The Hour of the Time may be contacted at HOT, that's H-O-T-T, P.O. Box 940, Eager, spelled E-A-G-A-R, in the state of Arizona, 85925. Our phone number is 928-333-2942. And our website is www.HourOfTheTime.com. The Hour of the Time The Hour of the Time I'm William Cooper, and you're listening to The Hour of the Time. Well, folks, we've been getting calls from all over the nation, and even in some foreign countries, they have been worried. They've called Stan. His phone has been ringing off the hook. It seems some rather spurious and ambitious individuals have been spreading the rumor by word of mouth, by the written word, and even on talk radio all across this country, that I'm dead. Well, folks, here's my answer to that. Come on, let's go. All right, let's go. Let's go. Nothing. What's talk? Everyone. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Here's my Jason. Come on, let's go. Nothing to get up. Come on. Let's go. Everyone. Let's go. I can't stop the early days, you know, you're cruising up to all of you. Here's your, let's go for a stand. I'll bring my heart to what I've never seen. You've got to be in half a step on me. I'm a whole secret spot. I'm tearing down the side of the thing. I'm a place about the kind of crew. Here's your, let's go for a break-a-trip. I'm up to the lake. Down by the river, where we can lay. But I'm on the island, take up all the gates. I can't stop you, baby, station. I can't believe my baby, oh, through the air. Everything is all wrong with me. I can't believe my baby, oh, through the air. I can't believe my baby. I'm a place about the shop, down the way around. Down by the people trying to cool down. I'll move on. I can't believe my heart, let's get you out. Nothing's only but the heart. I can't believe my baby, oh, through the air. Come on. I can't believe my baby, oh, through the air. I can't believe my baby, oh. Still cruising up to all of you. Come on. Come on. Come on. Until I'm on the island.ρί thang on my bike. COVIDás prendas. Do así.HHHHH tud Would pop ситу Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. chiefly Templars, lay in wait for the fugitives near Ascalon. The resistance offered by the Muslims was slight and very ineffectual. Abbas himself was either slain or he fled, and his son, Nisardin, professed his desire to become a Christian. The far larger part of the booty, of course, fell to the Templars, but this did not satisfy their avarice. They sold Nisardin to his father's enemies for 60,000 pieces of gold. Now, if you think that's a lot of money in this day and age, it was a veritable king's ransom in that. And they stood by to see him bound hand and foot and placed in a sort of cage or iron latticed sedan on a camel to be conducted to Egypt where a death by protracted torture awaited him. It was not the Templars alone, folks, who were guilty of arrogance and worse. The Hospitallers had deteriorated from their first fine beginnings, and the annals of both orders are not innocent of unpleasantness, though they are indeed well filled with tales of glory. The Hospitallers, for instance, refused to pay tithes to the Patriarch of Jerusalem, even going so far as to erect immense buildings in front of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as a practical demonstration of their own importance. And when the Patriarch entered his church, they rang their bells so loudly that he could not make himself heard. There is an occasion recorded when, quote, the congregation was assembled in church, the Hospitallers rushed into it in arms and shot arrows among them as if they were robbers or infidels. These arrows were collected and hung up on Mount Cavalry, where Christ had been crucified, to the scandal of these recreant knights. On applying to Pope Adrian IV for redress, the Syrian clergy found him and his cardinals so prepossessed in favor of his enemies, bribed by them, in fact, as was said that they had no chance of relief, unquote. This then, folks, was the background of the rise of the Templars and the flavor of their environment. Now, if one adds to these elements the fact that various very heterodox sects, Gnostic, Manichai, and the rest still lurked in the Holy Land, together with a great deal of magic and superstition of every kind, then there is a possibility, to say the least, that the Templars were infected by it. The facts, indeed, show that they were not only infected, but taken by it and were initiated into not only the branch known as the Athanas, but veritably arose from the secret sects in Syria. The contention which has been made that such heresies and archaic religions and practices did not survive until the Templar period is demonstrably false. Although much play has been made of it by those who would defend the order, for do such sects not endure there until this very day? Hmm? Well, this is not to say that the Templars were guilty of the practices which formed the substance of the confessions later to be wrung from them by barbaric torture, which we will examine in due course. But a secret tradition and magical rites may well have played a part in their hidden lore and