importance. And when the patriarch entered his church, they rang their bells so loudly that he could not make himself heard. There is an occasion recorded.

[00:08:24.160 to 00:08:41.450] When, quote, the congregation was assembled in church, the hospitalers rushed into it in arms and shot arrows among them as if they were robbers or infidels. These arrows were collected and hung up on Mount Cavalry where Christ had been crucified to the scandal of these recreant knights.

[00:08:42.140 to 00:09:11.180] On applying to Pope Adrian IV for redress, the Syrian clergy found him and his cardinals so prepossessed in favor of his enemies, bribed by them, in fact, as was said, that they had no chance of relief, unquote. This, then, folks, was the background of the rise of the Templars and the flavor of their environment. Now, if one adds to these elements the fact that various very heterodox sects, Gnostic,

[00:09:12.450 to 00:09:39.750] Manichae and the rest still lurked in the Holy Land, together with a great deal of magic and superstition of every kind, then there is a possibility, to say the least, that the Templars were infected by it. The facts indeed show that they were not only infected, but taken by it, and were initiated into not only the branch known as the Athens, but veritably arose from the secret sects in Syria.

[00:09:40.700 to 00:10:00.290] the contention which has been made that such heresies and archaic religions and practices did not survive until the templar period is demonstrably false although much play has been made of it by those who would defend the order for do such sects not endure there until this very

[00:10:04.240 to 00:10:20.780] Well, this is not to say that the Templars were guilty of the practices which formed the substance of the confessions later to be wrung from them by barbaric torture, which we will examine in due course. But a secret tradition and magical rites may well have played a part in their hidden lore and practices.

[00:10:22.300 to 00:10:51.780] It should also be remembered, folks, that towards the end there were Templars who were of actual Palestinian birth who would have every opportunity of absorbing the unorthodox beliefs of the many schools of a magical religious nature which existed in the area. The Grand Master Philippe of Nablus in 1167, for instance, was a Syrian, and many Crusaders were Levantine lords, whatever their original blood, speaking Arabic with perfection.

[00:10:53.660 to 00:11:23.210] It was in 1162 that the Magna Carta of the Order was obtained by the Templars. The bull omni datum optimum often described as the keystone of their power, and through this instrument they were able to consolidate their authority and preserve their secrets against intrusion. They were to find, too, that it did much to excite the envy of their opponents. Pope Adrian IV had died.

[00:11:23.870 to 00:11:49.350] The two rival popes were elected, Alexander III by the Sicilian group and Victor III by the imperial party. At first the Templars acknowledged Victor, but in 1161 they switched their allegiance to Alexander. There was probably some sort of secret arrangement behind this, for by January 7th of the following year the famous bull was issued. By the terms of this document,

[00:11:50.210 to 00:12:18.050] The Templars were released from all spiritual tithes except to the Holy See itself. They were permitted to have special burial grounds in their own houses. They could have chaplains of their own. They had no tithes to pay, which in that day and age was miraculous, and were allowed to receive tithes, which was absolutely incredible. Nobody who had once entered the order could leave it except to join one with a stricter discipline.

[00:12:19.040 to 00:12:46.900] The stage, dear listeners, was set for clerical hatred of the Templars and Hospitallers who had similar privileges and in fact were one and the same and still are today, although the advantages to the Pope from the combined support of these two orders could hardly be overestimated. In 1184 an incident occurred which inspired a great deal of distrust of the order, although the rarity of its occurrence should have underlined the fact that it was nothing of much consequence.

[00:12:47.800 to 00:13:10.900] You see, the English knight Robert of St. Albans left the Templars, became a Moslem, and led an army for Saladin against Jerusalem, then in the hands of the Franks. The charge against the Templars that they were secret Muthulmans or allies of the Saracens does not seem borne out by the fact that Saladin accused them of treacherous truth, breaking, and other crimes.

[00:13:11.650 to 00:13:40.250] and unlike his usual chivalrous self, took a solemn oath that he would execute such Templar captives as he could obtain as, quote, beyond the limits of Islam and infidelity alike, unquote. Nor did they make any attempt to invoke any religious bond with Saladin when they were captured. As we know from the Arabic Life of Saladin, written contemporaneously by his secretary, Qadi Yusuf,

[00:13:42.080 to 00:14:12.460] Strong evidence of this is given in the events which followed the terrible Battle of Hattin. Two years before, Saladin had made a pact with the assassins that they would give him a free hand to continue his holy war against the Franks, which we discussed on an earlier program. On July 1, 1187, he captured Tiberias. He attacked nearby Hittin at dawn on Friday, July 3. 30,000 Christians were captured, including the king of Jerusalem.

