The Alchemy Key.pdf - Veritas File System

Compounding his problem was the Knights Templar Order. It had
absorbed a very large number of feudal estates and removed them from
crown revenue. In desperation, Philippe IV increased taxes, devalued the
currency and ruthlessly expropriated the assets of Jews and Italians.
From a religious perspective, the Capetian family had staunchly
supported the Church. It enthusiastically participated in the Crusades,
suppressed heresy and formed a capable bulwark against the aspiring
Merovingian and Carolingian families that threatened the fundamental
legitimacy of the Church.
In harboring the Melchizedek or Nazarene heresy, as we saw at
the end of Chapter 11, the Knights Templar and Cistercians were
negligent in their duty to the Church as an agency of that body. This also
made them guilty of abusing their position of religious and commercial
privilege. While Philippe IV acted because of financial pressure, his need
to stabilize Capetian succession against the Merovingian and Carolingian
dynasties that had gained a stronghold within these Orders was perhaps
the major determining factor in the indictment of the Knights Templar.
The suppression of the Knights Templar therefore followed as a
convenient means to achieve many aims. These were to annul debt and
receive fees while piously pursuing heresy and once more
disenfranchising the regal aspirations of the Merovingian and Carolingian
dynasties. Philippe IV ostensibly had both authority and propriety on his
side.
It appears that members of the Knights Templar received
forewarning of their arrest. The evening before the seneschals opened
their sealed orders, the entire Knights Templar fleet of eighteen galleys
slipped anchor from the English controlled port of La Rochelle and
headed for the Firth of Forth and the Western Isles of Scotland.
Pierre d'Aumont and seven other Knights Templar, disguised as
woking masons, landed on the Island of Mull They held their first chapter
on St. John's Day, 1307. Robert Bruce then took them under his
protection. On St. John's Summer Day, 24 June 1314, they fought with
Bruce at Bannockburn against Edward II.
In France, leadership of the Knights Templar passed to John
Larmenius. His Charter of Transmission shows the degree of animosity
felt by the French survivors towards their brothers in Scotland: 1285
I, lastly, by the decree of the Supreme Assembly, by Supreme
authority committed to me, will, say and order that the Scot-
Templars deserters of the Order be blasted by anathema, and that
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