practices. It should also be remembered, folks, that towards the end there were Templars who were of actual Palestinian birth, who would have every opportunity of absorbing the unorthodox beliefs of the many schools of a magical religious nature which existed in the area. The Grand Master, Philippe of Nablus, in 1167, for instance, was a Syrian, and many crusaders were Levantine lords, whatever their original blood, speaking Arabic with perfection. It was in 1162 that the Magna Carta of the Order was obtained by the Templars. The bull omni datum optimum often described as the keystone of their power. And through this instrument, they were able to consolidate their authority and preserve their secrets against intrusion. They were to find, too, that it did much to excite the envy of their opponents. Pope Adrian IV had died. The two rival popes were elected, Alexander III by the Sicilian group and Victor III by the Imperial Party. At first the Templars acknowledged Victor, but in 1161 they switched their allegiance to Alexander. There was probably some sort of secret arrangement behind this, for by January 7th of the following year the famous bull was issued. By the terms of this document, the Templars were released from all spiritual tithes except to the Holy See itself. They were permitted to have special burial grounds in their own houses. They could have chaplains of their own. They had no tithes to pay, which in that day and age was miraculous. And were allowed to receive tithes, which was absolutely incredible. Nobody who had once entered the order could leave it except to join one with a stricter discipline. The stage, dear listeners, was set for clerical hatred of the Templars and Hospitallers, who had similar privileges, and in fact were one and the same and still are today, although the advantages to the Pope from the combined support of these two orders could hardly be overestimated. In 1184 an incident occurred which inspired a great deal of distrust of the order, although the rarity of its occurrence should have underlined the fact that it was nothing of much consequence. You see, the English knight Robert of St. Albans left the Templars, became a Muslim, and led an army for Saladin against Jerusalem, then in the hands of the Franks. The charge against the Templars that they were secret muzzlemans or allies of the Tzarephans does not seem borne out by the fact that Saladin accused them of treacherous truth, breaking, and other crimes, and unlike his usual chivalrous self, took a solemn oath that he would execute such Templar captives as he could obtain, as, quote, beyond the limits of Islam and infidelity alike, unquote. Nor did they make any attempt to invoke any religious bond with Saladin when they were captured. As we know from the Arabic life of Saladin, written contemporaneously by his secretary, Khadiyusath, strong evidence of this is given in the events which followed the terrible Battle of Hattin. Two years before, Saladin had made a pact with the assassins that they would give him a free hand to continue his holy war against the Franks, which we discussed on an earlier program. On July the 1st, 1187, he captured Tiberias. He attacked nearby Hittin at Don on Friday, July the 3rd. 30,000 Christians, 30,000 Christians were captured, including the king of Jerusalem. No Templar, not one, is mentioned in the detailed Arab account as asking for mercy on religious or any other grounds. Although all knew that Saladin had issued a war cry, quote, Come to death, Templars, unquote. The Grand Master, Gerard of Ridefort, and several other knights were among those taken. Saladin offered them their lives if they would see the light of the true faith, while according to history, none accepted. And all these knights were beheaded except, admittedly, the Templar Grand Master. Could it be that he did accept the true faith? Or the light of the true faith, as Saladin had put it? A non-Templar, Reginald of Shackalan, tried to invoke the sacred code of Arab hospitality, and other crusaders claimed that they were Muslims and were spared. None of them were Templars or hospitalers. Reginald and the Templars collectively were sentenced to death for breaking the truth and the war crime of killing unarmed pilgrims to Mecca. Arab accounts include only a few references which could be construed as indicating any collusion with the Christian army. One says that on the Friday at midday, and the battle lasted for two days, Saladin issued the attack cry to be passed along the Saracen host, quote, On for Islam, unquote, at which the striped banner of the Templars was raised. And the Emir, Lion of the Faith, said, Are those Sultan Saladin Yusuf's allies of whom I have heard from the reconnaissance men? Well, this cannot be regarded as anything at all conclusive. The only other reference is to a body of Templars who went over to the Saracen side and whose supposed descendants survive to this day as the Salabiyah, which means Crusader tribe, in North Arabia. This engagement, folks, felt the end of real Western power in Palestine for over 700 years, although it did stimulate the