More stories from days gone past.... The Templars on the Camino

Dad/Len/Grampa passed through Ponferrada on May 4th.

"A few days ago we were in the small city of Ponferrada (Iron Bridge) and there was a great templar castle there. There has been evidence of a templar presence along much of the Camino as they set up hospices, churches and defensive positions along much of the Camino in its early days.

I don’t recall a lot about the origin of the Templars. I think they were established early during Christian rule in the Holy land (what is now Israel, Palestine and Lebanon, and holy to Christians, Jews and Muslims).They were an order of either military monks or religious knights, take your pick but they had both a religious and a military role.

Those of you familiar with Dan Brown’s book The Da Vinci code will recall that the central premise of the book was that a small core of the Templars had survived into modern times and had as their purpose to guard a sacred family, the descendents of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene (an hypothesis as logical to me as the official one).

In any event the Templars became very a very rich and powerful organization. They set up facilities along the major pilgrimage routes to both Jerusalem and later when Jerusalem fell into Muslim hands, to Santiago. They were some of the world’s original bankers. In those days if a pilgrim carried much cash, he would very likely be relieved of it by robbers. A pilgrim could deposit money with the Templars and they would provide him with a document to that effect and if the pilgrim used their facilities, they would deduct the appropriate sum and send him on his way to the next place.

Eventually they became in effect a state within a state, or rather a state within many states, and thereby a threat to both the established civil and religious order. They were also Gnostics and had slightly different religious beliefs than those promulgated by the Catholic Church. The King of France of the time owed the Templars a great deal of money and did not really want to pay it back. So he connived with the Pope of the day (Gregory the something or other) and created a series of charges against the Templars.

The King of France issued a set of secret orders that on a certain day, the Templar leaders were to be arrested and their lands and property were to be seized. That day was the 13 day of October in the year 1307. And so it was done. On the 13 of October all over France the Templar leaders including their Grand master, One Jacques de Molay were arrested and subject to all of the horrific punishments that were the norm of the middle ages in order to extract confessions. Many members of the Order were simply put to death, and their lands and assets were seized.

It happens that in the year 1307 the 13 day of October was a Friday. Our idea that Friday the 13 is unlucky does not come from pagan lore, or some religious event. Friday the 13 was the day that the Templar Order was destroyed.

Len”