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Introduction
The following articles complement or expand on information contained in the historical novel I wrote about the Knights Templar, The Templars, Two Kings and a Pope. The information is the result of 7 years of research. I find it fascinating. I hope you do as well. To give you an idea of what the book is about, I include the following review as it appears on Amazon.com: This novel unfolds as a thriller with all the white-knuckle excitement and intrigue, except that it's based on real events. In my opinion, as someone who has read just about everything about the Knights Templar, this novel presents accurate information as to who they were and how they lived, and the most up-to date findings on what really happened to them. The novel focuses on the war between the English and the French kings over the duchy of Aquitaine. At the same time, The English king was trying to suppress Scottish rebels, and the French his own rebellion in Flanders. We learn that the Templars, and the secret organization behind them, "The Brotherhood," were secretly involved in the conflicts in an attempt to stop the French monarch from dominating the whole of Europe. We also learn about Lord Otto de Grandson, a Swiss who worked for the English king, and the key figure behind it all. The arrest of the Templars in 1307 was just one chapter in this secret war. The Templars eventually ended up in Switzerland and Scotland, and this novel tells us how that came about. I'm sure this story will appeal to fans of action-packed, page-turning thrillers. In the process the author does a great job of answering the big Templar mysteries: what happened to the Templars at Pilgrim Castle after the fall of Acre, how did the Templars find out about King Philip's plan to destroy them and engineered their escape, what was their secret society really like and what was its purpose, and what was their connection to the Masons. But for people like me (I'm a former Catholic monk and a Zen practitioner) this novel is of particular significance. Years ago I ran across another book that stated that the Templars (or a secret group within them) were mystics who practiced meditation, but it gave no further information. "The Templars, Two Kings and a Pope" describes how this came about, and what their practice was like. I now have no doubt that they were Gnostics. The Brotherhood was just one of many secret Gnostic societies that sprung up at a time when such practices were heresy punishable by death, but unlike the other societies that were persecuted and destroyed by the fanatics of that time, this one was able to fight back because it had the best fighting force in the world at its disposal and tremendous resources and skills. SpiritualClassicsBookReview.

Who were the Templars

In 1307 there were approximately 15,000 Templars. Of these, about 3,000 were knights, 1,000 squires, and 3,000 sergeants. The rest were priests, masons, medical personnel, lawyers, financiers, clerks, cooks, farmers, and assorted other occupations. Their numbers didnt vary through much of the two centuries prior to 1307 that the Order was in existence. The number of commanderies (geographic groupings of castles, forts, farms, and other possessions) were reduced with the loss of the Holy Land, but these men were absorbed into commanderies in Europe. This was the usual process in the two centuries, when combat personnel became too old, infirm, or disabled, they were sent to a commanderie in Europe to work in one of the many farms, or if literate, act as a clerk. If unable to work, they were allowed to lead a life of quiet contemplation. It was an egalitarian system, in as much that sergeants were given similar consideration as knights. Templars lives were austere and simple. When the French king ordered his men to find goods in abandoned Templar castles in 1307, they were disappointed to discover that the monks actually lived in poverty. All the talk of a dissolute and luxurious life had been a fable. Knights came from the middle and lower nobility, and sergeants from the merchant and working class, the guilds. A knight would come into the Order as a squire-in-training. If he made the grade, he would be knighted within a year or two, depending on abilities. The training was very rigorous, judging by the discipline and skill shown in battle. Starting with the Second Crusade, their skill and discipline was far beyond European knights. Piers Paul Read relates how Templar Knights were often there to lead and protect crusading knights. This disparity of skill level was probably one of the reasons why Templars were forbidden from entering tournaments. Sergeants were there to support and assist their assigned knight, but also functioned as trainers of the squires to make them into knights. So for at least a year or two, the proud knights took orders from lowly sergeants, who were the molders and shapers of the mightiest force of its time, the holders of the skills and abilities that made a Knight Templar. Out in the world, each feudal principality, be it a kingdom, earldom, county, or a duchy, had its own training practice depending with the castellan, seneschal, or Marshall in charge of military training, but mostly dependent on the personal style of the knight with whom the individual was being trained. Tournaments provided the only means for comparison within a larger principality such as a kingdom or a duchy. Europe had no standing army; knights served an apprenticeship with one lord, say a count, then likely serve with the overlord for a time. This made for a diversity of skill levels, tactics, and weapons used. This is the diversity that Templar sergeants had to deal with, to mold

