Friday is coming... Friday the 13th... For some it's a very unlucky day... Especially in October... Do you know why?
"On October 13, 1307, a day so infamous that Friday the 13th would become a synonym for ill fortune, officers of King Philip IV of France carried out mass arrests in a well-coordinated dawn raid that left several thousand Templars — knights, sergeants, priests, and serving brethren — in chains, charged with heresy, blasphemy, various obscenities, and homosexual practices. None of these charges was ever proven, even in France — and the Order was found innocent elsewhere — but in the seven years following the arrests, hundreds of Templars suffered excruciating tortures intended to force 'confessions,' and more than a hundred died under torture or were executed by burning at the stake."
About.com has a lot of different ideas on the unlucky day... and I figured since we put a lot of "hooey"... err... I mean faith promoting "Hooey" I thought I'd put in some DaVinci Code Hooey to boot...
--Ray
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I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
It may be hooey but the event did happen. The pope along with the King of France were basically jealous of the Templars and the wealth and power they amassed. They were the most powerful order on the planet due to their shrewed international banking system and everyone owed them money. The leader of the Templars was Jaques DeMolay and he burned alive. Most of the templars were tortured and forced to confess to horrible acts of paganism. One poor templar actually had his lower legs slowly burned until he confessed. He was forced to drag himself into his court hearing while carrying the charred remains of his leg bones in a box. Templar properties and funds were confiscated by the church and European monarchs were ordered by the pope to do the same throughout Europe.
Interestingly though, the King of England was a bit slow on the trigger and most of them got away in England and melted into the population. It is believed by some scholars that many of these Templars later assisted Robert the Bruce in gaining Scotland's independence from England.
Even prior to DaVinici Code, there were some that believed that the Templars were the founders of Freemasonry although that is mostly speculation and that they were able to maintain their order through Freemasonry up until today. This is how they made the leap that Freemasons have some great treasure they are hiding like in the movie National Treasure staring Nicholas Cage.
At any rate, even before Dan Brown printed his DaVinci rag the belief that Friday the 13th's negative connotation stemmed from the Templar massacre existed.
The Templars themselves were pure financial geniouses. They originally were set up to protect the holy land and those pilgrims headed there. They made it possible for a nobleman to deposit funds in one of their commanderies in Europe and then withdraw funds at a commandery in the Holy Land or anywhere else the Templars had a commandery. They charged a fee for this of course. For those who travelled it was a secure means in a perilous time to be able to travel and still have access to large sums of money. Basically the first instance of international banking. The Templars had all this money on hand so they began loaning money to various nobleman and collecting interest. It was an idea many, many years ahead of it's time.
Back back, you evil Quantoid! {holds up employee benefits manual as shield while wielding the sword of employee training programs}
Of course, it can't be said that the pope and King of France were "people" persons, as they obviously were not known for their qualitative skills either...
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It seems to me the only thing you've learned is that Caesar is a "salad dressing dude."
Back back, you evil Quantoid! {holds up employee benefits manual as shield while wielding the sword of employee training programs}
Of course, it can't be said that the pope and King of France were "people" persons, as they obviously were not known for their qualitative skills either...
Jason steps in and attacks with the employee 401K manual and tosses in the IRS Quarterly Payroll tax return form and the quarterly sales tax return manual! Victorious he raises the shattered remains of the 5 defined benefit pension plan manuals that were scrapped in days of yore!
As far as people persons, I think Hugo Chavez would have gotten along with the pope and king of France.
Seriously, though. It is an interesting story with much more involved than my little post. It almost reads like a Dark Ages version of hit fox series 24. If you are interested there are several good Templar books out there. I would recommend ones that were written before DaVinnci because the ones after that seem too eager to deal with the sensational. One I read a few years back that was pretty good was John J. Robinson's Born in Blood. He has corrected some of his factual errors in later editions but the Templar history is pretty well written but it is written to support of thesis which I disagree with from my own research. Good stuff though.