[00:14:13.220 to 00:14:40.560] No Templar, not one, is mentioned in the detailed Arab account as asking for mercy on religious or any other grounds. Although all knew that Saladin had issued a war cry. Quote, Come to death, Templars. Unquote. The Grand Master, Gerard of Rydefort, and several other knights were among those taken. Saladin offered them their lives if they would see the light of the true faith.

[00:14:41.040 to 00:15:00.090] Well, according to history, none accepted. And all these knights were beheaded except, admittedly, the Templar Grand Master. Could it be that he did accept the true faith, or the light of the true faith,

[00:15:00.260 to 00:15:26.480] as Saladin had put it? A non-Templar, Reginald of Chacalon, tried to invoke the sacred code of Arab hospitality, and other crusaders claimed that they were Muslims and were spared. None of them were Templars or hospitalers. Reginald and the Templars collectively were sentenced to death for breaking the truth and the war crime of killing unarmed pilgrims to Mecca.

[00:15:27.390 to 00:15:50.850] Arab accounts include only a few references which could be construed as indicating any collusion with the Christian army. One says that on the Friday at midday, when the battle lasted for two days, Sultan Saladin issued the attack cry to be passed along the Saracen host, quote, on for Islam, unquote, at which the striped banner of the Templars was raised.

[00:15:52.030 to 00:16:19.060] And the emir lion of the faith said, Are those Sultan Saladin Yusuf's allies of whom I have heard from the reconnaissance men? Well, this cannot be regarded as anything at all conclusive. The only other reference is to a body of tempters who went over to the Saracen side and whose supposed descendants survive to this day as the Salabiya, which means crusader tribe, in North Arabia.

[00:16:20.380 to 00:16:47.390] This engagement, folks, felt the end of real Western power in Palestine for over 700 years, although it did stimulate the unsuccessful Third Crusade. Although the Templars and some other crusaders were still in the Holy Land, they had lost almost all of their possessions there. But in the West lay the real seat of their power. At this time, their European possessions numbered over 7,000 estates and foundations.

[00:16:48.220 to 00:17:13.760] Although principally concentrated in France and England, they had extensive properties in Portugal, Castile, Lyon, Scotland, and Ireland, Germany, Italy, and Sicily. When Jerusalem was lost, their headquarters were transferred to Paris. This building, like all their branch churches, was known as the Temple. It was here that the French king Philippe the Fair took refuge in 1306 to escape a civil commotion.

[00:17:14.560 to 00:17:46.290] It is said that this visit gave him his first insight into the real wealth of the order. Now remember, the wealth was not for the members, for they practiced the first true socialism, international socialism, or communism. The fabulous treasures which his host showed him, giving the bankrupt monarch the idea to plunder the night from the pretext that they were dominated by heresies. Philippe the Fair was not entirely without some grounds for attacking the Templars.

[00:17:47.290 to 00:18:06.890] for in twelve o eight we find pope innocent the third a great friend of the order censuring them publicly for causing their churches to be thrown open for mass to be said every day with loud ringing of bells bearing the cross of christ on their breasts but not caring to follow his doctrines which forbid giving offence to the little ones who believe in him

[00:18:07.350 to 00:18:34.620] Following the doctrines of demons, they affixed their cross of the order upon the breasts of every kind of scoundrel, asserting that whoever, by paying two or three pence a year, became one of their fraternity, could not, even if interdicted, be deprived of Christian burial. And thus they themselves, being captive to the devil, ceased not to make captive the souls of the faithful, seeking to make alive those whom they knew to be dead."

[00:18:38.620 to 00:19:05.240] The first sign of an attempt to bring some sort of physical restraint upon the Templars came from Henry III of England, for in 1252 he hinted that he might try to seize some of the property of the order. Quote, You prelates and religious, he said, especially you Templars and hospitalers, have so many liberties and charters that your enormous possessions make you rave with pride and haughtiness.

[00:19:06.370 to 00:19:35.650] What was imprudently given must therefore be prudently revoked, and what was inconsiderately bestowed must be considerately recalled. Those were the words of the king. The master of the Templars immediately replied, What sayest thou, O king? Far be it that thy mouth should utter so disagreeable and silly a word. So long as thou dost exercise justice, thou wilt reign.

