En 1096 d.C., una sangrienta lucha por el control del lugar más sagrado del mundo condujo a 200 años de guerra santa. Este conflicto, conocido hoy como las Cruzadas, dio lugar al surgimiento de una legendaria orden militar que juró proteger a los fieles: los Caballeros Templarios. Los templarios se volvieron muy ricos y poderosos en toda Europa, pero en el año 1300, el rey de Francia atacó a la orden, acusándola de corrupción, blasfemia y herejía. Muchos templarios fueron encarcelados, torturados y ejecutados, pero su poderoso y misterioso legado perdura hasta nuestros días. Ilustrado con vívidas y emocionantes recreaciones teatrales, este documental UHD 4K explora la historia de los templarios en sus espectaculares lugares sagrados.
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00:00On Friday, October 13, 1307, a nightmare in life began for the famous and glorious order of the Temple.
00:10On that Black Friday, hundreds of knights were summoned to Paris.
00:15620 were arrested without prior notice and sent to prison.
00:19The charges of those who were accused were added to the most abject of the crimes, the heresy.
00:26But the Templar Knights were heroic Christian warriors, the special forces of the medieval crusades.
00:35Why did they succumb to such fierce knights?
00:39Finally, a secret document, hidden for 700 years, reveals the truth about the resentment, politics and the fire of power that destroyed that legendary religious and military order.
00:56Jerusalem, the city of origin of Christianity and the most important of the Middle Ages.
01:07If one takes a map of Jerusalem, in the time of the Crusades, it will be represented as the axis of the world, the center of the world.
01:17Jerusalem suffered attacks and was occupied and destroyed over and over again over the years, although it also experienced periods of relative calm and religious tolerance.
01:28But that tolerance came down in the 11th century, after the Seljuk Turks occupied the Holy Land, a sacred place for Christians and Jews.
01:37The tensions between the Muslim Turks and the Christian pilgrims took on a violent and destructive charade that led to massacre.
01:46Islam spread in the Middle East, cornering the Byzantine Empire with its advance.
01:53Faced with the threat they posed to Christian pilgrims and the most sacred temple of Jerusalem,
01:58in 1095, Pope Urban II ordered the Christians of Western Europe to march east and reconquer the Holy Land of the Saracens.
02:08One of the bloodiest battles in history had just begun.
02:12There were thousands of people, no soldiers, no warriors, without experience in the war, who had never left the town,
02:19who answered the call of the Pope and set off east.
02:25In four years, the Christian invaders of Western Europe had taken Jerusalem.
02:34From the Crusader armies arose the figure of the Templar Knight, the union of monk and soldier, man of faith,
02:42with the task of protecting the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem and the lives of the pilgrims.
02:49For the first time in history, weapons were entrusted to a holy order that owed loyalty to the Pope.
02:59It was the Templars who introduced the idea of combining monastic life with the title of knight and military activity.
03:07They lived according to the monastic code, and their day included prayer, instruction, and care for the habit.
03:19The Templars were erected as an elite body.
03:23Celebrated for their courage and purity, they were also appreciated for being relentless defenders of faith.
03:35When they became known in the world, they awakened the imagination of the people in different ways.
03:41It was believed to be a good initiative.
03:49As the story of their victories spread to Europe, the Templars became great heroes of Christianity.
03:56Founded by only nine well-intentioned nobles, the order grew rapidly and their reputation was catapulted.
04:04They became a legend surrounded by mystery.
04:09They were surrounded by myths, rumors, and legends.
04:13Apparently, they themselves encouraged it.
04:15At least they did not deny it.
04:17It could be considered that they hid behind that myth for most of their history.
04:26An erudite of the time, Bernardo de Claraval, described them as strong warriors on the one hand,
04:31and monks who fought against vice and demons on the other.
04:36A body of men who should not fear anything.
04:40Men who did not fear death, and who believed that the Lord observed them and would make them martyrs.
04:55And then, less than two centuries after its foundation,
04:59the most famous Christian warriors of the Middle Ages, who had lived and died on behalf of the cross,
05:06were captured and imprisoned.
05:11By heresy.
05:14The imprisonment of the Templars gave a lot to talk about.
05:17There were protests in Germany, where they were extremely loved.
05:21The kings of Spain and Portugal never believed the accusations.
05:26Nobody could believe that the Templars, heroes of Christianity for two centuries,
05:31could be imprisoned for heresy.
05:38After thousands of Templar knights died for their faith for 200 years,
05:45why were they suddenly accused of heresy?
05:57Paris, 1307.
