The Templars New Holy Land

I have fashioned together a concoction of Templar myths that would make Dan Brown proud. Enjoy.

In 1314 the Templar Grandmaster James of Molay is burnt at the stake for heresy. Many of his Order fled France from the Atlantic port of La Rochelle and land in Scotland. Joining with other Scottish Templars, they actively participated at the Battle of Bannockburn and helped deliver a decisive victory to their new patron Robert the Bruce over the English.
Having won Scottish independence for centuries to come, the King rewarded the Templars with unrivalled freedoms that allowed them to expand back into Europe albeit under new names. By the end of the 1400’s the Templars were identified with a wide assortment of organizations ranging from glorified social clubs through to sects practicing ancient esoteric rituals.

In 1487 the Malleus Maleficarum linked the failure of the Crusades and loss of confidence in the Church to a pathological fear of Satan’s ascendancy in the world. Many also came to believe that groups connected to the Templars were in league with the devil and advancing his cause. The papacy saw this as an opportunity to finally rid itself of the Templars by using a Papal Bull to grant permission for bishops and secular authorities to prosecute those aligned with these known heretics if there was no representation from the Inquisition. By early 1500’s the Templars and its offshoots had been largely driven out of mainland Europe leaving only the original order intact in Scotland.

After his death, Molay had fatefully cursed the French Monarchy and the Pope, both dying within a few short years of his own death. Radicalized elements of the Templars (known as the Molays) had come to see Molay as a martyr whose revenge must be made good by any means necessary. Having altered their Red Cross to a skull and crossbones, the Molays actively resisted the papacy and the crown heads of Europe (all except for the Scottish) through piracy in the Mediterranean.
 
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Using the Templar’s fortified bases in Cyprus they preyed upon shipping in the western Mediterranean Sea. Coastal villages and towns of Italy, Spain and Mediterranean islands were also frequently attacked leaving long stretches of their coastlines almost completely abandoned by their inhabitants. It is estimated that around 100, 000 Europeans were captured by the Templars and sold into slavery in the 16th Century alone. The Molays also entered the Atlantic and struck at French shipping as far north as Iceland using safe havens in Scotland. In 1523 the Molays' fortifications in Cyprus were overun by the Ottoman Turks prompting a return to mainland Europe and France.

By the time of the French Revolution, the Templars in their many subversive guises were widely regarded as the driving force that brought down the hated French royal house of Capet as well as humble the Catholic Church in France. Gassicour, describing the death of Louis XVL, documents that a loud chant spontaneously arising in the crowd that cried out, "James Molay, you are avenged!"

In 1797, Barruel published "memoirs" giving his account of how the Templar suppression led this open revilement of the Church when: “a certain number of guilty knights...united for the preservation of their horrid mysteries. To their impious code they added the vow of vengeance against the kings and priests that destroyed their order...They made adepts that would transmit from generation to generation the same hatred of the God of Christians, and of Kings, and of Priests."
 
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The mostly hotly debated legacy of the Templars is the fabled ‘Sinclair’s Tower’ on Rhodes Island. Discovered by Pilgrims in 1623, the solidly built round church tower housed a bedraggled group of Native Americans speaking at times in a broken English. From wood carvings lining the church’s wall, the Pilgrims deciphered that it must have been built by the fabled Templar colonists.

According to Templar Lore, a most revered object of antiquity had been handed down from one Grandmaster to another and so came into the possession of James Molay. After his arrest, he asked the Templar Henry Sinclair, Earl of Orkney to take this treasure from the Paris Temple vaults and escape with it to La Rochelle and onto Scotland. Fearing eventual persecution in Scotland many of the order, including Sinclair, went on a voyage of discovery having paid the Venetian brothers Nicolo and Antonio Zeno lavishly for their services. Purportedly they reached Nova Scotia via Greenland in 1389 from which the Templar fleet continued southwards along the coast into unknown territory. It was widely believed at the time that Sinclair had brought the Templar treasure with him without revealing its source or identity to anyone. Owing to the secrecy surrounding the voyage, the brother’s discovery was generally greeted with skepticism and subsequently dismissed. The Templar colonists too were largely forgotten after all contact was lost with them.

Ten years after the Round Church’s discovery, a series of cryptic hieroglyphs on the tower’s wooden carvings were removed and transported back to London to be deciphered. A wave of intrigue and excitement hit all of Christendom as it became clear that one of the identified hieroglyphs made a direct reference to the seven-branched candelabra stolen from Solomon’s Temple by the Romans. From this it had been deduced that Sinclair’s treasure must be the candelabra. After an extensive search of the round church, a series of transcripts attributed to the Jewish Essene as well as first hand notes by the Apostle Paul were uncovered. Unfortunately the precious candelabra was never found.
 
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Despite its loss, Rhodes Island became a renewed beacon of faith to Christianity as well as Jews and Muslims having become revered as the last resting place of this most sacred object. In 1749 an expansive Gothic Cathedral named St Peters was built enclosing the site of its smaller round counterpart.

By the late 18th Century, St Peters Cathedral was largely regarded as the second most important religious sight in Christendom, second only to Jerusalem. Ironically, having failed in the Crusades, the Templars inadvertently created the basis for a new Holy Land in the West.

...that's it folks. Comments, criticisms welcomed.
 
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I'm a bit confused by some of this. While I have no trouble believing that many others reached the Americas before Columbus, where exactly is this Rhodes Island? At first I thought you meant Rhode Island. And what sort of broken English did these Americans speak? If it was taught to them by Templars, it would be Middle English at best, and I doubt it would be very understandable to 17th century English speakers.
 
I'm a bit confused by some of this. While I have no trouble believing that many others reached the Americas before Columbus, where exactly is this Rhodes Island? At first I thought you meant Rhode Island. And what sort of broken English did these Americans speak? If it was taught to them by Templars, it would be Middle English at best, and I doubt it would be very understandable to 17th century English speakers.

Yes, I stand corrected. It should have been Rhode Island not Rhodes Island. In respect to your quibble about english... I think its feasible that some words would be recognizable even a few centuries on. Hmmm...considering Sinclair's heritage they may have even spoken with a slight Celtic accent. Also the Pilgrims had plenty of time to work out what they were saying and would have used the round church wood carvings to assist in their interpretations.
 
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