Preview of Colonial Gothic Organizations: Templars

8/3/2019 Preview of Colonial Gothic Organizations: Templars

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Introduction

(A Templar Knight) is truly a fearless knight, andsecure on every side, for his soul is protected by thearmor of faith just as his body is protected by thearmor of steel. He is thus doubly-armed, and need fearneither demons nor men.

-Bernard of Clairvaux

The Templars is the first in a series of COLONIAL GOTHIC sourcebooks coveringsecret societies and other organizations.

Within these pages you will find detailed and authoritative information on theactivities of the Knights Templar in the world of COLONIAL GOTHIC, includingtheir acknowledged and secret histories, their structure and organization, theirgoals in the Thirteen Colonies and around the world, and the implications ofmembership.

Although they do not show their hand openly, the Knights Templar remain aforce in the world ofCOLONIALGOTHIC. Their hand is seldom seen, but it pulls on

many strings.

This book is divided into the following chapters:

Chapter 1: History covers the acknowledged history of the Order from itsfounding in 1119 to the execution of Grand Master Jacques de Molay in 1314. Italso covers what is known about the fate of those Templars who survived the fall ofthe Order.

Chapter 2: Templar Legends summarizes the various legends and conspiracytheories that grew up around the Templars, both during their official existence andafterward.

Chapter 3: Templar Secrets presents the official history of the Order in theworld ofCOLONIALGOTHIC.

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Chapter 4: Encountering the Templars discusses the Orders agendas andactivities in the world of COLONIAL GOTHIC, and the various capacities in whichthe Heroes might encounter Templar agents.

Chapter 5: Templar Characters covers rules for Templar characters in the game,including notes on the various ranks of membership, how Heroes may join theOrder, and example NPC descriptions.

INTRODUCTION

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1History

From Parzival through Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade to The da Vinci Code, theKnights Templar have had an enduring hold over the popular imagination. Atdawn on Friday, October 13, 1307, they went from being one of the most powerfulorganizations in medieval Europe to prisoners and fugitives. They were questionedunder torture and their leaders were executed for heresy. Officially disbanded in1312, the Knights Templar ceased to exist.

The legend of the Templars has proved harder to destroy. Rumors persisted ofhidden treasure, of a curse that blighted a dynasty, and of a secret so powerful thatit threatened the very basis of the Church. New organizations such as theFreemasons looked back to the Templars, and became shrouded in myth andconspiracy theory themselves.

From their origins during the Crusades until their fall two centuries later, theTemplars had grown in wealth and power. Some said they grew too powerful, andhad become arrogant. Some whispered that they had acquired secret knowledge inthe Holy Land. Some accused them of heresy, witchcraft, and worse crimes.

The official history of the Knights Templar extends from the Orders foundingin 1119 until the execution of its last Grand Master in 1314. To many historians, itis a tale of growing pride and an inevitable fall. The Orders wealth and powerbecame a threat to kings and Popes alike; the Order forgot its humble origins and

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its vows of poverty, and paid the price. Templars were arrested on trumped-upcharges of heresy, most examined under torture, and many were executed. TheTemplars lands and other possessions were given to the more manageable Order

of the Knights Hospitaller, and the Templars were no more.

FOUNDING

Between 1096 and 1099, the First Crusade made its way from Europe toJerusalem, wresting the Holy Land from Muslim control. A Christian Kingdom ofJerusalem was established, and Christian nobles controlled lesser fiefs, protecting and profiting from Christian pilgrims who began making their way to the holysites.

The journey from Europe to Jerusalem was still a long and arduous one,fraught with dangers from bandits and slavers. Many would-be pilgrims died ofdisease or violence, and many others found themselves robbed in a foreign land,unable to pay for passage home.

Around 1119, two French knights, Hugues de Payens and Godfrey de Saint-Omer, approached King Baldwin II of Jerusalem with a proposal. With hispermission, they would establish an order of knights on monastic lines, holywarriors whose duty would be to protect pilgrims as they travelled through thewilds of Outremer to Jerusalem. King Baldwin agreed.