unsuccessful Third Crusade. Although the Templars and some other Crusaders were still in the Holy Land, they had lost almost all of their possessions there. But in the West lay the real seat of their power. At this time, their European possessions numbered over 7,000 estates and foundations, although principally concentrated in France and England, they had extensive properties in Portugal, Castile, Lyon, Scotland, and Ireland, Germany, Italy, and Sicily. When Jerusalem was lost, their headquarters were transferred to Paris. This building, like all their branch churches, was known as the Temple. It was here that the French king, Philippe the Fair, took refuge in 1306 to escape a civil commotion. It is said that this visit gave him his first insight into the real wealth of the order. Now remember, the wealth was not for the members, for they practiced the first true socialism, international socialism, or communism. The fabulous treasures which his host showed him, giving the bankrupt monarch the idea to plunder the knights from the pretext that they were dominated by heresies. Philippe the Fair was not entirely without some grounds for attacking the Templars. For in 1208 we find Pope Innocent III, a great friend of the order, censuring them publicly for, quote, causing their churches to be thrown open for mass to be said every day with loud ringing of bells, bearing the cross of Christ on their breasts, but not caring to follow his doctrines which forbid giving offense to the little ones who believe in him. Following the doctrines of demons, they affixed their cross of the order upon the breast of every kind of scoundrel, asserting that whoever, by paying two or three pence a year, became one of their fraternity, could not, even if interdicted, be deprived of Christian beryl. And thus they themselves, being captive to the devil, cease not to make captive the souls of the faithful, seeking to make alive those whom they knew to be dead, unquote. The first sign of an attempt to bring some sort of physical restraint upon the Templars came from Henry III of England. For in 1252 he hinted that he might try to seize some of the property of the order. Quote, You prelates and religious, he said, especially you Templars and Hospitallers, have so many liberties and charters, that your enormous possessions make you rave with pride and haughtiness. What was imprudently given must therefore be prudently revoked, and what was inconsiderately bestowed must be considerably recalled, unquote. Those were the words of the king. The master of the Templars immediately replied, Quote, What sayest thou, O king? Far be it that thy mouth should utter so disagreeable and silly a word. So long as thou dost exercise justice, thou wilt reign. But if thou infringe it, thou wilt cease to be king, unquote. Now remember that the Knights Templar at that time were the very first international bankers. They were the wealthiest order, wealthiest group then known in the world, even surpassing the kings of the different countries that existed. And even though the Hospitallers were created before the Knights Templar, eventually the two became the same order. Though to the public and to the rulers of Europe, they were different orders with different names. The haughty Templars of the 14th century owned land and revenues gained steadily in honor and importance. They might have had thrones had they wanted them, for such was their power towards the end that banded together, as one historian points out, they could have overcome more than one of the smaller countries of Europe. Perhaps, though, they aimed even higher than that. If their eventual aim was world hegemony, they could not have organized themselves better or planned their aristocratic hierarchy more thoroughly. And you will see that that's been carried over even unto the modern day. The pride, arrogance, and complete confidence and self-sufficiency of the order is something which shows through even the least inspired pages of the chroniclers. Their power was legendary. Everywhere they had churches, chapels, tithes, farms, villages, mills, rites of pasturage, of fishing, of venery, of wood. They had also in many places the right of holding annual fairs which were managed and the tolls received by some of the brethren of the nearest houses or by their donates or servants. The number of their preceptories is, by the most moderate computation, rated at 9,000. The annual income of the order, put at about six millions pounds sterling, an unbelievable, unimaginable sum for those times. Masters of such a revenue descended from the noblest houses in Christendom, uniting in their purses the most esteemed secular and religious characters regarded as the chosen champions of Christ and the flower of Christian knights, it was not possible for the Templars in such lax times as the 12th and 13th centuries to escape falling into the vices of extravagant luxury and overweening pride. The order, folks, when fully developed, was composed of several classes. Chiefly knights, chaplains and serving brothers, affiliated were those who were attached to the order and worked