[00:19:36.320 to 00:19:59.540] But if thou infringe it, thou wilt cease to be king. Now remember that the Knights Templar at that time were the very first international bankers. They were the wealthiest order, wealthiest group then known in the world, even surpassing the kings of the different countries that existed. And even though the

[00:20:00.350 to 00:20:22.380] were created before the Knights Templar, eventually the two became the same order. Though to the public and to the rulers of Europe, they were different orders with different names. The haughty Templars of the 14th century owned land and revenues gained steadily in honor and importance.

[00:20:23.040 to 00:20:48.940] They might have had thrones, had they wanted them, for such was their power towards the end that banded together, as one historian points out, they could have overcome more than one of the smaller countries of Europe. Perhaps, though, they aimed even higher than that. If their eventual aim was world hegemony, they could not have organized themselves better or planned their aristocratic hierarchy more thoroughly.

[00:20:49.720 to 00:21:18.540] And you will see that that's been carried over even unto the modern day. The pride, arrogance, and complete confidence and self-sufficiency of the Order is something which shows through even the least inspired pages of the chronicler. Their power was legendary. Everywhere they had churches, chapels, tithes, farms, villages, mills, rites of pasturage, of fishing, of venery, of wood.

[00:21:19.200 to 00:21:49.710] They had also in many places the right of holding annual fairs which were managed and the tolls received by some of the brethren of the nearest houses or by their donates or servants. The number of their preceptories is, by the most moderate computation, rated at nine thousand. The annual income of the order put at about six million pounds sterling, an unbelievable, unimaginable sum for those times.

[00:21:50.980 to 00:22:18.260] Masters of such a revenue descended from the noblest houses in Christendom, uniting in their purses the most esteemed secular and religious characters regarded as the chosen champions of Christ and the flower of Christian knights. It was not possible for the Templars in such lax times as the 12th and 13th centuries to escape falling into the vices of extravagant luxury and overweening pride.

[00:22:20.850 to 00:22:21.610] The Order

[00:22:22.530 to 00:22:53.320] Folks, when fully developed, was composed of several classes. Chiefly knights, chaplains and serving brothers. Affiliated were those who were attached to the order and worked for it and received its protection without taking its vows. This affiliation was said to be derived from the Arab Clientship Association, analogous to blood brotherhood and tribal associations. A candidate for knighthood should prove that he was of a knightly family and entitled.

[00:22:54.170 to 00:23:23.710] Yes, entitled to the distinction. His father must have been a knight, or eligible to become one. He had to prove beyond any doubt that he was born in wedlock. The reason for this last requirement was said to be not only religious, there was the possibility that a political head such as a king or prince might influence the order by managing to have one of his bastard sons enter it, later perhaps to rise to high rank therein, and finally attaching it to the service of his dominion.

[00:23:24.920 to 00:23:53.880] The candidate for initiation had to be unmarried and free from all obligations. He should have made no vow nor entered any other order. And he was not to be in debt. Eventually, the competition for admission was so great from eligible people that a very high fee was exacted from those who were to be monk warriors of the temple. All candidates were to be knighted before entry into the order.

[00:23:54.430 to 00:24:11.030] but the period of probation which was originally demanded was before very long entirely abolished no young man could be admitted until he was twenty-one years of age because he was to be a soldier as well as a monk and this was the minimum age at which he could bear arms

[00:24:12.160 to 00:24:39.360] when a new night was admitted to the order the ceremony was held in secret this fact and persistent rumors caused the belief that certain ceremonies and tenets were put into practice which deviated more than a little from the rituals of the church the ceremony was held in one of the order's chapels in the presence of the assembled chapter alone the master or the prior who took his place in chapels other than those at which he was present opened the proceedings

[00:24:41.610 to 00:24:59.810] Beloved brother, you see that the majority are agreed to receive this man as a brother. If there be any among you who knows anything of him on account of which he cannot lawfully become a brother, let him say it. For it is better that this should be signified beforehand than after he is brought before

[00:24:59.790 to 00:25:15.420] us. And if no objection was lodged, the aspirant was sent to a small room with two or three experienced knights to coach him in what he had to know. Brother, are you desirous of being associated with the order?

[00:25:16.740 to 00:25:46.650] If he agreed, they would dwell upon the trials and rigors of being a Templar. They would prepare him for initiation. He had to reply that for the sake of God he was willing to undergo anything and remain in the order for life. They asked him if he had a wife or was betrothed, and he made vows to any other order. Did he owe money more than he could pay? Was he of sound mind and body? Was he the servant of any person? Well, after satisfactory answers, the result was passed to the master.