06:01The Templar knights have been condemned by Philip IV the Beautiful, King of France.
06:07After 200 years of crusades for the Christian faith, they are accused of heresy.
06:13Was the accusation true?
06:16Did the Templars hide anything?
06:20The Templars acted with great discretion from the beginning of their activity.
06:25They surrounded them with a halo of mystery, rumors and myths.
06:29The mystery continues to cloud the figure of the Templars,
06:33their secret rites of initiation, the whereabouts of the enormous riches they amassed,
06:38and that were never found.
06:43The order was discreetly founded in Jerusalem in 1119.
06:47About 20 years after the crusades conquered the city,
06:53a French knight founded the order to protect the pilgrims in the Holy Land.
06:58How did they manage to have churches and fortifications throughout Europe,
07:03and a power capable of rivaling that of the European monarchs?
07:10The answer can be found in the fact that the Templars were also known
07:14for being guardians of the holy relics.
07:17Relics that were also marketed.
07:20Relics that were symbols of the Middle Ages,
07:23more appropriate to display than money or jewels.
07:35Those who aroused the most interest in the Middle Ages were those from the Holy Land.
07:40They were highly sought after.
07:42Merchants and nobles disputed them.
07:45They were objects of worship in monasteries and cathedrals throughout Europe.
07:51The Templars were known around the world for guarding relics,
07:57especially those belonging to the history of Jesus Christ.
08:03The seal of a Templar was enough to guarantee the authenticity of a relic.
08:11Part of the mysticism that led to the canonization of Louis IX, King of France,
08:16was the search for two prominent relics.
08:20A fragment of the Veracruz,
08:22belonging, according to belief, to the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified,
08:27and the crown of thorns.
08:30Saint Louis acquired both when the order of the Temple was at its peak.
08:36Saint Louis designed and built that chapel as a huge reliquary.
08:43An immense place where to guard the relics of the history of Jesus Christ,
08:48which he had achieved.
08:50Today, as then,
08:52it is believed that the relics confer the divine power to perform miracles and grant wishes.
08:59The relics of Saint Louis and the magnificent Gothic church
09:02that he built in Paris to consecrate them,
09:04made France a prominent place of pilgrimage.
09:08The relics gave prestige and power.
09:11Jerusalem was the place where most relics of the history of Jesus Christ were found,
09:16and the Templars formed their home in the very center of the Old City.
09:21The Templars were established in the Temple Mount,
09:24the southern part of the esplanade of the mosques,
09:27where the Al-Aqsa Mosque is located,
09:29which became headquarters of the Temple Order.
09:32In this way, they found themselves in the most important area of Jerusalem.
09:38The Temple Mount also housed, apparently, the first Jewish temple of King Solomon,
09:43which guarded the Sancta Sactorum, where the Ark of the Covenant was kept.
09:50More than a thousand years later,
09:52the Templars settled there to give protection to Christian pilgrims.
09:57But the extensive tunnels found under the Mount
10:00gave rise to legends of knights in search of treasures and holy relics.
10:05There is an archaeologist who has a more rational explanation.
10:09It is proven that they dug under the Temple Mount, there is no doubt.
10:14We know that they built warehouses, baths and a new palace,
10:18which required digging in the area.
10:23They may also have dug passages under the Mount.
10:30This is the underground tunnel discovered by Charles Warren in 1867.
10:34At that time it was full of residual water,
10:37and he was drifting on a wooden door.
10:41This tunnel was built by Charles Warren in 1867,
10:44and it is believed to have been used by Charles Warren
10:47when he was in charge of the construction of the Temple Mount.
10:51It is believed to have been used by Charles Warren
10:54when he was in charge of the construction of the Temple Mount.
10:57It is believed to have been used by Charles Warren
11:00when he was in charge of the construction of the Temple Mount.
11:03It is believed to have been used by Charles Warren
11:06when he was in charge of the construction of the Temple Mount.
11:11Fortunately, it ceased to serve as a sewer a long time ago.
11:16And although the legends about the mystical searches of the holy relics persist,
11:20treasures such as the Wall of Lamentations
11:22and parts of the Temple that once gave shelter to Christians
11:25and parts of the Temple that once gave shelter to Templar knights
11:31It is a medieval portal built in Roman times.
11:35From all the entrances of the western part of the Temple Mount,
11:39we can be sure that this was the one used by the Templars.
11:43Jerusalem was razed repeatedly throughout the ages.
11:47The Crusaders only carried out one of the extensive lines
11:50of invasions that besieged the city,
11:52most of them motivated by the search for treasures, including the holy relics.
