Welcome to Gaia! ::

I found the templars oath online
and well...for those of you who know the truth of the crusades like which ones where about what.....and the events that transpired during them you will know that the true crusades were not wrong....that they saved all of Christianity....yes...in that later areas bad things happened.....very very VERY bad things happened.....and even things like the Swedish crusades....those where very very bad....
but a true templar was a holy warrior....was more than any man alive today could ever hope to attain.....to sacrifice EVERYTHING giving it all to God.....to leave everything behind so that you have nothing...and even then....give the only thing you do have left to God.....your life.
it was a holy just act and I really cant think of anything that would rival it.



In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
I pledge myself, from now and forever, to the holy Militia of the Order of the Temple. I declare to take freely and solemnly oath of obedience, poverty and chastity, as well as fraternity, hospitality and preliation.
With this oath I state my strong and irrevocable intent
To pledge my sword, my forces, my life and everything that I own to the cause, defence, honour and further knowledge of the Christian religion, of the Order of the Temple and of my companions in arms; to the rescue of the Temple of the Holy Sepulchre of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Land of Palestine and the East and of the domains of our forefathers.
To submit to the Rule of our Holy Father Bernard, to the Transmission Chart, the Rules, Law and Decrees and all other statements issued in conformity to the Statutes of the Order; not to invest any knight or divulgate title, grade, ritual or other custom of the Order unless authorized by the Statutes; to obey unconditionally and always, within the Establishments of the Order and without, and in all walks of life, the Grand Master and the high Officers of the Order, collectively and singularly.
To love my brothers the Knight and my Sisters the Dames and help them, their children and their widows with my sword, my advice, means and wealth, my credit and everything in my power, and will favour them, with no exception, over those who are not members of the Order.
To defend the pious pilgrims, to aid and comfort those who are persecuted for the Cause of the Cross, the sick and the poor.
To fight the infidels and the non-believers with my example, virtue, charity and convincing arguments; and to fight with the sword the infidels and non-believers who attack the Cross with their own sword.
To abhor all immodesty, and not to indulge in illegitimate pleasures of the flesh and then only with my legitimate spouse.
Finally, barring rules dictated by Religion and the Order, to conform to the Laws and Customs of the countries in which I may reside, to fulfill my duties of citizen, and to be loyal knight in those countries which entertain relations with the Order.
This oath I pronounce loudly before the Knights present at this Convent. I sign it and confirm it by my blood. Again, I write it and sign its registration in the documents relating to this Convent and witnessed by the Knights.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. Amen



mind you....the tempars served the church...and they where catholic....lol I am not...though I can still say......it was a glory I could only dream of.....an act of self sacrifice....and honor that is unparalleled
no man desires war......but it is an honor to serve as a protector

I greatly encourage you to read up on the history of the crusades
you will find the good and the bad.....but know the intentions of true templars and true men and women of God... ^_^
the world could use more people like that right now

lol we know a LOT more than just that man ^_^
the majority of what people "KNOW" about the crusades and the knights templar is completely false
I dont know who Dan brown is....but just googling him....he is either just trying to make a pathetic work of fiction or he is just a plain heretic
bleh....either way...I dont like him >_<

the templars have a very beautiful unique history.....but...in the end....they where disbanded do to something.....I am not certain what it was...but from the looks of it...either things got too political or there was tainted actions from within that they all were blamed for

I highly recommend looking up the history of the crusades
not from a christian or non christian viewpoint but by a neutral point of view....look at the actual history....not any sort of propaganda

yeah...never said they ended wonderfully
but the idea....the fact that a man would leave EVERYTHING behind to serve God....in a selfless act that he would likely die from
its a noble deed ^_^

In the end the remaining Templars were either excommunicated or burned at the stake for heresy.

And I was raised Catholic and went to a Catholic school up until University, so I know all about the Crusades. wink

Actually the only reason the Templar Order was disbanded by the Church was due to ever increasing pressure from King Philip IV of France, who was deeply in debt to the Knights.

On October 16, 1311 the General Council of Vienne held in Dauphiné, voted for the maintenance of the Order finding no evidence that the Order itself held heretical doctrines and it's members not guilty of heresy. However on March 22, 1312, Pope Clement V issued an edict officially dissolving the Order...saying "for the common good, the hatred of the Order by Philip IV, the scandal brought about by their trial, and the likely dilapidation of the Order that would result from the trial, the Order was to be suppressed by the pope’s authority over it." the order also explicitly stated that dissolution was enacted, "with a sad heart, not by definitive sentence, but by apostolic provision."

Now don't get me wrong, several Templars were put to death and burned at the stake for heresy. This was mostly done by King Philip IV of France then later by the English Crown with use of forced confessions given though torture. In the end, only three in total were accused of heresy directly by the papal commission and again was due to increasing pressure and threats to the church by the royal families....they were burned at the stake in 1314, again by the french.

No member of the Order Templar were ever excommunicated by the church and by the time King Philip IV of France ordered the arrest of the Templars in France, tens of thousands of Templars were already transferred into different Orders such as the Knights Hospitaller and the Order of Montesa...many of them actually remained "Templars" under the new Order of Christ in Portugal. France managed to round up a few hundred of the nearly 3,000 known Templars in the country and only managed to burn or kill a few dozen of those collected.

The truth of it is before all of this became what it did there were rumors of transgressions among the Templars of the castle of Chinon in the diocese of Tours so Pope Clement V called for investigation then upon finding nothing to fault, absolved the leaders of the Order of the charges brought against them by the Medieval Inquisition. A letter addressed to Philip IV of France stated that absolution had been granted to all those Templars who had confessed to heresy and that he (the Pope) "restored them to the Sacraments and to the unity of the Church."

To really be honest about it the Catholic Church didn't convict Joan of Arc of heresy either. The legal proceedings against her began January 9th 1431 at Rouen, at that time the seat of the English occupation government. Bishop Cauchon lacked jurisdiction over the case and Nicolas Bailly, the Clerical notary commissioned to collect testimony against Joan, could find no adverse evidence... thus the court lacked grounds to initiate a trial to begin with. The inquisitor, Jean LeMaitre served only under compulsion due to several death threats made by the English.

The technical reason for her execution had been a biblical clothing law since Heresy itself was only a capital crime for a repeat offense. Pope Callixtus III authorized proceedings, unfortunately long after the fact, to investigate the English trial. That trial reversed the conviction in part because the condemnation proceeding had failed to consider the doctrinal exceptions to that stricture. On July 7th 1456 the appellate court declared her innocent.

Had Joan's appeals to the Council of Basel and the Pope been granted by the English government the proceedings against her would have been stopped.

Again we see a prime example of the church ( as a whole ) being used ( and blamed ) as a scapegoat for governmental trial and executions.