[00:25:47.170 to 00:26:14.410] The assembled company was then asked again if they knew anything that might disqualify him, and if not objected, they were asked, Are you willing that he should be brought in in God's name? The knights answered, Let him be brought in in God's name. He was now again asked by his sponsors if he still desired to enter the order. Receiving an affirmative reply, they led him to the chapter, where he folded his hands and flung himself upon his knees.

[00:26:15.940 to 00:26:28.740] Sir, I am come before God and before you for the sake of God and our dear lady to admit me into your society and the good deeds of the order as one who will be all his life long the servant and slave of the order.

[00:26:32.500 to 00:26:43.120] Beloved brother, answered the receptor, you are desirous of a great matter, for you see nothing but the outward shell of our order. Now let me repeat that again in case you weren't listening, folks.

[00:26:44.200 to 00:27:11.680] Beloved brother, answered the receptor, you are desirous of a great matter, for you see nothing but the outward shell of our order. It is only the outward shell, when you see that we have fine horses and rich comparisons, that we eat and drink well and are splendidly clothed. From this you conclude that you will be well off with it, but you know not the rigorous maxims which are in our interior, for it is a hard matter for you.

[00:27:12.260 to 00:27:39.570] who are your own master, to become the servants of another. You will hardly be able to perform in future what you wish yourself. For when you may wish to be on this side of the sea, you will be sent to the other side. When you will wish to be in Acre, you will be sent to the district of Antioch, to Tripolis, or to Armenia, or you will be sent to Apulia, to Sicily, or to Lombardy, or to Burgundy, France. England, or any other country where we have houses and possessions,

[00:27:40.570 to 00:27:42.970] where we wish you to do our will.

[00:27:45.560 to 00:27:49.900] Further, he says, when you will wish to sleep, you will be ordered to watch.

[00:27:50.430 to 00:28:15.210] When you will wish to watch, then you will be ordered to go to bed. When you will wish to eat, then you will be ordered to do something else. And as both we and you might suffer great inconvenience from what you may have concealed from us, look here on the holy evangelist and the word of God and answer the truth to the questions which we shall put to you. For if you lie, you will be perjured and may be expelled the order from which God keep you.

[00:28:17.920 to 00:28:46.970] Now all the former questions were asked on holy writ. If the answers proved acceptable, the receptor continued. Quote, Beloved brother, take good care that you have spoken the truth to us, for should you have spoken false on any one point, you might be put out of the order from which God keep you. Now, beloved brother, attend strictly to what we shall say unto you. Do you promise to God and to our dear Lady Mary to be all your life long obedient to the master of the temple and to the prior who shall be set over you?

[00:28:48.380 to 00:29:15.360] And the initiate answers with, Yea, sir, with the help of God. Again he is asked, Do you promise to God and to our dear Lady Mary to live chaste of your body all your life long? He answers, Yea, sir, with the help of God. And he is again asked, Do you promise to God and to our dear Lady Mary to observe all your life long the laudable manners and customs of our order, both those which are already in use and those which the Master and Knights may add?

[00:29:16.030 to 00:29:37.370] And he answers, Yea, sir, with the help of God. And then he's asked, You promise to God and to our dear Lady Mary that you will, with the strength and powers which God has bestowed on you, help as long as you live to conquer the holy land of Jerusalem, and that you will with all your strength aid to keep and guard that which the Christians possess? And he answers, Yea, sir, with the help of God.

[00:29:37.920 to 00:30:00.250] And he's asked, Do you promise to God and to our dear Lady Mary never to hold or leave this order for stronger or weaker, for better or worse, than with the permission of the Master or the Chapter which has the authority? And he answers, Yea, sir, with the help of God. And then he's asked, Do you finally promise to God and to our dear Lady Mary never to be present when a Christian is unjustly and unlawfully

[00:30:00.240 to 00:30:09.070] despoiled of his heritage and that you will never by counsel or by act take part therein and he answers yea sir with the help of God and then

[00:30:09.730 to 00:30:35.010] In the name then of God and our dear Lady Mary, and in the name of St. Peter of Rome and of our Father the Pope, and in the name of all the brethren of the temple, we receive to all the good works of the order which have been performed from the beginnings and shall be performed to the end. You, your father, your mother, and all of your family, whom you will let have share therein. In like manner do you receive us to all the good work which you have performed and shall perform.