3 one cohesive, well-disciplined fighting body that could act in unison. All Templars spoke the Lingua Franca (the language of the Franks) what later became French. Sergeants spoke a mixture of Lingua Franca and other languages, a mixture that varied from country to country and region to region. Knights spoke a higher form of this language, closer to what was known as Provencal. The language of the court in England was Provencal. Hardly anyone in any court spoke the local language. If you wanted to get ahead in that medieval world, be it as a guilds man, a merchant, a Templar, or a nobleman, you spoke the Lingua Franca. The commanderies in Europe had mostly non-combat personnel. There were a few combat Templars to provide protection, but mostly the bankers, lawyers, diplomats, and clerks worked to keep the farms and financial institutions going. In so doing, the Templars amassed substantial assets. They started out by issuing letters of credit to traveling merchants, who could purchase a letter in their name to be redeemed only by them at their destination. This effectively thwarted robbers. The Templars also loaned money to the kings of England and France. By 1307, European finances could not function without the Templar bankers. Its interesting to note that shortly after the French king destroyed the Order, the new independent, democratic, and virtually impregnable country of Switzerland came into existence offering exactly the same services. Their flag showed a cross remarkably similar to the Templar cross. But this is not the only evidence. The novel The Templars Two Kings and a Pope shows how the Order ended up in Switzerland and Scotland, the intricate trail that led them there, and the body of evidence that leads credence to this claim. Well-positioned knights founded the Order during the First Crusade with a lineage pointing to a common Cathar, and therefore Gnostic foundation. The Cathars had been persecuted by a pope and a French king, and by the mid-1200s considered vanquished. But obviously they did not; they simply morphed into a highly secretive organization known as The Brotherhood, which founded the Knights Templar. For two centuries The Brotherhood led the Templars, functioning at its core, surrounded by a fanatical rankand-file. When the Order was attacked by a pope and a French king in 1307, the Brotherhood performed another vanishing act, this time finding safe haven in Scotland and Switzerland, and vowing to fight despots, be it popes or kings. Switzerland was their first victory (Lord Otto de Grandson, who figures prominently in the novel, was one of the secret founders of Switzerland and his role is now coming out into the open). Then came the French Revolution. A number of its key players were Masons and Rosicrucians, both of whom are linear descendants of The Brotherhood. Lastly, we have the American Revolution, and we know that many of the founding fathers, including George Washington, were Masons.

The founding of the Templar order

History books tell us that nine knights founded the Knights Templar on Christmas day, 1119 in Jerusalem on the aftermath of the First Crusade. Key among them were Hugh of Payns, Godfrey of Saint-Omer, Archambaum of Saint-Aignan, Payen of Montdidier, Geoffrey Bissot, and Roland, whose name of provenance is unknown. Most of them had known ties to the Cathars. Their connection was clandestine, but detectable nevertheless after all these centuries. Hugh of Payns overlord was Count Hugh of Champagne who was supporting the entire venture. A close friend of both Hughs was a Cistercian named Bernard of Clairvaux who had founded the monastery at Clairvaux and was its abbot. He wrote the Templar Orders and had been or was still a Cathar. At any rate, the principles espoused in the monastery he founded and the nature of the orders he wrote for the Templars reflected Cathar principles, thinly disguised in Catholic terms. There was devotion to the Holy Mother not identified as the Virgin Mary, but always termed as The Holy Mother. The Cathar were Gnostics, and the Holy Mother was an appellation used to describe Sophia, the female aspect of God, the mother of love and wisdom that counterbalances the Christ, the male aspect of God. Of note was also the distinction between Jesus the man, and Christ, the state that he achieved. This was a state of consciousness that all men could aspire to, and thus become the sons of God. There was also mention of the value of silent prayer, and described how this should be conducted. This was quite a departure for any Order, and Bernard was very careful how he worded these principles. From then on, the Cistercian Order and the Templars remained very close, even their habits were the same. Unfortunately not all Cistercians or Templars were the same. An austere form of fanaticism was pervasive throughout the Church. It was the norm, what begat the Crusades and the Inquisition. For most, Christianity was the only true religion because its founder was the Son of God. So it made sense that you would try to convert heretics to the only true religion, for the good of their immortal souls. This is why a great majority of the men who comprised the Orders were religious fanatics. For the small minority who were not, they had to watch what they said and did, and at least appear to follow along. This was why secret societies sprung up, outside in society and within the cloisters. One such group was The Brotherhood, which bridged both Orders and had members on the outside. Within The Brotherhood, the wording of Gnostic principles could be clear and to

5 the point. They could gather to meditate; they could raise their voices to Christ and the Holy Mother. But in daily life the two distinct populations of monks, the fanatics and the Gnostics, had to coexist. The Gnostics had to go to mass and appear just as fanatical if the need arose. During the time when the Templars were being founded by Cathars, this group was being hounded by the Church with the help from the kings of France. This culminated in the mid 1200s with an all-out war in southern France where they were centered, in a region called the Languedoc. It took the combined efforts of the French and the Church fifty years to eradicate most of the Cathars, at least those they could identify. This is where The Templars Two Kings and a Pope picks up the story, presenting a picture of the Brotherhood as it functioned at this juncture.