for it and received its protection without taking its vows, and this affiliation was said to be derived from the Arab Clientship Association, analogous to blood brotherhood and tribal associations. A candidate for knighthood should prove that he was of a knightly family and entitled, yes, entitled to the distinction. His father must have been a knight or eligible to become one. He had to prove beyond any doubt that he was born in wedlock. The reason for this last requirement was said to be not only religious, there was the possibility that a political head such as a king or prince might influence the order by managing to have one of his bastard sons enter it, later, perhaps, to rise to high rank therein, and finally attaching it to the service of his dominion. The candidate for initiation had to be unmarried and free from all obligations. He should have made no vow nor entered any other order, and he was not to be in debt. Eventually, the competition for admission was so great from eligible people that a very high fee was exacted from those who were to be monk warriors of the temple. All candidates were to be knighted before entry into the order, but the period of probation which was originally demanded was before very long entirely abolished. No young man could be admitted until he was twenty-one years of age because he was to be a soldier as well as a monk, and this was the minimum age at which he could bear arms. When a new knight was admitted to the order, the ceremony was held in secret. This fact and persistent rumors caused the belief that certain ceremonies and tenets were put into practice which deviated more than a little from the rituals of the church. The ceremony was held in one of the order's chapels in the presence of the assembled chapter alone. The master, or the prior, who took his place in chapels other than those at which he was present, opened the proceedings. Quote, Beloved brother, ye see that the majority are agreed to receive this man as a brother. If there be any among you who knows anything of him on account of which he cannot lawfully become a brother, let him say it, for it is better that this should be signified beforehand than after he is brought before us. Unquote. And if no objection was lodged, the aspirant was sent to a small room with two or three experienced knights to coach him in what he had to know. Quote, Brother, are you desirous of being associated with the order? Unquote. If he agreed, they would dwell upon the trials and rigors of being a Templar. They would prepare him for initiation. He had to reply that for the sake of God he was willing to undergo anything and remain in the order for life. They asked him if he had a wife or was betrothed and he made vows to any other order. Did he owe money more than he could pay? Was he of sound mind and body? Was he the servant of any person? Well, after satisfactory answers, the result was passed to the master. The assembled company was then asked again if they knew anything that might disqualify him. And if none objected, they were asked, Are you willing that he should be brought in in God's name? The knight answered, Quote, Let him be brought in in God's name. Unquote. He was now again asked by his sponsors if he still desired to enter the order. Receiving an affirmative reply, they led him to the chapter where he folded his hands and flung himself upon his knees. Quote, Sir, I am come before God and before you for the sake of God and our dear lady to admit me into your society and the good deeds of the order as one who will be all his life long the servant and slave of the order. Unquote. Beloved brother, answered the receptor, you are desirous of a great matter for you see nothing but the outward shell of our order. Now let me repeat that again in case you weren't listening, folks. Beloved brother, answered the receptor, you are desirous of a great matter for you see nothing but the outward shell of our order. It is only the outward shell when you see that we have fine horses and rich comparisons that we eat and drink well and are splendidly clothed. From this you conclude that you will be well off with it but you know not the rigorous maxims which are in our interior for it is a hard matter for you who are your own master to become the servant of another. You will hardly be able to perform in future what you wish yourself for when you may wish to be on this side of the sea you will be sent to the other side. When you will wish to be in Acre you will be sent to the district of Antioch to Tripolis or to Armenia or you will be sent to Apulia to Sicily or to Lombardy or to Burgundy, France England or any other country where we have houses and possessions where we wish you to do our will. Further he says when you will wish to sleep you will be ordered to watch. When you will wish to watch then you will be ordered to go to bed. When you will wish to eat then you will be ordered to do something else and as both we and you might suffer great inconvenience from what you have may have concealed from us look here on the holy evangelist and the word of God and answer the truth to