> Most recently, Dan Brown's novel "The Da Vinci Code" depicted > Jesus as being married to Mary Magdalene. > It's interesting that Bernard of Clairvaux, the founder of the Templers Rule, was devoted to the Magdalene and to the Black Madonna. Bernard commended the knights to the 'Obedience of Bethany', the castle of Mary and Martha. Bernard is also noted as the founder of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Notre Dame (Our Lady) -, Magdalene. The Templers oath was to 'God and Our Lady', not to the Virgin, but to the Magdalene. The Templers were preoccupied with the idea of the feminine mystery!
According to Wasserman, twelfth-century enemies of the Cathars believed their rites included ritually kissing the anus of a cat, in which form Lucifer was said to appear. Toward the end of the twelfth-century, the Cathars were also slandered by the term bougre, from "Bulgaria," known to be the source of their heresy. Later the word came to mean "sodomite" and is the root of the British slang bugger and buggery." Work cited: "The Templars and the Assassins" by James Wasserman Inner Traditions, 2001 p. 193
