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HREF="http://www.skullandcrossbones.org/articles/jolly-roger.htm">History of
the JollyRoger</A>
-----
One legend has it that the Jolly Roger obtained its appellation from the
French name for the red flag, the "Jolie Rouge." And so it may be, for the
flag was first used by a French order of militant monks known as the "Poor
Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon" - commonly known as the Knights
Templar.
The Templars, were pious men. They gave up all their worldly possessions when
they entered the Order, only carrying money on special occasions when they
traveled alone, turning over whatever money that remained upon reaching their
destination. They were ferocious warriors; pitching themselves into the midst
of their enemies, astride charging warhorses, against incredible odds.
Contemporaries had this to say of Templars:
The Templars are most excellent soldiers. They wear white mantles with a red
cross, and when they go to war a standard of two colors called balzaus is
borne before them. They go in silence. Their first attack is the most
terrible. In going, they are the first. In returning, the last.
They await the orders of their Master. When they think fit to make war and
the trumpet has sounded, they sing in chorus the Psalm of David, "Not unto
us, O Lord" kneeling on the blood and necks of the enemy, unless they have
forced the troops of the enemy to retire altogether, or utterly broken them
to pieces. Should any of them for any reason turn his back to the enemy, or
come forth alive [from a defeat], or bear arms against the Christians, he is
severely punished; the white mantle with the red cross, which is the sign of
his knighthood, is taken away with ignominy, he is cast from the society of
brethren, and eats his food on the floor without a napkin for the space of
one year. If the dogs molest him, he does not dare to drive them away. But at
the end of the year, if the Master and brethren think his penance to have
been sufficient, they restore him the belt of his former knighthood. These
Templars live under a strict religious rule, obeying humbly, having no
private property, eating sparingly, dressing meanly, and dwelling in tents.1
"The warriors are gentler than lambs and fiercer than lions, wedding the
mildness of the monk with the valor of the knight, so that it is difficult to
decide which to call them: men to adorn the Temple of Solomon with weapons
instead of gems, with shields instead of crowns of gold, with saddles and
bridles instead of candelabra: eager for victory -- not fame; for battle not
for pomp; who abhor wasteful speech, unnecessary action, unmeasured laughter,
gossip and chatter, as they despise all vain things: who, in spite of their
being many, live in one house according to one rule, with one soul and one
heart." -- St. Bernard of Clairvaux
"in turn lions of war and lambs at the hearth; rough knights on the
battlefield, pious monks in the chapel; formidable to the enemies of Christ,
gentleness itself towards His friends." -
Jacques de Vitry
Being men of principle; their rules of conduct were strict. They were willing
to die for their beliefs, and so were feared on the battlefield and respected
in life. Such was their reputation, that in battle, there were instances
where the enemy would turn and run at the very sight of Templars entering the
field. Their Rule of Order stated that breaking rank was worthy of losing
ones habit. They neither asked nor gave quarter; the were expected to fight
until death stayed their sword arm. Retreat from an enemy would not be
countenanced unless the odds were greater than three to one against them and
they were forbidden to ransom themselves if captured. They fought like men
possessed, either prevailing in their cause, or suffering death under the
banner of Gol'gotha - the place of the skull - where their Christ died.
Templars were not to succumb to the temptation of thinking that they killed
in a spirit of hate and fury, nor that they seized booty in a spirit of
greed. For the Templars did not hate men, but men's wrongdoing.
They were dedicated to the protection of travelers and pilgrims of all
religions, though they themselves were Christians, in fact many Templars were
of Palestinian birth, spoke perfect Arabic, and were familiar with every
religious sect, cult, and magical doctrine, including that of the Islamic
Assassins. The Grand Master Philip of Nablus (1167 A.D.) was a Syrian.2 They
were great statesmen, politically adept economic traders, and they were
allied with the great sailor-fraternity that had created a worldwide trading
empire in Phoenician times. They became immensely powerful - had the largest
fleet and the most successful banking system in Europe. But they could not
sustain their grip on the Holy Land. Their losses3 were too great, and they
were eventually driven off the Levant by Saladin, their Moslem adversary, in
1291. They continued to fight for their cause in the only manner they could -
on the high seas.
The best known Templar pirate ship was the Falcon, "the greatest that had
been built at that time."4 She was in the harbor when the fortress of Acre
fell "and rescued many 'ladies and damsels and great treasure and many
important people'4 by evacuating them to 'Atlit."
After the orderly navel evacuation of 'Atlit, the Templars retreated to their
Mediterranean island bases on Cypres, Rhodes and Sicily. Until their
dissolution, they, together with the Order of St. John, continued as the
foremost maritime powers in the Mediterranean, continuing to effectively wage
war on Moslem shipping.
The Templars were still very powerful but in the eyes of European monarchs
and the Church, the Templars raison d'tre had ceased with the loss of the
Holy Lands. Jealousy and covetousness reigned. Phillip IV, who was deeply in
dept to the Order, had seen their treasures stored in Paris, and designed to
make it his own.
On Friday morning October 13th 1307 - and the reason for which Friday the
13th has become known as an unlucky day - King Phillip IV together with
Avignonese Pope Clement V, ruthlessly suppressed the Order throughout Europe,
with false accusations, arrests, torture and executions. (Timeline) Though
they were offered communted sentences and comfortable lives if they would
renounce their Order and plead guilty to the charges, for some mysterious
reason, they preferred to remain true to their principles and received their
punishment.