the questions which we shall put to you for if you lie you will be perjured and may be expelled the order from which God keep you. Unquote. Now all the former questions were asked on holy writ but the answers proved acceptable the receptor continued Quote Beloved brother take good care that you have spoken the truth to us for should you have spoken false on any one point you might be put out of the order from which God keep you. Now beloved brother attend strictly to what we shall say unto you do you promise to God and to our dear lady Mary to be all your life long obedient to the master of the temple and to the prior who shall be set over you unquote and the initiate answers with yea sir with the help of God again he is asked do you promise to God and to our dear lady Mary to live cast of your body all your life long and he answers yea sir with the help of God and he is again asked do you promise to God and to our dear lady Mary to observe all your life long the laudable manners and customs of our order both those which are already in use and those which the master and knights may add and he answers yea sir with the help of God and he is of a chapter which has and he answers yea sir with the help of God and then he is asked do you finally promise to God and to our dear lady Mary never to be present when a Christian is unjustly and unlawfully despoiled of his heritage and that you will never by counsel or by act take part therein and he answers yea sir with the help of God and then in the name then of God and our dear lady Mary and in the name of Saint Peter of Rome and of our father the Pope and in the name of all the brethren of the temple we receive to all the good works of the order which have been performed from the beginnings and shall be performed to the end you your father your mother and all of your family whom you will let have share therein in like manner do you receive us to all the good work which you have performed and shall perform we assure you of bread and water and the poor clothing of the order and labor and toil enow unquote then the candidate was admitted don't go away folks I'll be right back after this very short pause and now yes so The End The End The End The End With a joyous celebration the candidate was admitted. The white mantle with its red cross was placed by the master over the neck of the candidate and clasped firmly by him. The chaplain recited the 132nd Psalm and the prayer of the Holy Ghost and each brother repeated a paternoster. Then the master and the chaplain kissed the new entrant on the mouth. As he sat down before the master, the latter delivered him a sermon on his duties. Knights were equipped more lightly than other crusaders and were issued with shields, sword, lance, and mace. They were allocated three horses each, not one with two knights riding, but three horses each, plus an esquire who was either a serving brother or a layman. Perhaps a youth from a noble family anxious to become a knight in his own turn. Retired knights were looked after by the order, became counselors at meetings, and were eventually buried in coffins in their Templar habit with the legs crossed. Many tempered gravestones show the knight with his feet upon a dog, but most show the crossed thigh bones and the skull known as the skull and bones. The same skull and bones as the Russell Trust, the Brotherhood of Death at Yale, and the same skull and bones displayed upon the flag of the pirates. It was Philip the Fair of France, bankrupt and fearful of the growing power of the warriors of the Temple, who laid the conspiracy for the suppression of the order for all time. It has been hinted that Philip had some forewarning that a plot against the throne was afoot. That the Templars, frustrated in their attempts to win back the Holy Land, were about to turn upon Pope and King alike and try to overcome all Christendom. And believe it or not, that's closer to the truth than anything that you have ever heard about the Templars. In 1305, Pope Clement had been crowned through the assistance of the French King and was actually under the control of the French King. And Philip was ready to bring all the power of church and state against the knights of the Temple. There had been continued rivalry between the Templars and the Hospitallers on the surface. Underneath, they were one and the same. And Clement, six months after his enthronement, wrote asking them to visit him for a conference, ostensibly for the purpose of making plans for aiding the kings of Armenia and Cyprus. The Pope was, however, hoping that he could effect a reconciliation between the two orders, which would in turn strengthen his own position as their only ultimate head. William de Villaret, master of the hospital, was fully engaged in an attack upon the Saracens of Rhodes when the invitation arrived and could not obey it. But Jacques de Villaret, grandmaster of the temple, decided to accept. He handed over the defense of Limassol in Cyprus to the order's marshal, collected 60 knights, packed 150,000 gold florins plus much other treasure, and set sail for France. At Paris, de Villaret