The Knights Templar
On the morning of March 19, 1314, a seventy year old man and a companion were forcibly taken by their jailers to a small island in the River Seine.
The previous day they had been condemned to the gruesome death of being slowly roasted over a fire. This man had been a member of the Knights Templar,
the warrior monks, for forty nine years. He had been Grand Master of the Order since 1292. He was the the twenty-third and last Grand Master of the
Knights of the Temple of Solomon. Or was he?
Hugues de Payen, was a noble from Champagne, France. He was a vassal of Hugh, Count of Champagne, as was Andre de Montbard. De Montbard was the
uncle of Bernard of Clairvaux (later to be named St. Bernard) a monk who helped them get their Holy Rule from the Pope.
Baudouin I, King of Jerusalem gave the nine knights a wing of his palace, which was located on Temple Mount in Jerusalem Their headquarters was above
the foundation of the original Jewish Temple built in the time of Solomon. Thus they were named the Poor Fellow Knights of Christ and the Temple of
Solomon.
The nine were quite sincere about their order and vowed to live as monks. Practicing a life of poverty, chastity and obedience. For nine years no one
else was admitted into the order.
After the nine year period Hugues de Payen returned to France to find more brothers for the order.
Due in large part through the aid of St. Bernard they received their Holy Rule from the Pope in 1128.
But what did they do for the first nine years of their existence?
Knights who entered the Order gave all of their worldly possessions to the Order, they were allowed to keep only their sword. They were joining a
monastic order, and took a vow of poverty, chastity and dedication to the Order. There was a formal initiation and an austere life style for the new
brother.
First and foremost they were a military order, structured in a very efficient manner, the Orders Provinces were composed of Preceptories, these
holdings generated the funds and manpower necessary to fulfill their mission of defending the Holy Land.
Along with their fame and fortune they created some powerful enemies. By far the most dangerous and devastating was Philip the Fair of France, who
brought about the end of the open Order.
The Templar Fleet had escaped from France, part of it went to Scotland. What happened to the Templars who fled to Scotland, and why did they flee to
Scotland?
Could the answers be on Oak Island Nova Scotia.
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