[00:30:35.600 to 00:30:51.200] We assure you of bread and water and the poor clothing of the order and labor and toil enow. Unquote. Then the candidate was admitted. Don't go away, folks. I'll be right back after this very short pause. The

[00:31:31.810 to 00:31:45.710] hour of the time. I'm William Cooper. I'm still alive. I'm well and kicking. I'm going to be around for a long, long time, much to the dismay of the mystery schools and international socialism. Don't go away, folks.

[00:31:46.210 to 00:31:49.030] We'll begin again in just a few moments. With

[00:32:39.150 to 00:32:57.950] a joyous celebration, the candidate was admitted. The white mantle with its red cross was placed by the master over the neck of the candidate and clasped firmly by him. The chaplain recited the 132nd Psalm and the prayer of the Holy Ghost, and each brother repeated a paternoster.

[00:32:58.760 to 00:33:28.060] Then the master and the chaplain kissed the new entrant on the mouth. As he sat down before the master, the latter delivered him a sermon on his duties. Knights were equipped more lightly than other crusaders and were issued with shields, swords, lance, and mace. They were allocated three horses each, not one with two knights riding, but three horses each, plus an esquire who was either a serving brother or a layman, perhaps a youth from a noble family anxious to become a knight.

[00:33:28.870 to 00:34:02.370] in his own turn. Retired knights were looked after by the Order, became counselors at meetings, and were eventually buried in coffins in their Templar habit. With the legs crossed, many Templar gravestones show the knight with his feet upon a dog, but most show the crossed thigh bones and the skull, known as the skull and bones. The same skull and bones as the Russell Trust, the Brotherhood of Death at Yale,

[00:34:03.200 to 00:34:35.580] and the same skull and bones displayed upon the flag of the pirates. It was Philip the Fair of France, bankrupt and fearful of the growing power of the warriors of the temple who laid the conspiracy for the suppression of the order for all time. It has been hinted that Philip had some forewarning that a plot against the throne was afoot, that the Templars, frustrated in their attempts to win back the Holy Land, were about to turn upon Pope and King alike and try to overcome all Christendom.

[00:34:36.520 to 00:35:00.100] And believe it or not, that's closer to the truth than anything that you have ever heard about the Templars. In 1305, Pope Clement had been crowned through the assistance of the French king and was actually under the control of the French king. And Philip was ready to bring all the power of church and state against the knights of the temple. There had been continued rivalry between

[00:35:00.120 to 00:35:26.020] the Templars and the Hospitallers on the surface. Underneath, they were one and the same. And Clement, six months after his enthronement, wrote asking them to visit him for a conference, ostensibly for the purpose of making plans for aiding the kings of Armenia and Cyprus. The Pope was, however, hoping that he could effect a reconciliation between the two orders, which would in turn strengthen his own position as their only ultimate head.

[00:35:26.750 to 00:35:54.960] William de Villaret, master of the hospital, was fully engaged in an attack upon the Saracens of Rhodes when the invitation arrived and could not obey it. But Jacques de Millet, grandmaster of the temple, decided to accept. He handed over the defense of Limassol in Cyprus to the orders marshal, collected 60 knights, packed 150,000 gold florins plus much other treasure, and set sail for France.

[00:35:56.320 to 00:36:17.520] At Paris, de Molay was received with honors by the king who was plotting his downfall. In Poitiers, he met Clement and discussed the possibilities of a fresh crusade. De Molay opined that only a complete alliance of all Christendom could be of any avail against the Moslems and that the amalgamation of the two orders was not a good idea.

[00:36:18.370 to 00:36:44.500] The Grand Master returned to Paris, and almost at once rumors began to circulate about certain serious charges to be preferred against the Order. Troubled at this campaign, the Master, together with Rimbaud de Caron, preceptor of Altmermier, Geoffrey de Gonville, preceptor of Aquitaine, and Hugh de Perrado, preceptor of France, returned to Poitiers to justify the Order before the Pope.

[00:36:46.050 to 00:37:11.640] An audience took place about April of 1307 in which the Pope mentioned the charges which had been made. The commission understood that their answer satisfied Clement and returned to the capital in good heart. But this, dear listeners, was only the beginning. The method by which the charges were originally said to have been made was through a former Templar who had been expelled from the order for heresy and other offenses.