The Templars secret society

The Knights Templar were founded by a group of mystic knights who practiced Jesus secret teachings: Gnosticism. Gnosticism was considered heresy by the Church; its practice eradicated by the Inquisitors who burned the heretics at the stake unless they recanted their heresy and embraced the teachings of the Church. This is why Gnostics of whatever group, be it Cathars, Begines, or Beghards kept their practice secret and used secret code to communicate. There were many such organizations, but these were the better known. The members of the Brotherhood, which was the Gnostic group the Templar founders belonged to, and which became the core of the Templars, functioned much the same way. Except that its existence was not known for centuries, not until the Rosicrucians shocked the world in the early 17th century with a publication called History of the Brotherhood that revealed what the group had been doing for centuries and its connection to the supposedly disbanded Knights Templar. The Templar cross was The Rose Croix the red cross if translated literally, but Rose also stood for the Christ consciousness, and the cross used had all four extremities the same length; a Gnostic symbol of balance. Anyone not familiar with Gnosticism would have considered the cross and its color peculiar, but nothing else. Other symbols used were the Star of David, which consisted of two interlocking spades, one upward and one downward, that symbolizes the merging of the male and female in all of us. Again, an outsider would only see the Star of David, not think much of it except perhaps that the person might have Jewish sympathies. The most visible of all codes was the Templar salutation and battle cry: Beauseant. This meant to be whole. For the uninitiated, this was simply a peculiar turn of phrase, perhaps meaning completion of oneself in the Church, but for the Gnostics it meant the ultimate spiritual goal, what we would term as enlightenment. So what exactly was Gnosticism? The Gnostic Gospels that were discovered in 1947 shed much light into the subject. Up to then what we knew about Gnosticism was that it was a religious tradition outside of the mainstream that had been banned at one point, one that evolved into different sects with as much dogma, ritual, and misconceptions as any other 2,000 year old religion. But the Gnostic gospels contained in those mud jars found in a cave in Egypt in 1947, when eventually translated revealed Jesus secret teachings, what he reserved for the few he considered ready. His disciples Thomas and Mary Magdalene

7 wrote the two most famous. They offer us a glimpse of Jesus by contemporaries; unlike the four gospels in the Bible, which were written many decades after Jesus passing and recounted an oral tradition. Gnosis means knowledge, the knowledge we acquire by going inside and knowing who we really are. This, very simply is what Jesus taught. This simple and at the same time magnificent teaching meant that there was no need for Church or priests, that anyone could know God by simply learning techniques of meditation, quieting the mind and body and letting ones spirit soar. It threatened the Churchs very existence, so they banned it. But groups formed to continue what they considered as Jesus real teachings. They came together in secret, and sometimes, fatally out in the open, as was the case with the Cathars. The Church was successful in eradicating most Gnostic groups, but evidently, the Brotherhood decided to go deep underground and remain as such for centuries, eventually spawning other groups, most notably, the Masons and Rosicrucians. Following publication of The Templars Two Kings and a Pope I was contacted by a handful of 33 degree Masons. They acknowledged that the novel told the truth about their history, and more importantly what they considered The Ancient Mysteries, the Gnostic mystical practice they inherited from the Brotherhood, which is imparted in the topmost three degrees when Masons are initiated as Knights Templar. They were actually glad that an outsider had found their secrets and would now make them public. Two of them called me Brother, an appellation I consider an honor. As I describe in another article, the Brotherhood and its sister organizations, the Masons and the Rosicrucians, were responsible for the founding of Switzerland, spawned the French Revolution, and the founding of the United States.

The Templars secret society and their war

For centuries, the legends about the Templars said that they fought a secret war against the king of France through their secret society, The Brotherhood. In my novel, The Templars, Two Kings and a Pope, I prove that this was the truth. I found that The Brotherhood engaged in a covert war against the French king Philip IV to prevent him from taking over the Holy Roman Empires crown and thus taking under his control much of Europe and the Middle East. Whats the evidence? I provide step-by-step detail in the novel, but here are the highlights: What tipped me off were three foremost armed engagement of that time: the Battle of the Golden Spurs in Flanders in 1302; the Battle of Bannockburn in Scotland in 1314; and the Battle of Morgarten in Switzerland in 1315. The battle in Flanders signaled the first time in European history that infantry defeated a major cavalry force. The previously unarmed and untrained Flemish guildsmen acquired a new weapon, a pike that they used to beat back the formidable French army. They also exhibited tremendous skill and discipline, the obvious result of expert training. The French army was lured by the Flemish to a broken plain ill suited for cavalry and were met by the pikemen. The same thing happened in Scotland, this time the Scots defeated the English cavalry on a boggy plain. A year later, Swiss peasants, again armed with pikes, and surprisingly well trained, defeated the Austrian cavalry. The pike, consisting of a 16-ft long heavy spear, had an ax-blade and a hook by the tip. The blade was used against armor and the hook to unseat a rider, but its main purpose was to anchor the butt into the ground to stop a charging horseman. It was an evolution of the long sharpened poles the Arabs used successfully against Templar charges in the Holy Land (a pike of another form was used by the ancient Spartans, but in the 14th century its particular characteristics, use and development shows a clear path to the Templars' experience in the Holy Land). The Arabs were also adept at luring the Templars into well-laid traps placing horses at a disadvantage; on either broken plains or narrow canyons where they were met by men holding the long sharpened poles. Only someone like a Templar (or conceivably but very unlikely, an Arab) could have conceived the weapon and tactic from personal experience. This, and the fact that experienced military men trained the guilds men and peasants in Flanders, Switzerland and Scotland, undoubtedly point to the presence of Templars and of The Brotherhood in