was received with honors by the king who was plotting his downfall. In Poitiers, he met Clement and discussed the possibilities of a fresh crusade. De Villaret opined that only a complete alliance of all Christendom could be of any avail against the Muslims, and that the amalgamation of the two orders was not a good idea. The grandmaster returned to Paris, and almost at once rumors began to circulate about certain serious charges to be preferred against the order. Troubled at this campaign, the master, together with Rimbaud de Caron, preceptor of Alt-Rumier, where Geoffrey de Gonville, preceptor of Aquitaine, and Hugh de Perrado, preceptor of France, returned to Poitiers to justify the order before the Pope. An audience took place about April of 1307, in which the Pope mentioned the charges which had been made. The commission understood that their answer satisfied Clement, and returned to the capital in good heart. But this, dear listeners, was only the beginning. The method by which the charges were originally said to have been made, was through a former Templar who had been expelled from the order for heresy and other offenses. The squinned Deflexion found himself in prison, together with another man, a Florentine, named Nofodie. And they thought, or were told, that they could obtain their release and a pardon for the crime of which they were currently accused, if only they would testify against the order. One account has it that Deflexion called for the governor of the prisoner, saying that he had a disclosure to make which he could tell the king personally, and which would be more to him than the conquest of an entire kingdom. Another chronicle has it that both men were degraded Templars, and had been actively engaged in the revolt against the king, during which Philip had been forced to take refuge with the Templars. It is further stated that Cardinal Cantalupo, the chamberlain to the Pope, who had been in association with the Templars since he was eleven years old, had confessed some of their doings to his master. Ten main charges were made by Deflexion against the order. One, each Templar, on his admission, swore never to quit the order, and to further its interest by right or wrong. Two, the heads of the order are in secret alliance with the Saracens, and they have more of Mohammedan infidelity than Christian faith. And proof of the latter includes that they make every novice spit upon the cross, and trample upon it, and blaspheme the faith of Christ in various ways. Three, the heads of the order are heretical, cruel, and sacrilegious men. Whenever any novice, on discovering the iniquity of the order, tries to leave it, they kill him and bury the body secretly by night. They teach women who are pregnant by them how to procure abortion, and secretly murder such newborn children. Four, they are infected with the errors of the Fraticelli. They despise the Pope and the authority of the Church. They scorn the sacraments, especially those of penance and confession. They pretend to comply with the rights of the Church, simply to avoid detection. Five, the superiors are addicted to the most infamous excesses of debauchery. If anyone expresses his repugnance to this, he is punished by perpetual captivity. Six, the temple houses are the receptacle of every crime and abomination that can be committed. Seven, the order works to put the Holy Land into the hands of the Saracens, and favors them more than the Christians. Eight, the master is installed in secret, and few of the younger brethren are present at this ceremony. It is strongly suspected that on this occasion he repudiates the Christian faith, or does something contrary to right. Nine, many statues of the order are unlawful, profane, and contrary to Christianity. In fact, some of them are stone penises. The members are therefore forbidden under pain of perpetual confinement to reveal them to anyone. Ten, no vice or crime committed for the honor or benefit of the order is held to be a sin. Now these charges were later augmented by others which were collected through testimony from other enemies of the order, and included such assertions as the use of the phrase Ya'ala, which means O Allah, and the adoration of an idol called the head of Baphomet. In fact, the head of Baphomet was not an idol that they worshipped, but represented the receptacle of the intelligence, or the seat of intelligence, the brain. The light, Lucifer, the gift of intellect, primordial knowing, and that is what really the object of veneration was. Philip and his advisors prepared in great secrecy for the dissent upon this powerful organization, the Knights Templar, and on the 12th of September, 1307, sealed letters were sent to all the governors and royal officers throughout France, instructing them to arm themselves on the 12th of the next month and open the sealed orders, and to act upon them forthwith by the morning of Friday, October the 13th. And on that date, almost every Templar in France was in the hands of the king's men. And thus was born the legend that Friday the 13th is an unlucky day. And notice that it was October, Friday