[00:37:12.870 to 00:37:38.660] The squin Deflexion found himself in prison, together with another man, a Florentine named Nofodie, and they thought, or were told, that they could obtain their release and a pardon for the crime of which they were currently accused, if only they would testify against the order. One account has it that Deflexion called for the governor of the prisoners, saying that he had a disclosure to make which he could tell the king personally.

[00:37:39.810 to 00:38:09.180] and which would be more to him than the conquest of an entire kingdom. Another chronicle has it that both men were degraded Templars and had been actively engaged in the revolt against the king during which Philip had been forced to take refuge with the Templars. It is further stated that Cardinal Cantalupo, the chamberlain to the Pope, who had been in association with the Templars since he was eleven years old, had confessed some of their doings to his master.

[00:38:10.440 to 00:38:38.240] Ten main charges were made by Deflexion against the Order. 1. Each Templar, on his admission, swore never to quit the Order and to further its interest by right or wrong. 2. The heads of the Order are in secret alliance with the Saracens, and they have more of Mohammedan infidelity than Christian faith. And proof of the latter includes that they make every novice spit upon the cross and trample upon it and blaspheme the faith of Christ in various ways.

[00:38:39.080 to 00:39:00.760] 3. The heads of the order are heretical, cruel, and sacrilegious men. Whenever any novice on discovering the iniquity of the order tries to leave it, they kill him and bury the body secretly by night. They teach women who are pregnant by them how to procure abortion and secretly murder such newborn children. 4. They are infected with the errors

[00:39:01.370 to 00:39:27.350] of the Fraticelli. They despise the Pope and the authority of the Church. They scorn the sacraments, especially those of penance and confession. They pretend to comply with the rights of the Church simply to avoid detection. Five, the superiors are addicted to the most infamous excesses of debauchery. If anyone expresses his repugnance to this, he is punished by perpetual captivity. Six,

[00:39:27.760 to 00:39:55.300] The temple houses are the receptacle of every crime and abomination that can be committed. 7. The order works to put the Holy Land into the hands of the Saracens and favors them more than the Christians. 8. The master is installed in secret, and few of the younger brethren are present at this ceremony. It is strongly suspected that on this occasion he repudiates the Christian faith or does something contrary to right.

[00:39:56.670 to 00:40:00.070] 9. Many statues of the order are unlawful,

[00:40:00.080 to 00:40:18.130] profane, and contrary to Christianity. In fact, some of them are stone penises. The members are therefore forbidden under pain of perpetual confinement to reveal them to anyone. 10. No vice or crime committed for the honor or benefit of the order is held to be a sin.

[00:40:19.360 to 00:40:49.190] Now these charges were later augmented by others which were collected through testimony from other enemies of the order, and included such assertions as the use of the phrase Ya Allah, which means O Allah, and the adoration of an idol called the Head of Baphomet. In fact, the Head of Baphomet was not an idol that they worshipped, but represented the receptacle of the intelligence, or the seat of intelligence, the brain.

[00:40:49.760 to 00:40:59.970] The light, Lucifer, the gift of intellect, primordial knowing, and that is what really the object of veneration was.

[00:41:01.600 to 00:41:26.220] Philip and his advisors prepared in great secrecy for the descent upon this powerful organization, the Knights Templar, and on the 12th of September, 1307, sealed letters were sent to all the governors and royal officers throughout France, instructing them to arm themselves on the 12th of the next month and open the sealed orders, and to act upon them forthwith by the morning of Friday, October the 13th.

[00:41:27.800 to 00:41:48.150] And on that date, almost every Templar in France was in the hands of the king's men. And thus was born the legend that Friday the 13th is an unlucky day. And notice that it was October Friday the 13th, the very first October surprise.

[00:41:50.980 to 00:42:00.080] Hardly one seems to have had any warning. But they did, because before the king acted, the Templars...

[00:42:01.700 to 00:42:14.050] had moved their wealth, their treasure, their holdings, out of the country of France. On the day before his arrest, the Grand Master had actually been chosen by the King to be a pallbearer at a state funeral.

[00:42:16.620 to 00:42:33.130] The secret orders had it that all Templars were to be seized, tortured, and interrogated. Confessions were to be obtained from them. Pardon might be promised only if they confessed and all their goods were to be expropriated. But the only thing that they really got,

[00:42:33.730 to 00:42:49.600] were the actual real estate property held by the Templars in France and nowhere else. None of the gold, none of their wealth, none of their jewels, none of their treasures, none of the relics that they had recovered from the Holy Land were ever found.