9 all three places. Digging deeper, I found that a key member of The Brotherhood, was a Swiss, Lord Otto de Grandson, who was England's King Edward Is right-hand-man, and who retired to the soon to be formed Swiss Republic right after the kings death. He had much to do with what happened. The French court spoke openly about how the Holy Roman Empires crown rightfully belonged to their king, The Empire at that point was in the hands of the Hapsburgs, the German-Austro dynasty. Had the French king, Philip IV, succeeded in taking over the Empire he would have controlled most of Europe. The retaking of the Holy land would have been feasible at that point, which was probably his ultimate goal. Obviously the English crown would have considered a French king as Holy Roman Emperor a great threat to their existence and would have tried to prevent it at any cost. The French and English had been perennial enemies for centuries. But the English king had troubles of his own. As I describe in my novel, the revolt in Scotland was a debilitating distraction, to the point that Edward I was largely ineffectual in fighting the French in both Flanders and also Aquitaine, a duchy in France that both kings claimed. There is plenty of evidence that the French king meddled heavily in Scotland to keep the English occupied. Flanders was a county that Philip IV also wanted for himself. Had he been able to conquer Flanders, its wealth in textiles would have been his, a tremendous boon to his coffers, which would have enabled him to hire a large army. His next step would have been the invasion of England, and then the Empires crown would have been easily his. To pave the way, he had already named one of his men, a French bishop, as pope, who dutifully supported everything he did, even threatening excommunication to those who opposed Philip. The battle in Flanders served to significantly weaken the French king. The one in Scotland opened the kingdom as a safe haven for the Templars and the subsequent treaty meant that the English army was no longer engaged and could face the French. Had the French king become emperor at this juncture, he would have inherited a second long-lasting, weakening war. Flanders was already a huge drain and now the Swiss seemed unbeatable. There is little doubt that the defeat of the Austrian army in Switzerland was a huge deterrent for Philip IVs ambitions. I go into greater detail in the novel, but in a nutshell, that's how The Brotherhood managed to stop the French king while securing a haven for themselves in Scotland and Switzerland. This was a secret and intense war of spies, intrigue, assassinations, and careful orchestration that went on for several years, engineered by Lord Otto de Grandson. But how did the French king, Philip IV get the notion that he could conquer Europe and

10 most of the Middle-East? In all probability, it started with his grandfather, Louis IX, the famous Saint Louis. He was quite the crusader, a failed one at that, except for the Abigensian Crusade, which he conducted against his own people, the French living in Languedoc; the Cathars that were responsible for the founding of the Templars, the peaceful and tolerant Gnostics he and the pope wanted obliterated. Louis died on his last crusade, one he launched against Tunis. He was definitely pious in terms of that age, and that meant killing all whom he considered enemies of the Church. It seems that he passed on his frustration at driving off the Muslims from the Holy Land to his son and grandson, as well as his religious fanaticism. Although they spoke of their hatred for the enemies of Christ they did not engage in another crusade after Tunis, and seemed to be bidding their time for the right moment. This, plus the fact that they coveted the Empires crown, and that the naming of a puppet pope was a sure and tried strategy used by the elder Philip and his uncle, speak of a well-laid scheme, one that The Brotherhood got wind of and decided to do something about.

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The Masons connection to the Templars

Evidence suggests that present day Masons have a clear and direct connection to the Templars secret society, The Brotherhood. At this point let me point out that I am not a Mason. Following the publication of The Templars, Two Kings and a Pope; I received feedback from two 33 Degree Masons. Overall they were very pleased with my novel, which they felt clarified their history and gave substance to their connection to the Knights Templar. The book also made public their Ancient Mysteries, the Gnostic teachings that Jesus taught and that the novel describes as The Brotherhoods mystical practice. Apparently I was also describing the Masons 33 Degree mysticism. One of them loaned me their Monitoring Guide, which describes their 33 degrees in detail with appropriate symbols. These symbols confirmed that the Masons, at least from the 30th Degree on up in which they are initiated as Knights Templar, are linear descendants from the Templars secret Brotherhood. The Templar Cross, the Rose Croix or Red Cross, is widely used. All four extremities are the same size which is a Gnostic symbol for balance. The symbol of the rose is also used, which for the Brotherhood meant the Christ consciousness. In one scene in the novel I describe how Jesus prison cell was permeated with a faint scent of roses. This made perfect sense to the 33 Degree Masons. In old French, the color red was called rose, also the name of the flower, which makes the name of their cross and why it was red, code for the Christ consciousness. Gnostics believed that this was a state every person could achieve. The Christ consciousness was the perfect state of balance, which they termed Beauseant, literally be whole, in the Lingua Franca, the old french the Templars spoke. This term is presently widely used by the Masons. The other symbol of balance, which the Masons also widely use, is what looks like a Star of David, comprised by two spades, one upward or male, one downward, or female. This means the coming together of the male and female in all of us. The Gnostic faith balances the female aspect of God, Sophia, with the male, Christ; which we will all embody at some point when we reach Beauseant, symbolized by the Templars flag, black and white stripes of equal size, and a theme still used by the Masons. So, how did the connection between the Templars Brotherhood and the Masons take place? In the research I conducted for my novel I arrived at this conclusion naturally, without prejudice; that is, I had no preconception of where my research would lead me,