the 13th, the very first October surprise. Hardly one seems to have had any warning, but they did, because before the king acted, the Templars had moved their wealth, their treasure, their holdings, out of the country of France. On the day before his arrest, the Grand Master had actually been chosen by the king to be a pallbearer at a state funeral. The secret orders had it that all Templars were to be seized, tortured, and interrogated. Confessions were to be obtained from them. Pardon might be promised only if they confessed and all their goods were to be expropriated. But the only thing that they really got were the actual real estate property held by the Templars in France and nowhere else. None of the gold, none of their wealth, none of their jewels, none of their treasures, none of the relics that they had recovered from the Holy Land were ever found. The king himself took possession of the temple at Paris as soon as the Grand Master and his knights were arrested. The next day, the University of Paris assembled, together with canons and other functionaries and ministers, and the chancellor declared that the knights had been proceeded against for heresy. Two days later, the university met in the temple, and some heads of the order, including the Grand Master, were interrogated. They are said to have confessed to forty years' guilt, whatever that means. Now, whether Dinalé and others confessed on that occasion or not, the king was emboldened to publish an accusation in which he called the knights polluters of the air and devouring wolves. A public meeting was called in the royal gardens and addressed by monks and representatives on this subject. Edward II was the son-in-law of the French Philippe, and to him was sent a priest who invited the English monarch to act at once against the order in Britain. Well, Edward almost at once wrote to say that the charges seemed to him to be incredible. But Pope Clement wrote on November the 22nd to London, assuring Edward that the master of the temple had confessed of his own free will, that knights on their admission to the order denied Christ, others had admitted idolatry and other crimes, he therefore called upon the king of England to arrest all templars within his domains and to place their lands and goods in custody until their guilt or innocence should be ascertained. He condemned them to torture by the Dominican monks under the Inquisition until they confessed their guilt or were dead. Now notice the date, folks. November the 22nd in the year 1307. That's a significant date in our history and has direct bearing, as you will see, many hours down the line. Or, you can see right now, if you attend my lecture in San Diego on March the 15th at 8 p.m. at the, let me see here, where is it at? At the Lafayette Hotel, 2223 El Cajon Boulevard, San Diego, Monday, March 15th, 8 p.m. Or, you can call Stan and find out how to order our tape The Sacrifice King or my Atlanta lecture, which is over seven hours long, including all of the Kennedy material. Ha, ha, ha. I bet you knew I was talking about Kennedy's assassination, didn't you? Well, this has direct bearing, as you shall see, eventually. Eventually, you shall know what it all means. You'll be able to put it all together. Before the King of England received this missive, he seems to have been sorely troubled by the allegations. He wrote on November the 26th to the seneschal of Agin asking about the charges. On the 4th of December, he wrote to the kings of Portugal, Castile, Aragon, and Sicily asking, quote, what they had heard and adding that he had given no credit to it, unquote. He wrote to the Pope himself on December the 10th, expressing disbelief of what the French king said and begging his holiness to institute an inquiry. Well, folks, by December the 15th, when the papal bull arrived, Edward felt he must act upon it without question. On December the 26th, he wrote to the Pope that his orders would be obeyed, but in the interim, Edward had sent word to Wales, Scotland, and Ireland that the Templars were all to be seized, as in England, but they were to be treated with kindness. On October the 19th, less than a week after they had been arrested in France, 140 prisoners were being tortured by the Dominican Embert in the Paris Temple. Promises and the RAC produced many confessions. Thirty-six of the examinees died during these proceedings. Throughout France, the RACs worked overtime and the confessions poured forth. Many good men were crippled for the rest of their life. Many of these were contradictory and confused, and perhaps there is little wonder of that. How many of you could resist even for five minutes the tortures of the medieval Inquisition? The Pope now seemed a little uneasy at the arbitrary methods which were being employed. Philippe wrote sharply to him saying that he, the king, was doing God's work and rendered accounts to God alone. He offered to turn over all the goods of the Templars to the service of the Holy Land. Clement, still a weakling, merely stipulated that the inquisitions of each bishop should be confirmed by a provincial council and