The knights were given space in the captured Al-Aqsa Mosque on the TempleMount to use as their headquarters. Close to the site of Solomons Temple, thisspot is holy to Jews and Muslims as well as Christians. The knights namedthemselves the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, which soonbecame abbreviated to the Knights of the Temple or the Knights Templar.

HISTORY

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For nine years, little was heard of the Knights Templar. In 1129, they wereofficially sanctioned by the Church at the council of Troyes. Leading churchmanBernard of Clairvaux wrote De Laude Novae Militae (In Praise of the New

Knighthood), extolling their cause and defending the novel idea of an armedreligious order. Their fundraising efforts in Europe resulted in donations of moneyand land and a flood of new recruits.

Like the monastic orders on which their constitution was based, Templars wererequired to swear vows of poverty and hand over all their goods to the Order.Their seal, which showed two knights sharing a horse, underlined their vows ofpoverty.

In 1139, Pope Innocent III issued a Papal Bull titled Omne Datum Optimum(Every Perfect Gift), which exempted members of the Order from the laws ofthe kingdoms in which they operated. They could pass freely across borders, wereexempt from taxation, and answered only to the Pope. Unlike other bodies ofknights, no king could command the Templars.

THEORDERGROWS

The Christian gains of the First Crusade lasted for less than a century. TheSecond Crusade failed to take Damascus, and Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt,reconquered Jerusalem for Islam in 1187. The Third and Fourth Crusades did notreturn Jerusalem to Christian hands, and three subsequent Crusades (or four,according to some historians) were fought without success in Egypt.

Unlike the majority of Crusaders, the Knights Templar were professionalsoldiers. In battle, a charge of heavily-armored Templar knights was worth anynumber of peasant levies from Europe, and in the councils of the Crusaders, theTemplar Grand Master spoke with as much authority as any king present.

Although individual Templars took a vow of poverty, the Order grew rich andpowerful from donations of land and money by benefactors across Europe. Inaddition to protecting pilgrims persons while they traveled, the Order used lettersof credit to protect their money. A would-be pilgrim or Crusader could depositmoney at a Templar preceptory, which were now widespread across Europe, andreceive a letter of credit that could be redeemed for cash at any other Templarpreceptory. This early banking operation proved extremely profitable.

From these beginnings, the Order grew and grew. It maintained its own fleet,which was used for trade as well as to transport pilgrims and Crusaders. At onetime, the Order owned the whole island of Cyprus, along with farms and otherlands across Europe. Templar castles belonged to the Order, and wereindependent of the king in whose country they were built.

COLONIALGOTHIC:THETEMPLARS

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OTHERRELICS

The collecting of holy relics by churches, kings, and other groups reached a fever

pitch in the Middle Ages. One historian commented drily that there were enoughsplinters of the True Cross in medieval Europe to account for a small forest oftrees.

The Order is recorded as having a piece of the True Cross, which was carriedinto the disastrous Battle of the Horns of Hattin in 1187 by the Bishop of Acre. Itwas captured by the Saracens and subsequently ransomed back to the Crusaders.

The Templars also possessed the head of Saint Euphemia of Chalcedon, whowas martyred in the arena in 306 or 307. Among the goods confiscated from theParis preceptory in 1314 was a reliquary in the shape of a womans head, which

contained two bones from the head of a small woman and a label on which waswritten caput LVIIIm (head 38m or possibly head 38, female as some


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FULL-LENGTH PHOTOGRAPH OF THE SHROUD OF TURINWHICH IS SAID TO HAVE BEEN THE CLOTH PLACED ONJESUS AT

THE TIME OF HIS BURIAL.GIUSEPPE ENRIE,1931


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USING THE TEMPLARS

The Knights Templar can fill many roles during the course of a Colonial Gothic

campaign. They can be encountered as friends or enemies, or as a shadowyenigma to be pursued. Ideally, the Heroes should be kept guessing as to whetherthe Templars are friends or enemies. The truth should always be just out of reach.