12 just an abiding curiosity as to what happened 700 years ago. I found that once they left the Holy Land, the Templars and The Brotherhood found themselves embroiled in a covert and intense war against the king of France, Philip IV Le Bel, The Beautiful. Philip was adamant that the Holy Roman Empire as it had once existed, was rightfully his. This meant basically taking over the whole of Europe and most of the Middle East. To accomplish this he first needed both the Order of the Temple and the King of England out of the way, because they could stop him, and he also needed their money. This Machiavellian scheme is explained in detail in the novel. It was a very elaborate plan. The Brotherhood had to act quickly. If Philip invaded England there was no stopping him. They realized that this was first in the French kings list. They came next. They needed something to distract him, a war that would pull him away from England. They turned to Flanders, what is today Belgium. The principality was ruled by a count, a nominal subject of the French monarch. The county was split along ethnic lines; for centuries the French speakers and the Dutch had been at odds. There were also very powerful guilds of textile workers, for it was the processing of wool that made Flanders. The nobility was very weak and easy prey for a rising working class. The Brotherhood decided to approach the Dutch-speaking guilds, train them, and use them to fight the French. This worked out perfectly. The "Battle of the Golden Spurs" saw the defeat of the powerful French cavalry by lowly infantry, the first time in European history that this happened. This battle and what led to it are graphically described in the novel, along with the weapons, training and tactics, for I feel this is a very crucial episode in Templar history. In the book I lead into the Flemish excursion with a venture by two of the main characters (fashioned after real historical figures) that find them working with weavers who moonlight as entertainers at fairs. This gives them the idea for Flanders. Im sure that something along these lines took place; some incident that led The Brotherhood to look into the guilds, for otherwise the social divide was so strong at this time in history that such a working arrangement was unthinkable. After Flanders, The Brotherhood continued to work with the guilds. When they reached Scotland, it was just natural that they would link up with them. In the novel, this happens through a sergeant, a natural link between the noble knights and the working class. It makes sense that The Brotherhood would seek out the most powerful guild around, which was made up of learned men, men who built cathedrals and bridges and not only could read and write, but were also relatively sophisticated. What The Brotherhood needed, was an organization they could infiltrate and control so they could find a safe haven for The Knowing, Jesus secret teachings. I believe that they had in their possession a copy of Jesus actual writing, a Jesus Gospel, and they also needed a hiding place for it. They connected with the Masons and passed on their secrets. In the 16th century when the puritans rose to power in Britain, most of the written records of the Masons and other Gnostic and non-traditional Christian denominations, was

13 destroyed. The Masons had to reinvent themselves in the 17th century, mostly from what was passed down as legend. In the course of the years some misconceptions came into play, including a dash of Egyptology, the result of the Egypt obsession that ran through Europe in the 19th century. But surprisingly, the main body of Jesus secret teachings did survive, and are being practiced by present day 33 Degree Masons.

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The Templar prophesy

On October Friday the 13th 1307 when French troops went to round up all Templars in France on orders from their king and the pope, they found that most Templars had vanished. Much later, way after the trials were over and the French king and the pope had met their untimely ends, people found that in fact most Templars had made their escape to destinations unknown. It became evident that the Templars knew well in advance of the pope and French kings plans against them. At the time no one knew how the Templars got wind of the plan. Three centuries later, the Rosicrucians let it be known that there had been a secret Gnostic organization behind the Templars known as The Brotherhood, and that they were the ones responsible for saving the Order. The question was how did the Brotherhood manage to divulge the plan to the rank and file without making its own presence known? That was quite a feat. They couldnt just come up and say: "We are a secret organization with spies all over because we are heretics and need to protect ourselves against the Church, and in the process we found out that the pope and king of France want to destroy us". Most of the Templars rank and file reflected the population at the time, they adhered to the Churchs teachings with heart and soul and would have probably turned against their own brothers had they known that they were a secretive Gnostic group, that is heretics, according to Church dogma. A couple of references I ran across made me think of a prophesy, but where and how would they come up with such a thing? I then found that there had been a famous prophet of that time, Caesarius of Heisterbach, and the fact that he was a Cistercian gave me pause, for Cistercians were the sister Order of the Templars, as close to the Templars as any other Order could come. They were the unarmed Templars, as it were. Over the years there had been a lot of dealings between the two orders, a lot of common ground and working together. Caesarius prophecies were mostly run-of-the-mill; when the world would end, disasters coming up, etc. I theorized that The Brotherhood might have ascribed a convenient prophesy to him, one that would describe the attempt of the French king and pope against the Templars. They would have had to tie the prophecy close to things they knew were going to happen, and merge it with the French kings own plans. This is something that the rank-and-file would readily believe, and it probably said that the pope would destroy the Templars and French king after the fall of the Holy Land, for the Brotherhood knew that the French king was waiting for such an inevitable event before launching his plan. To validate my theory, I examined the historical trail to see if

15 there was evidence that such a prophesy could have existed, and I found that there was; that the Brotherhood could very well have used Caesarius as a safe venue to let their own people know what was going to happen. At the time, seers were common, some were considered heretics, but those within the Church were thought of as Gods means to warn his people, and their words, no matter how shocking, were to be trusted and taken seriously. I can't fully attest to the existence of the Caesarius Prophesy. The Brotherhood, after all functioned in secret and there were no written records, only the effect that their actions had and we can only surmise what form these took. A prophesy is a sound guess, and if it wasn't exactly the way I formulated it, then it was something very close to it. The fact that there was a Cistercian monk named Caesarius who made prophesies at about the right time does make it awfully convenient. Caesarius Prophecy (or its equivalent) was part of a large and complex puzzle that took me seven years to assemble in the form of a novel. None of what I found was new, but no one else had put it altogether in one cohesive story to explain what happened to the Templars.