[00:42:52.100 to 00:43:22.720] The king himself took possession of the temple at Paris as soon as the grandmaster and his knights were arrested. The next day, the University of Paris assembled, together with canons and other functionaries and ministers, and the chancellor declared that the knights had been proceeded against for heresy. Two days later, the university met in the temple, and some heads of the order, including the grandmaster, were interrogated. They are said to have confessed to 40 years' guilt, whatever that means.

[00:43:24.420 to 00:43:50.830] Now whether Dinle and others confessed on that occasion or not, the king was emboldened to publish an accusation in which he called the knights polluters of the air and devouring wolves. A public meeting was called in the royal gardens and addressed by monks and representatives on this subject. Edward II was the son-in-law of the French, and to him was sent a priest who invited the English monarch to act at once against the order in Britain.

[00:43:52.320 to 00:44:06.520] well edward almost at once wrote to say that the charges seemed to him to be incredible but pope clement wrote on november the twenty second to london assuring edward that the master of the temple had confessed of his own free will

[00:44:07.070 to 00:44:32.560] that knights on their admission to the order denied Christ. Others had admitted idolatry and other crimes. He therefore called upon the king of England to arrest all tempers within his domains and to place their lands and goods in custody until their guilt or innocence should be ascertained. He condemned them to torture by the Dominican monks under the Inquisition until they confessed their guilt or were dead. Now

[00:44:35.710 to 00:44:39.730] notice the date, folks. November the 22nd.

[00:44:40.410 to 00:44:59.990] in the year 1307. That's a significant date in our history and has direct bearing, as you will see, many hours down the line. Or, you can see right now, if you attend my lecture in San Diego on March the 15th at 8 p.m. at

[00:45:00.060 to 00:45:19.330] the, let me see here, where is it at? At the Lafayette Hotel, 2223 El Cajon Boulevard, San Diego, Monday, March 15th, 8 p.m. Or you can call Stan and find out how to order our tape, The Sacrifice King, or my Atlanta lecture, which is over seven hours long, including all of the Kennedy material.

[00:45:22.110 to 00:45:32.610] I bet you knew I was talking about Kennedy's assassination, didn't you? Well, this has direct bearing, as you shall see, eventually.

[00:45:33.840 to 00:45:38.160] Eventually you shall know what it all means. You'll be able to put it all together.

[00:45:41.100 to 00:46:03.430] Before the King of England received this message, he seems to have been sorely troubled by the allegations. He wrote on November the 26th to the Seneschal of Agin asking about the charges. On the 4th of December, he wrote to the kings of Portugal, Castile, Aragon, and Sicily asking, quote,

[00:46:04.320 to 00:46:30.520] What they had heard, and adding that he had given no credit to it, unquote. He wrote to the Pope himself on December the 10th, expressing disbelief of what the French king said, and begging his holiness to institute an inquiry. Well, folks, by December the 15th, when the papal bull arrived, Edward felt he must act upon it without question. On December the 26th, he wrote to the Pope that his orders would be obeyed.

[00:46:31.140 to 00:47:01.370] But in the interim, Edward had sent word to Wales, Scotland, and Ireland that the Templars were all to be seized, as in England, but they were to be treated with kindness. On October the 19th, less than a week after they had been arrested in France, 140 prisoners were being tortured by the Dominican embert in the Paris Temple. Promises and the rack produced many confessions. Thirty-six of the examinees died during these proceedings.

[00:47:02.140 to 00:47:27.820] Throughout France, the racks worked overtime and the confessions poured forth. Many good men were crippled for the rest of their life. Many of these were contradictory and confused, and perhaps there is little wonder of that. How many of you could resist even for five minutes the tortures of the medieval Inquisition? The Pope now seemed a little uneasy at the arbitrary methods which were being employed.

[00:47:28.510 to 00:47:47.280] Philippe wrote sharply to him, saying that he, the king, was doing God's work and rendered accounts to God alone. He offered to turn over all the goods of the Templars to the service of the Holy Land. Clement, still a weakling, merely stipulated that the inquisitions of each bishop should be confirmed by a provincial council.

[00:47:47.880 to 00:48:16.620] and that the examination of the heads of the order should be reserved to himself. Now we hear a constant succession of confessions and retractions, allegations that the heads of the order confessed completely and spontaneously to the Pope himself. The Pope himself, for some unexplained reason, folks, tried to escape to Bordeaux, but was stopped by the king. Now he was the monarch's captive as well as his creation.