that the examination of the heads of the order should be reserved to himself. Now we hear a constant succession of confessions and retractions, allegations that the heads of the order confessed completely and spontaneously to the Pope himself. The Pope himself, for some unexplained reason, folks, tried to escape to Bordeaux but was stopped by the king. Now, he was the monarch's captive as well as his creation. Detailed confessions of individual Templars have been kept on record, many of them undoubtedly obtained by extreme racking and other tortures. The Templars who were prepared to defend the order in court were brought to Paris to the number of 546, deprived of their nightly habits and the sacraments of the church. They had no means to acquire defense counsel. Their numbers rose to 900 and now they clamored for the presence of the Grand Master who was held elsewhere. An act of accusation in the name of the Pope was drawn up and 75 Templars drew up the defense. The accusation had it now that, at the time of their reception they were made to deny God, Christ, the Virgin, etc., and in particular to declare that Christ was not the true God but a false prophet who had been crucified for his own crimes and not for the redemption of the world. They spat and trampled upon the cross especially on Good Friday. They worshipped a cat which sometimes appeared in their chapters. Their priests when celebrating Mass did not pronounce the words of consecration. They believed that their Master could absolve them from their sins. They were told at their reception that they might abandon themselves to all kinds of licentiousness. They had idols in all their provinces, some with three faces, some with one. They worshipped these idols in their chapters, believed that they could save them, regarded them as the givers of wealth to the order and of fertility to the earth. They touched them with cords which they afterward tied around their own bodies underneath their robes and that is still practiced today by Freemasons and by the Mormon Church. Those who at the time of their reception would not comply with these practices were put to death or imprisoned. The reply of the Templars denied every charge and stated that they had been subjected to every kind of illegality since their arrest. Fifty-four of the knights who had volunteered to defend the order were committed to the flames having been declared relapsed heretics before the trials had even started. And you'll see this number fifty-four crop up later and even in the modern day. And sometimes it's fifty-four plus one the Grand Master who later was burned at the stake. Four years to the day after the first arrest the Pope led a convocation of one hundred and fourteen bishops to come to a final decision about the Templar order. Well folks the prelates of Spain England Germany Denmark Ireland and Scotland called for the Templars to be allowed to defend themselves. The Pope retorted by closing the session almost at once he would not hear of it. Out of fifteen hundred to two thousand Templars who were in hiding in the vicinity nine knights actually came forward to testify for the order. The Pope doubled his guard and sent a message to the king to do the same. As there was still danger from the hidden knights they were not heard. Only one Italian prelate and three French ones voted to prevent the order from putting in its defense. Now Philippe deciding that something should be done to hasten affairs set off for Venice in the conference his arrival had an electric effect. On his sole authority the Pope almost immediately abolished the order in a secret consistory. And this was on March the 22nd in the year 1313. And 1313 plays a significant number later on as that was a famous address in New Orleans as some of you may remember. On May the 2nd when the bull was published the order ceased officially to exist. The Grand Master assumed but not proved to be guilty was sentenced to perpetual imprisonment. Most of the other knights were released and many of these passed their remaining days in poverty. De Molay and one of his chiefs Guy of Alvigny pronounced or proclaimed their innocence on the public stage to which they had been taken to have sentence announced. The king upon hearing them recant their confession immediately had them committed to the flames. And some say that while he was being burned at the stake that De Molay cursed both the Pope and the king of France stating that within a certain short period of time he would meet them he would meet them in another life in front of God who would judge them for their crimes. And believe it or not folks well within the period of time which was not very long both the Pope and the king of France were dead and I'm sure joined Jacques De Molay in front of God for their final judgment. We are in no way finished with the story of the Knights Templar but until tomorrow night good night and God bless each and every one of you. back view on throughoutoto and him H had in a house and there was he was oyn in ese lad lah from let oneっぱ v in jede two Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.