A large number of Templars escaped that day to an uncertain future, and found
refuge abroad. On the eve of the arrests, the entire Templar fleet
mysteriously vanished from the port of La Rochelle carrying with it a vast
fortune, the fate of which remains a mystery down to this day.
Just as a terrorist to one is a freedom fighter to another, so it was with
the Templars and their fleet. Wanted by the Pope and all the crowns of
Europe, they came to be viewed, by the "comfortable folks" on the mainland,
as pirates.
After being driven out of the Holy Land as well as Europe, but still
formidable at sea, the refugee Templars found sanctuary in Scotland, where
Templar graves bear witness to them having lived and died there in the
fourteenth century. King Robert the Bruce had no interest in persecuting the
Order, in spite of a papal bull ordering him to do precisely that. To the
contrary, he took advantage of their fugitive status, offering them asylum in
return for their help in his war for independence against King Edward II of
England. Templars have been suggested as the source of mounted soldiers who
assisted Robert the Bruce's Scots Guard at the battle of Bannockburn, as the
Scots did not have a mounted force.
As the Scots Guard continued through the years, two of the prominent families
involved in its history were the Sinclairs and the Stuarts. Both families
trace their lineage back to members of the Knights Templar, as well as to
prominent figures of the New Testament. Hugues de Payns the first Grand
Master of the Templars was married to a Sinclair.
There is also evidence that the Templar fleet traveled to North America in
1398 (almost 100 years before Columbus) with the Sinclairs, and settled there
at least temporarily. Connections are made between the tower ruins along the
eastern coast of the United States, objects discovered in the Oak Island
"Money Pit", and the Templar Order.
The Sinclairs (or Saint-Clairs) castle near Edinburgh, was situated next to
Rosslyn chapel, which was constructed by the Sinclairs according to the
floorplan of Solomon's original temple. Engraved in the masonry around the
chapel are maize and aloe plants, which grew only in North America.
Throughout Scotland, as well as within Rosslyn Chapel, there are carvings and
tombstones dating back to the 15th, 16th, and 17th century using combinations
of Templar imagery (skull and crossbones, Templar swords, Templar crosses)
and Masonic symbols (compass and square).
The Stuart royal house became one of Freemasonry's biggest supporters during
their reign of Scotland and England.
Some also suggest that the rituals used in modern Freemasonry have their
origins in the ancient texts discovered by the Templars in the ruins of
Solomon's Temple while excavating to build their stables. Recent
archaeological digs in the area have supported this theory by finding
serveral Templar artifacts buried beneath the temple. In the 1950's, a scroll
made entirely of copper was discovered in the caves near Qumran. When
translated with the other "Dead Sea Scrolls", this "Copper Scroll", as it has
become known, was identified as a treasure map listing various precious
metals, religious artifacts, and writings supposedly buried beneath the
temple in Jerusalem.
By the 17th and 18th centuries, the skull and crossbones was a symbol with a
powerful reputation but identified with no official organization. The
Templars had long since gone underground and evolved into other
organizations. The symbol was usurped and came to be associated with the
pirates of which we are more familiar. They changed the flag to suit their
needs replacing the crossbones with swords, adding hourglasses or other
symbols.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Anonymous Pilgrim V.2, tr. A. Stewart, Anonymous Pilgrims, I-VII (11th
and 12th centuries), Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society 6, London, 1894 p 29-30.
2. A History of Secret Societies, Arkon Daraul, 1962, Citadel Press, NY
3. At Harim in 1164 they had sixty dead from a contingent of sixty-seven; in
the space of a little over two months in 1187 they lost 290 knights at the
Springs of Cresson and at Hattin; in 1237, while besieging Darbsak, the
Templars of Baghras were heavily defeated by Aleppan troops, leaving them
with only twenty survivors from a force of 120 knights; at La Forbie, in
October 1244, they emerged with only thirty-three knights from the 300 they
had contributed to the army; less than six years later, at Mansurah, the
Grand Master told Joinville that 280 of his knights had been killed. It is
natural to see such losses in human terms, but at the same time it should not
be forgotten that each of these knights represented a large financial
investment. In 1267 the cost of maintaining a knight for the defence of Acre
for a year was ninety livres tournois. As a good estimate of the average
annual income of the French monarcy at the time of Louis IX's first crusade
is approximately 250,000 livres tournois, this means that even if each knight
killed at La Forbie represents only a year's investment of Templar resources,
the total loss was still little short of a ninth of the annual Capetian
income. - Barber, Malcolm, "The New Knighthood", p232
4. Ramon Muntaner, Cronica Catalana, p. 368-9, also the Chronicle of
Muntaner tr Goodenough p466-9.
5. Principle - guiding sense of the requirements and obligations of right
conduct: a man of principle.
Paraphrasing the crusade historian William of Tyre, "Accepting that 'mistakes
tend to creep into lengthy communications' [Prov 10:19], we invite our reader
to correct errors in the spirit of kindness." - CC LXIII, p 101.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
Aloha, He'Ping,
Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Em Hotep, Peace Be,
All My Relations.
Omnia Bona Bonis,
Adieu, Adios, Aloha.
Amen.
Roads End
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