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The knights Templar and the Holy Grail

Early on, while doing research for my novel "The Templars Two Kings and a Pope", I was mystified by the recurrent mention of the Holy Grail in documents referring to the Knights Templar. It didn't make sense; by then I had defined that the core of the Templars, those who gave direction to the Order were without doubt Gnostic mystics who gave little importance to relics or anything in the material world, which they considered an illusion, something to be dismissed. In those days of persecution by the Dominicans who in the 13th and 14th centuries were the official Church Inquisitors, non-traditional Christians had to hide their practice and found secret codes to communicate. This could be something as innocuous as drawing a cross with all four legs the same size, this meant Gnostic balance, or a star of David which meant the coming together of male and female in all of us. When you met someone whom you thought might be a fellow Gnostic, you started with a salutation, "Beauseant". If they knew what it meant, then you casually drew a cross on the ground with your sword or a stick. They would probably respond by drawing a star of David or a dove. Then you knew you were safe and could talk freely. So with all of these secret codes, if a chalice stood for something else, what would it be? It definitely was not the cup that Jesus used in the last supper. This would mean nothing to those mystics, an actual cup? When I dug deeper, I found that starting even earlier, perhaps back to the 5th century, the Heart, that is the spiritual heart as opposed to the human organ, was symbolized by a drinking vessel. Catholics are familiar with paintings of The Sacred Heart of Jesus, so we know that there was veneration for Jesus' Heart. The Gnostic Gospels refer consistently to the Heart of Christ that will open in all of us. David Richo in "The Sacred Heart of the World" makes the definite connection between the symbol of a cup and the heart of Jesus. It's obvious then that the Templars were referring to something that was a direct connection to the Heart of Jesus. Elaine Pagels in her "Gnostic Gospels" tells us that Jesus gave secret instruction, what became known as Gnosticism, to the select few, and spoke in parables to the general public. These secret teachings were banned by the Church starting in the 5th century. For centuries after, Gnosticism was considered a heretical practice punishable by death. The central core of the Templars, "The Brotherhood" were definitely Gnostics, and they were rumored to possess the Holy Grail.

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If we put all the facts together, that is that Jesus was a Rabbi, a well-educated man who spoke and wrote in at least Greek and Aramaic, and he wanted to propagate his teachings, it stands to reason that he must have committed them to writing. This being the case, his teachings would have been banned by the Church, considered anathema, for they spoke of a direct connection to God without any need for priests or Church. Add to this the fact that his teachings would be considered by any mystic of the time as a direct connection to Him, to his heart. Then it makes sense that a document written by Jesus would be what the Templars were hiding as the Holy Grail. So what happened to the "Holy Grail", a gospel written by Jesus? That was a line of inquiry I pursued in my novel. I found evidence that it was a real document, the actual words of Jesus written by his own hand. The Brotherhood kept it as a treasure for many centuries, after they found it, very likely in the place and manner similar to what I describe in my novel. I am certain that it will resurface some day, perhaps buried under Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, or hidden away in some Masonic temple. Time will tell.

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The Holy Grails hiding place

The legend of the Holy Grail was born during the romantic era in the early middle ages, that gave birth to the concept of courtly love, gallantry, and the forbidden love that one was willing to die for. Many songs and poems were composed at the time by traveling minstrels, most having to do with beautiful damsels, but some with great adventures and treasures, such as the Holy Grail. During the middle ages they thought that it all started with King Arthur and his court, but actually it was the middle ages that gave birth to the Arthurian mythyet another product of the romantic era. So was there a Holy Grail? After lengthy research for my novel, I came to the conclusion, that yes, it was real, but it had nothing to do with a drinking vessel, rather, it was a code word that stood for the Brotherhoods (the secret society behind the Templars) greatest mystical treasure, a physical link to Jesus, a Gospel written by him that had always been kept secret, even during Jesus time. We know from the Gnostic Gospels discovered in 1947 that Jesus reserved a secret teaching for those he deemed ready, what became known as Gnosticism. Given that what he wrote was very likely along those lines, it had to be kept away from the masses. There is little doubt that he wrote something, for he was a learned Rabbi with a message to propagate. So where did the Templars find the Holy Grail, this Jesus Gospel? I concluded that in the same place where the bulk of the books from the Library of Alexandria were secreted to after Christian hordes started destroying everything that was not the approved Bible. According to what the Arabs recorded, monks who had been in charge of the library took their books to a secret location where they were translated into Arabic and disseminated throughout the Arab world, back in 421, two centuries before the Prophet Mohammed, when Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Thats also the time when the Gnostic Gospels were buried, what was found in 1947 and became known as the Naj-Hammadi Library. The thesis in my novel is that the monks at the Library of Alexandria had the secret Jesus Gospel. The reasoning is simple; Alexandria was not only the cultural center of the Empire, it was also its most progressive city. Dr. Elaine Pagels, the famous theologian and author of The Gnostic Gospels theorized that Jesus learned what became his Gnosticism from Buddhist monks in that city. Buddhism did have an impact in the city where intellectual inquiry was the norm, where most of the greatest learned men came. So yes, it makes sense that whoever was in charge of the Library would reflect the citys