11:56The Templars had a passion for the relics.
12:00It was practically an obsession.
12:02And those who came to this country were willing to kill not only Jews and Muslims,
12:07but also the very Christians of the region to get those relics.
12:12Among the most famous relics that have been related to the Templars
12:16is the Sudario of Turin,
12:18which according to belief, still today,
12:20was used to wrap the body of Jesus Christ,
12:22and in which his effigy was engraved.
12:26But like many other legends around the Templar knights,
12:29there is no evidence to prove it.
12:31Only the possibility that those knights
12:33carried the Holy Sudario from the Holy Land to France.
12:40They had infrastructure.
12:42Boats that left the Holy Land and returned without stopping.
12:49And remember that the Templars were a religious order,
12:54with the reputation of being trustworthy.
13:01Another legendary relic linked to the Templars
13:04is the Holy Grail, which, according to Christian faith,
13:07was a cup or plate blessed by Jesus at the Last Supper.
13:13The Grail was first mentioned in a romantic story
13:16by the French poet Chrétien de Troyes,
13:18historical capital of the Champagne region.
13:22It is known that the nine knights who founded the order of the Temple
13:25also spent some time there.
13:30The Templars were from the Trojan region,
13:32so Chrétien had to hear the story of the Templars,
13:35or of the Crusaders who returned,
13:37telling rumors about the Grail
13:39after hearing them from the Templars in the East.
13:42The Grail has received numerous descriptions.
13:45In the original story it is a plate.
13:49The French poet Robert de Boron describes the Grail
13:52as the chalice that José de Arimatea
13:54used to collect the blood of Jesus Christ.
14:00Others have suggested that it is a treasure
14:02rather spiritual and not physical.
14:05In Wolfram von Eschenbach's poem,
14:07Perceval searches for a Grail
14:09which is described as a stone.
14:11This stone could represent different things,
14:14such as the spiritual awakening or the grace of God,
14:17but, as always, the Grail seems to deny
14:19that we conceive it with a single form.
14:23Either way, the idea that the Holy Grail is hidden somewhere
14:26is very tempting for popular imagination.
14:30And although there is irrefutable evidence
14:32that the Grail is related to the Templars,
14:34the mysterious knights had more tangible matters at hand.
14:37The Templars were not forced to report what they were doing.
14:40All that was known was that they were fighting in the Middle East.
14:46But they were also very good at making money.
14:51The Order became a great multinational company.
14:54By building castles and churches all over Europe,
14:57they also invented the International Bank and the Cheque.
15:00The travelers deposited money in a temple
15:02and were given a note that was written in English.
15:05This medieval idea of the Cheque
15:07was very successful among the pilgrims
15:09who went to the Holy Land or returned from there.
15:12Although the ecclesiastical law prohibited interest,
15:15the cost of expenses and other charges
15:17allowed the Templars to amass a considerable fortune.
15:21The operations in the East were financed by places like this,
15:25the entrances, which were farms,
15:27all kinds of businesses such as distilleries,
15:30and all kinds of businesses,
15:32all kinds of businesses such as distilleries, vineyards,
15:35and all kinds of businesses such as distilleries, vineyards,
15:37and brick factories.
15:39They had a network of activities with good planning.
15:42They were the first capitalists, as they say.
15:50Merchants and royalty also donated to the Order,
15:53believing that this proof of faith
15:55would assure them a place in heaven.
16:02And the Templars did not pay taxes.
16:05The men of the Pope were powerful and strong.
16:13After the Church,
16:14the Temple was one of the richest institutions in Europe.
16:18Did this fact contribute to its fall?
16:22While the Templars did not pay taxes,
16:25the Pope did not pay taxes.
16:28Did this fact contribute to its fall?
16:31While the banks of the Order were accumulating great profits,
16:35the Knights were losing ground in the Holy Land.
16:43Towards the middle of the 12th century,
16:45the tide had taken the Crusaders.
16:48Towards the year 1187,
16:50Sultan Saladin led a renewed force.
16:53At 112 kilometers north of Jerusalem,
16:56the Battle of the Horns of Hattin was the beginning of the end.
17:02The big mistake of the Crusader army
17:04was to come to face Saladin under his conditions,
17:08and in a difficult situation,
17:10with the summer heat,
17:12traveling east with the sun in the face at dawn,
17:16and on July 4,
17:17they were surrounded by a much stronger army.
17:22It was a quick and decisive defeat.
17:27The Christian army,
17:28which had 20,000 soldiers and 1,000,000 Templar knights,
17:31was destroyed.