PATRONS

Colonial Gothic Heroes can encounter a Templar agent in the role of a patron,like Grant de Beers in BOSTON BESIEGED. A Templar patron may provide theHeroes with material assistance and information, as well as sending them on

missions that further the Templar cause in some way.

However, it is unlikely that the Heroes will ever know that their patron is aTemplar. The only time a Templar agent will reveal his or her affiliation is whenapproaching a character who has performed well enough to be considered formembership in the Order, and has been thoroughly investigated and foundsuitable. Everything will be conducted in the utmost secrecy.

For a character who has been inducted into the Templars, the local preceptoryoffers a regular source of missions and assistance, but the character will have toprove his or her loyalty and ability many times over before being fully trusted.

Contact will be restricted to the characters patron and perhaps one or two othermembers, so that no junior member of the Order can give away information thatwill harm the preceptory or the Order if they are captured and interrogated.

If a Templar character performs well and is promoted, a few more contacts arerevealed, but only if these contacts are necessary to carry out a mission. Only themost senior members of a preceptory know the identities of all the members.

DEUS EX MACHINA

If the Heroes get into trouble while working against the Orders enemies, it ispossible to have one or two Templar agents step in to help. The Order keeps aclose eye on its enemies and on its enemies enemies they could prove to beuseful tools, or even friends.

Once again, the Templar agents will not usually reveal their identities, andthey will never identify themselves as Templars. Unless they wish to maintaincontact with the Heroes and use them in future plans, the Templar agents will meltaway as quickly and suddenly as they appeared. Trying to discover the identities oftheir mysterious saviors can develop into a major story arc within the campaign,

and if the Order thinks the Heroes have potential as agents, things can developinto a complex test as they follow enigmatic and often misleading clues to theirgoal.

ENCOUNTERING TEMPLARS

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THE WORSHIP OF THE GENERATIVE

POWERS:

DURING THE MIDDLE AGES OFWESTERN EUROPE

BY THOMAS WRIGHT

Assisted by J. E. Tennent and George Witt

London, J. C. Hotten

[1865]

EXCERPT

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THEKNIGHTS TEMPLAR

But the most remarkable, and at the same time the most celebrated, affair in which

these accusations of secret and obscene ceremonies were brought to bear, was thatof the trial and dissolution of the order of the knights templars. The chargesagainst the knights templars were not heard of for the first time at the period oftheir dissolution, but for many years it had been whispered abroad that they hadsecret opinions and practices of an objectionable character. At length the wealth ofthe order, which was very great in France, excited the cupidity of King PhilippeIV, and it was resolved to proceed against them, and despoil them of theirpossessions. The grounds for these proceedings were furnished by two templars,one a Gascon, the other an Italian, who were evidently men of bad character, andwho, having been imprisoned for some offence or offences, made a confession ofthe secret practices of their order, and upon these confessions certain articles ofaccusation were drawn up. These appear to have been enlarged afterwards. In1307, Jacques de Molay, the grand master of the order, was treacherously alluredto Paris by the king, and there seized and thrown into prison. Others, similarlycommitted to prison in all parts of the kingdom, were examined individually onthe charges urged against them, and many confessed, while others obstinatelydenied the whole. Amongst these charges were the following: 1. That on theadmission of a new member of the order, after having taken the oath ofobedience, he was obliged to deny Christ, and to spit, and sometimes also to

trample, upon the cross; 2. That they then received the kiss of the templar, whoofficiated as receiver, on the mouth, and afterwards were obliged to kiss him inano, on the navel, and sometimes on the generative member; 3. That, in despite ofthe Saviour, they sometimes worshipped a cat, which appeared amongst them intheir secret conclave; 4. That they practised unnatural vice together; 5. That theyhad idols in their different provinces; in the form of a head, having sometimesthree faces, sometimes two, or only one, and sometimes a bare skull, which theycalled their saviour, and believed its influence to be exerted in making them rich,and in making flowers grow and the earth germinate; and 6. That they alwayswore about their bodies acord which had been rubbed against the head, and

