reply to post by KSigMason
Maybe the best thing to happen to the Temple really....the most important lesson the Templars learned was the hardest. The thing I try to point out as
a Mason and as a York Rite member, is that there are two different Templars often portrayed. The most popular is the Crusader who goes off to battle
the infidel, but this is the naive Templar who had absolute faith in the Pope, and beleived all of those who were of other Faiths were the enemies of
Christ and should convert or die....like many patriots throughout history who go off to war they were unquestioning to their state and faith, the more
so due to their monk vows.....however these Templars not only died, but so did those did these views quickly get dashed by the experiences in the
holy land.
The Templars at their end were a different breed. Like the veterans from modern war coming home today they came home filled with hard memories and
horrors of war. They had experienced first hand the many incidences where so called "Christian" lords in the the Holy Land had attacked each other
and killed even other Christians for power and greed, they had learned that some Christian Armies were more dangerous then the infidel. they had even
felt betrayel as some Templars betrayed them at times. They had learned that some Muslims were as barbaric and as dark as they had been told, and yet
others were men of honor to be worked with in order to maintain order and peace. They went thinking the Assasnids as infidel, they lft thinking of
them as fanatics perhaps, but fanatics who you could work with for common goals, and whose honor would likely keep them from stabbing you in the back
so long as you likewise honored your promise to them......in otherwords they were not naive idealists....rather men who had become wise through
hardship and experience.
Their last lesson of course was to be betrayed by the man they were told was the living embodiment of Christs message. They were betrayed by the pope
they swore allegence too. They were betrayed by those who they had thought to be beyond such cruelty, and whom they had vowed to defend......if any
such group of Templars had any part either in founding or simply influencing the ideals of men who would create the masonic groups today it was THESE
Templars the betrayed, the wise, the veterans from which they took their que.......not those naive xenophobic idealists that first marched off
ignorant of what they would be facing. Keep this point in mind.....
Often I see even mason interested in templars proudly displaying the former Templars off to crusade as a symbol.....it is a symbol, a symbol of naive
idealism....but is that later breed betrayed who learned the values and lessons Freemasonry has held dear.