17:43Only three months later,
17:45in October 1187,
17:47Jerusalem was taken by Saladin.
17:51The Templar knights were expelled from the Temple Mount.
18:02Four years later,
18:04their fortress was moved to Acre,
18:06on the coast of the Holy Land.
18:10The Templars, who had ships,
18:12carried weapons and troops with them,
18:15as well as other supplies through the port of Acre,
18:19a city that they turned into their urban headquarters.
18:27As the Crusades lost prominence in the East,
18:30the Templar knights resisted,
18:32refused to leave,
18:34and continued to fight from fortifications like Acre.
18:38But the weight of their name also began to weaken.
18:50100 years and 6 encarnated campaigns later,
18:53everything ended.
18:55In 1291,
18:57the Templar knights left the Holy Land.
19:13The Templars retreated to Europe.
19:16Many returned to France.
19:18They were waiting for a counterattack.
19:20Jacques de Molay was appointed Grand Master,
19:23and he promised to fulfill the task.
19:2616 years later,
19:28the warrior, who had already entered for years,
19:30continued to dream of retaking Jerusalem.
19:32But his order now faced another enemy,
19:35Philip IV the Beautiful, King of France.
19:40Philip the Beautiful,
19:42was the grandson of the great patron Louis IX,
19:44the Holy King.
19:46He was a fanatic who believed in Jesus Christ.
19:50Philip IV was an incredibly ambitious king,
19:53and one of the things that most motivated him
19:56was the desire to be the most Christian king in Europe.
19:59Nothing would stop him from that goal.
20:07Philip the Beautiful believed to be,
20:10as a direct descendant of St. Louis,
20:13the Holy King,
20:15the image of Christ on earth.
20:19Not a king, but Jesus Christ.
20:24But the king was in trouble.
20:27Philip had borrowed money from the Templars
20:30to finance the war against England,
20:33and by 1307 he was running out of funds.
20:38His kingdom was on the brink of bankruptcy,
20:41and he needed the money of the Templars.
20:44At the beginning of the 1300s,
20:46there was no reason for the crusades to continue.
20:50By losing relevance in the crusades,
20:52the Templars felt vulnerable.
20:54Their banks were full of money from the crusades,
20:57and the king knew it.
20:58John Martin believed that the king intended to give himself that fortune
21:01when he used the Templars to flee from an outraged crowd.
21:05Philip took refuge in the Temple Castle in June 1306.
21:10He wanted to devalue the currency,
21:12which prompted the masses to rebel
21:14and chase him down the streets of Paris.
21:16He had to take refuge in the temple.
21:18It was then that he saw the treasures that were kept there,
21:21gold, coins, and much more.
21:26Philip decided to suppress the Templars and take their capital,
21:30but he had no power over them.
21:33Only the Pope could govern the order with legitimacy,
21:37but the king needed to destabilize it.
21:46Philip IV spread defamatory and very negative rumors
21:52about the Templars and the order.
21:58He managed with great cunning
22:00that these slanders were leaked into public opinion
22:04as a poison that ended up mining the foundations
22:07on which the order had been founded.
22:15And in 1307, after having ruined the reputation of the order,
22:19the king launched a surprise attack
22:21in which he captured Jacques de Molay and all the Templars of Paris.
22:26Buried at the bottom of the national archives of Paris
22:29is the arrest warrant that was sent all over France
22:32to be used on that ignominious Friday the 13th.
22:40Philip IV attacked the secret initiatives of the Templars
22:43and attributed them a dissolute behavior behind closed doors.
22:49They were accused of financial corruption,
22:53they were accused of financial corruption and sodomy.
22:58They were also accused of idolatry and worship of cats.
23:04And all this was added to the most catastrophic charge, the heresy.
23:12The accusation of heresy was devastating,
23:15since the Temple was founded to defend faith,
23:19and heresy is betrayal of faith.
23:22Those charges could destroy the order of the Templars.
23:30The great master Jacques de Molay was accused
23:33of 104 charges of improper conduct and heresy.
23:39He had served with devotion to the order for 42 years.
23:44It was unlikely that Philip's charges could work.
23:50However, two weeks after the arrest,
23:53an unpleasant surprise happened.
23:55The great master of the Templars
23:57signed a complete confession in which he admitted the charges of heresy.
24:01Jacques de Molay's confession in October 1307,
24:04just two weeks after the arrests,
24:07deeply damaged the order of the Templars
24:09and the perception that the people had of them.
24:14The heroes of Christianity faced death as heretics.
24:18But what was the cause of Jacques de Molay's sudden confession?