[00:48:18.870 to 00:48:49.230] Details, confessions of individual Templars have been kept on record, many of them undoubtedly obtained by extreme racking and other tortures. The Templars who were prepared to defend the order in court were brought to Paris to the number of 546, deprived of their nightly habits and the sacraments of the church. They had no means to acquire defense counsel. Their numbers rose to 900, and now they clamored for the presence of the Grand Master who was held elsewhere.

[00:48:50.560 to 00:48:57.240] An act of accusation in the name of the Pope was drawn up, and 75 Templars drew up the defense.

[00:48:58.620 to 00:49:26.060] The accusation had it now that, quote, at the time of their reception they were made to deny God, Christ, the Virgin, etc., and in particular to declare that Christ was not the true God, but a false prophet who had been crucified for his own crimes and not for the redemption of the world. They spat and trampled upon the cross, especially on Good Friday. They worshipped a cat, which sometimes appeared in their chapters. Their priests, when celebrating Mass, did not pronounce the words of consecration.

[00:49:26.460 to 00:49:34.880] They believed that their master could absolve them from their sins. They were told at their reception that they might abandon themselves to all kinds of licentiousness.

[00:49:35.360 to 00:49:59.960] They had idols in all their provinces, some with three faces, some with one. They worshipped these idols in their chapters, believed that they could save them, regarded them as the givers of wealth to the order and of fertility to the earth. They touched them with cords which they afterward tied around their own bodies underneath their robes, and that is still practiced today by Freemasons and by the Mormon Church. Those

[00:49:59.940 to 00:50:28.700] who at the time of their reception would not comply with these practices were put to death or imprisoned. The reply of the Templars denied every charge and stated that they had been subjected to every kind of illegality since their arrest. Fifty-four of the knights who had volunteered to defend the order were committed to the flames, having been declared relapsed heretics before the trials had even started. And you'll see this number, 54, crop up.

[00:50:29.150 to 00:50:39.580] later, and even in the modern day. And sometimes it's 54 plus 1, the Grand Master, who later was burned at the stake.

[00:50:42.750 to 00:51:02.520] Four years to the day after the first arrests, the Pope led a convocation of 114 bishops to come to a final decision about the Templar order. Well, folks, the prelates of Spain, England, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, and Scotland called for the Templars to be allowed to defend themselves.

[00:51:04.190 to 00:51:32.580] The Pope retorted by closing the session almost at once. He would not hear of it. Out of 1,500 to 2,000 Templars who were in hiding in the vicinity, nine knights actually came forward to testify for the order. The Pope doubled his guard and sent a message to the king to do the same. As there was still danger from the hidden knights, they were not heard. Only one Italian prelate and three French ones voted to prevent the order from putting in its defense.

[00:51:34.650 to 00:52:04.120] Now, Philippe, deciding that something should be done to hasten affairs, set off for Venice in the conference. His arrival had an electric effect. On his sole authority, the Pope almost immediately abolished the order in a secret consistory. And this was on March the 22nd in the year 1313. And 1313 plays a significant number later on, as that was a famous address in New Orleans, as some of you may remember.

[00:52:05.020 to 00:52:34.220] On May 2, when the bull was published, the order ceased officially to exist. The Grand Master, assumed but not proved to be guilty, was sentenced to perpetual imprisonment. Most of the other knights were released, and many of these passed their remaining days in poverty. De Molay and one of his chiefs, Guy of Alvigny, pronounced or proclaimed their innocence on the public stage to which they had been taken to have sentence announced.

[00:52:35.810 to 00:52:43.150] The king, upon hearing them recant their confession, immediately had them committed to the flames.

[00:52:45.800 to 00:53:07.480] And some say that while he was being burned at the stake, that de Molay cursed both the Pope and the King of France, stating that within a certain short period of time, he would meet them, he would meet them in another life.

[00:53:08.740 to 00:53:37.320] in front of God who would judge them for their crimes. And believe it or not, folks, well within the period of time, which was not very long, both the Pope and the King of France were dead, and I'm sure joined Jacques de Molay in front of God for their final judgment. We are in no way finished with the story of the Knights Templar.

[00:53:38.120 to 00:53:43.220] But until tomorrow night, good night, and God bless each and every one of you.

[00:59:19.590 to 00:59:44.460] Hour of the Time may be contacted at HOT, that's H-O-T-T, P.O. Box 940, Eager, spelled E-A-G-A-R, in the state of Arizona, 85925. Our phone number is 928-333-2942. And our website is www.hourofthetime.com.