19 culture. There is no doubt in my mind that they had copies of Jesus document, and that it was very precious to them since they were Christian monks, very likely of a mystical bend. Just the fact that they wanted to save the knowledge in their hands by handing it over to the Arabs speaks volumes about what they were like. So where did the Library of Alexandria monks take their books including the Jesus Gospel? I placed myself in their place, studying what was known about the world at the time and what was happening around them. As fanatical Christian hordes started descending on the library, the monks had to act fast. They looked for a safe place that was well away from invaders and fanatical hordes, and in a direction away from danger: had they been caught by the fanatics with their cargo they would have been slaughtered. To achieve this, from Alexandria you would have to look due east, towards what then known as the Libyan wilderness, basically the western-most chunk of Africa that encompasses most of the Sahara. Well, fortunately for them, and for me, someone else had escaped in that direction centuries before, with a similar goal in mind, to find a safe haven away from violence, in this case, an invading army. These were the mystics that left Judea and Israel during the Assyrian invasion in 722 BCE and founded a colony hidden away in the Tibesti Mountains of what is todays Chad. For many centuries this was a place known to the mystical underground, a place where one could find sanctuary away from civilization, a place to pray and meditate in peace. Looking at a map of that time, the Tibesti mountains made perfect sense. In fact, it would have been hard to pass up. It is hard to get to, one has to cross many miles of desert, but once in the mountains there are valleys with 20 inches of rain a year, plenty to support a colony. No other location offered relative proximity and maximum safety. I figured that the place had a name, a code name that would not give away its location. In the novel I called it Hafiz Mountain, because Hafiz in Arabic means to preserve knowledge, as in writing, memorizing, or secreting it away, and I figured thats what the Brotherhood would have called it, or something very similar. In the book, the document is found and taken away to Europe by the Brotherhood. In reality this could have happened earlier perhaps, but on the other hand, it made sense to keep it somewhere safe until the last minute, because possession of such a document meant a charge of heresy. In any case, it made its way to Europe, I believe in a manner very close to what I describe in The Templars Two Kings and a Pope.

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The Templar trials

On Friday October the 13th, 1307, all members of the Order of the Temple within the kingdom of France were rounded up by French troops on orders from the pope. Shortly thereafter all the kings of Europe followed suit. How this came about is a long and convoluted story, purposely misconstrued, lied about, and obscured by the powers that be, but without doubt, a product of the most powerful king of its time, Philip IV of France. Historians would say either it was greed that drove him, the quest for all the money and goods the Templars had accumulated in the previous two centuries; or a product of his fanatical catholic beliefs, his conviction that the Templars had become heretical, given to lascivious and dissolute practices involving homosexual sex, partying, and a luxurious life style. In actuality, the kings of France, starting with Philips grandfather, the supposedly saintly Louis, had become obsessed with the reclaiming of the empire that Charlemagne had created, which they believed was their birth-right, in affect the conquest of all of Europe and most of the middle east; the Emperors crown that centuries later Napoleon would wear. To accomplish this, Philip, his father and grandfather, had devised a plan that involved the destruction of the Templars and the conquest of England as the first two steps. A preparatory step involved the placing on the papal throne a compliant French bishop they could control. This plan, and how the Brotherhood effectively thwarted it, is the centerpiece of my novel, The Templars, Two Kings and a Pope. In doing this, the Brotherhood consented to the destruction of the Templars as part of a convoluted secret war they conducted against the French king. A telling fact is that out of the 15,000 Templars of that time only 3,000 were captured or accounted for by the authorities. The rest simply disappeared. There is ample evidence that the Templars knew well in advance of Philip's plan, and that they decided to let him believe that he had destroyed the Order so they could escape and continue their work from Scotland and Switzerland. The 3,000 were mostly old men who offered no resistance. The most salient charges, what actually was used to convict them, were accusations of venerating a black cat, Bahomet, of homosexual practices, and of spitting on a cross and denying Christ. Like any other trumped up charges, if the prosecution finds any glimmer of truth in one, the rest, the most egregious, will be believed by association. This is a ploy lawyers have been using since the time of Cicero. The Templars were guilty of prompting recruits of

21 denying Christ and spitting on the Cross-, but, as I describe in the novel, this was a test, one of several, to see if they would stand by their convictions. Those who failed, spat on the Cross and denied Christ, were not made Knights Templar. These are the ones who came forth to testify during the Templar trials, the ones who never made it through Templar training and were still resentful. As for the two other accusations, they were simply ridiculous. Any Templar who engaged in any sexual activity was summarily imprisoned, and very likely thrown out of the Order. As for Bahomet, and the charge that this represented a conversion to Islam...it's laughable. Muslims do not revere any objects or images; in fact this is a central tenet of their faith. So how did the Templars decide to go along with a plan that called for the sacrifice of some of their brothers to be falsely accused, tortured, and burned at the stake? It was part of their culture, death and sacrifice for their brothers and Christ was what they had practiced for two hundred years.