which served for their protection.1

The ceremonies attending the reception into the order were so universallyacknowledged, and are described in terms which have so much the appearance oftruthfulness, that we can hardly altogether disbelieve in them. The denial was tobe repeated thrice, no doubt in imitation of St. Peter. It appears to have beenconsidered as a trial of the strength of the obedience they had just sworn to theorder, and they all pleaded that they had obeyed with reluctance, that they haddenied with the mouth but not with the heart; and that they had intentionally spitbeside the cross and not upon it. In one instance the cross was of silver, but it wasmore commonly of brass, and still more frequently of wood; on one occasion thecross painted in a missal was used, and the cross on the templars mantle oftenserved the purpose. When one Nicholas de Compiegne protested against these twoacts, all the templars who were present told him that he must do them, for it was


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the custom of the order. 2 Baldwin de St. Just at first refused, but the receptorwarned him that if he persisted in his refusal, it would be the worse for him (alitermale accideret sibi), and then he was so much alarmed that his hair stood on end.

Jacques de Trecis said that he did it under fear, because his receptor stood by witha great naked sword in his hand. 3Another, Geoffrey de Thatan, having similarlyrefused, his receptor told him that they were points of the order, and that if hedid not comply, he should be put in such a place that he would never see his ownfeet. And another who refused to utter the words of denial was thrown intoprison and kept there until vespers, and when he saw that he was in peril of death,he yielded, and did whatever the receptor required of him, but he adds that hewas so troubled and frightened that he had forgotten whether he spat on the crossor not. Gui de la Roche, a presbyter of the diocese of Limoges, said that heuttered the denial with great weeping. Another, when he denied Christ, was all

stupified and troubled, and it seemed as if he were enchanted, not knowing whatcounsel to take, as they threatened him heavily if he did not do it. When Etiennede Dijon similarly refused to deny his Saviour, the preceptor told him that he mustdo it because he had sworn to obey his orders, and then he denied with hismouth, he said, but not with his heart; and he did this with great grief, and headds that when it was done, he was so conscience-struck that he wished he hadbeen outside at his liberty, even though it had been with the loss of one of hisarms. When Odo de Dompierre, with great reluctance, at length spat on thecross, he said that he did it with such bitterness of heart that he would rather havehad his two thighs broken. Michelet, in the account of the proceedings against the

templars in his History of France, offers an ingenious explanation of theseceremonies of initiation which gives them a typical meaning. He imagines thatthey were borrowed from the figurative mysteries and rites of the early Church,and supposes that, in this spirit, the candidate for admission into the order was firstpresented as a sinner and renegade, in which character, after the example of Peter,he was made to deny Christ. This denial, he suggests, was a sort of pantomime inwhich the novice expressed his reprobate state by spitting on the cross; after whichhe was stripped of his profane clothing, received, through the kiss of the order,into a higher state of faith, and clothed with the garb of its holiness. If this werethe case, the true meaning of the performance must have been very soon

forgotten.

This was especially the case with the kiss. According to the articles ofaccusation, one of the ceremonies of initiation required the novice to kiss thereceiver on the mouth, on the anus, or the end of the spine, on the navel, and onthe virga virilis. The last is not mentioned in the examinations, but the others aredescribed by so many of the witnesses that we cannot doubt of their truth. Fromthe depositions of many of the templars examined, it would appear that the usualorder was to kiss the receptor first in ano, next on the navel, and then on themouth. 4The first of these was an act which would, of course, be repulsive to mostpeople, and the practice arose gradually of only kissing the end of the spine, or, asit was called in medival Latin, in anca. Bertrand de Somorens, of the diocese ofAmiens, describing a reception at which more than one new member wasadmitted, says that the receiver next told them that they must kiss him in ano; but,

EXCERPT

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Preview of Colonial Gothic Organizations: Templars