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What happened to the Templars after their trials

The trials of the Templars went on for over a decade. The only kingdom that refused to arrest and prosecute them was rebel-held Scotland, although their assets were supposedly passed on to other Orders. But in fact, Templars in that kingdom continued to live almost as normally as they had before. Small wonder, given that they were hard at work on behalf of rebel leader Robert de Bruce. England had a new king, Edward II, who was trying desperately to measure up to his father, the much-loved Edward Long Shanks. To the new kings credit, no Templar was ever tortured, and most were set free in due time, after the fervor died away. But overall most of the Templars in Europe were never arrested. From all the records of all the kingdoms combined we can account for almost 3,000 Templars, out of a total population of a bit over 15,000. When the troops arrived to arrest the Templars, quite a few castles, forts and farms were deserted. The rest found a handful of old and sick Templars, who offered no resistance at all. For days before the fateful Friday October the 13th of 1307 when French troops arrested all Templars in their kingdom, Templar ships had gathered in the French Harbor of La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast. On the morning of Friday the 13th, they were all gone. In fact, of all the extensive Templar fleet, not a single ship was ever captured. For years prior, in Scotland, Robert de Bruce and his troops could make no headway against the superior English army, which held key castles. But inexplicably, in the fall of 1306 they started winning while eyewitnesses reported seeing Templars, fighting with the rebels. After the fateful Friday the 13th, the Scottish rebels couldnt lose. At the same time, forest cantons in the Alps had declared their independence from Austria. Curiously, the mostly peasant infantry fought with great discipline, using long pikes against the cavalry with devastating results. Just before the Templars were arrested and their financial practices shut down, Switzerland became a nation and took over the practice almost seamlessly. In The Templars Two Kings and a Pope I describe how the Swiss Lord Otto de Grandson, Edward I right-hand-man, in conjunction with the Brotherhood, carefully engineered the Templars exodus to Scotland and Switzerland. For years, Otto and the Brotherhood

23 stood by as Edward I shamelessly tried to take over Scotland, betraying the trust placed on him by Scottish nobles to safeguard their kingdom and oversee the ascendancy of a rightful heir to their throne. It started out with the suspicious deaths of all the Scottish royal family. The French king was trying his best to make life as difficult as possible for Edward in Scotland, and its very likely that he was behind the deaths of the Scottish royals, who were related to Edward, in order to lure him into trying to take over the Scottish kingdom. The French king had plans to invade England, and wanted Edward weak and distracted. This is where the Brotherhood stepped in, by engineering a trap for the French king in Flanders. They had successfully recruited the powerful textile guilds and trained them with pikes to fight Philips powerful cavalry. In a well-laid trap, they lured the French army into a craggy field ill suited for a cavalry charge. This was the first time in European history that infantry defeated a cavalry. This was the very same tactic used by the Swiss rebels years later, and in fact, the very same trap with minor variations, that was used by the Scots to defeat Edward IIs army. The Brotherhood was well aware that the plan now put in place by the French king had a long precedent, and would continue on by French monarchs unless they stopped it once and for all. The Brotherhood used all tools at their disposal, including assassination, to do away with The French Scheme. They managed to stop Philip, and they succeeded in starting a new nation, Switzerland, secured the independence of Scotland, and continued with their harassment of the French in Flanders for many years. But they knew that that wasnt enough, they had to make sure the era of despotic rule came to a stop. Switzerland was the first democracy in Europe since ancient Athens. In England and France they continued their work to weaken the monarchy and strengthen parliament. Eventually, over several centuries, they triumphed. But their crowning achievement came with the founding of the United States. Several of the founding fathers were 33 degree Masons, linear descendants and mystical and ideological inheritors of The Brotherhood.

24

How the Templars fought

How did the Knights Templar fight? Actually, very little is mentioned in most of the most popular historical accounts. Piers Paul Read, who has sold more books than anyone else skips over the subject. So does Gordon Napier; both of whom have produced otherwise exemplary books. Karen Ralls does mention weapons, but doesn't mention tactics nor training. It was important for me to figure out every detail of Templar life, to produce an accurate description of who they were. Weapons have a lot to do with battle tactics. If an army is wielding battle axes rather than swords and lances, you don't charge the enemy the same way. Axes are heavier than swords, more unwieldy; it takes longer to recover after a swing. Also, it's important to know whether all Templars used the same weapons. Any military tactician will agree that uniformity in given units is essential. And this was the case. All Templars, be it sergeants, squires, or knights, used lance, sword, dagger, shield, and of course, a suit of chain mail called a hauberk, that had plates of steel attached in mostly chest, back, shoulders and knees. (It wasn't until the early 14th century that knights had armor from top to bottom. By then, steel was lighter and stronger. Up to then suits of armor were too heavy for battle and were used exclusively for jousting). Templars did not use bow and arrows or crossbows; these were deemed cowardly, and were used by mercenaries. In the Holy Land these were Syrian Turcopoles. Training was necessary for uniformity of fighting. We know that the Templars were the most disciplined and effective army of its time. This called for rigorous training. New recruits had to forgo the use of favorite weapons, such as the calltrop, a multi-pointed missile thrown at small range, the mace, battle ax, talchion or broadsword, and the flail, a baton with a chain and ball at one end. A Knight Templar was the equivalent of a modern day tank, and this is how he was used tactically. He charged into battle surrounded on either side by his sergeant and squire, who in turn were flanked by two mercenary bowmen. The knight broke the enemy ranks with his charge, and his men protected his flanks. A typical formation consisted of thirty "lances" that is, each individual knight and his team. This was a squadron. Two squadrons made up a battle group, what later became knows as a battalion.

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It's important to realize that battle was part of each Templar's spiritual quest. Winning was not as important as how one fought. Honor was paramount, so was loyalty and obedience. Death became insignificant. This was the case both for the often-fanatical rank-and file, and for the inner core, the mystical Brotherhood. The Templars Two Kings and a Pope describes the day-to-day training, and the means by which recruits made it into the knights' ranks. It also provides graphic detail of battles, in order to provide this key dimension of what being a Templar was really like.