24:22Could anyone prevent them from paying such a high price?
24:32After 200 years of war in the Holy Land at the service of faith,
24:36the great master of the Templars
24:38destroyed the reputation of the order with a confession of heresy.
24:42The king of France was winning his personal war against the Templars
24:46and the prize he aspired to was magnificent.
24:50The Temple of Paris was the fortress
24:52in which the Templars had the bulk of their fortune.
24:56They served as bankers both for the king
24:59and for the wealthy Parisian bourgeois.
25:03The king thought that the money was much closer
25:07now that he had imprisoned the five leaders in the castle of Chinon
25:11and that the great master of the Templars
25:13had given him a confession of heresy.
25:22But what was the real reason for that sudden confession?
25:27Torture.
25:31The whip was used both with young men and with old men.
25:34And the whip,
25:36a pole from which the Templar was hung from a certain height
25:39to then beat him violently.
25:44A priest, Bernardo de Bado,
25:46who had been a member of the Templar Order
25:48for more than a hundred years,
25:50had his feet smeared with fat
25:52and they were burned to the ground
25:54until their bones protruded.
26:06Felipe the Beautiful used torture
26:09because it was a common practice
26:12in the courts of the Templars.
26:16He did not torture them to tell the truth.
26:19He did it to tell the truth that he wanted.
26:23But Felipe was not going to get everything as he had planned.
26:29Being the Templar Knights
26:31a religious military organization,
26:34they were very close to each other.
26:37They were very close to each other.
26:40They were very close to each other.
26:44They were under the direct protection of the Pope.
26:47Neither the King of France nor the King of England
26:50had direct rights or power over them.
26:53The Pope was the only man who could save the Templars.
26:57But the Pope was going through a moment of weakness and impotence.
27:01Clement V was nothing more than a puppet
27:04moved by the threads of Felipe IV.
27:09The King had already destroyed him
27:11only to a Pope previously
27:13and supported the appointment of Clement V.
27:16And he made sure that the Pope knew who was in charge.
27:26Felipe IV's agents
27:28wrote several anonymous letters
27:31accusing the Pope of heresy.
27:35They were attempts to undermine Clement V's reputation
27:39on all fronts.
27:41It was even said that he had a romance
27:44with a very attractive lady,
27:46the wife of a French nobleman.
27:49Clement V was forced to collaborate with the King of France
27:53who always wanted to have his own Pope.
27:57For the first time in history,
27:59the Pope moved and left the Vatican.
28:03Pope Clement V was forced to settle in Avignon, France.
28:10Pope Clement V wanted to go to Italy, to the Vatican,
28:15because he was much safer there,
28:17but they always prevented him.
28:19The King of France kept him in his kingdom
28:22as if he were a hostage.
28:24But the Pope had one last resource to save the Templars.
28:30Willing to investigate the confession of heresy,
28:33Clement launched a papal investigation.
28:39TEMPLAR INVESTIGATION
28:45Even so, the Templars would have to face the storm,
28:48but this time it would be the Church
28:50and not the interrogators of the King
28:52who would carry it out.
28:55The truth of that investigation
28:57has not been known until now.
28:59The discovery of a document of vital importance
29:02rewrites the history of Clement V
29:04and the trial of the Templar Knights.
29:08In 2003, Dr. Barbara Frale, historian of the Vatican,
29:12found a document called the Pergamon of Chinon
29:15in the secret archives of the Vatican.
29:18It had been locked up for 700 years.
29:32The Pergamon of Chinon is the original document
29:35on an investigation carried out
29:37by a cardinal commission
29:39on the great master of the Temple
29:42and other visible heads of the order.
29:48During the pontificate of Clement V,
29:51all the documents on the Templars
29:53were kept in the same folder, well organized.
29:58Over time, and in part due to the fact
30:00that Napoleon plundered the papal archives
30:02and took them to France,
30:04the folder was divided
30:06and the documents were lost.
30:14In essence, the Pergamon of Chinon
30:16forgives the Templars,
30:18but also implies that they repented
30:20after the papal investigation
30:22discovered that they were carrying out immoral acts.
30:27At the beginning of the papal investigation
30:29on the Templars,
30:30three of the cardinals of Clement V
30:32were taken to the prison of Chinon.
30:35Far from retracting
30:36the previous heretical confessions,
30:38the Templar leaders used to repeat
30:40the same confessions to the men of the pope.
30:45And in large part,
30:46it had to do with their initiation rites,
30:48which were secretly established
30:50in the cathedral of Troyes about 200 years earlier.
30:56This is where the first official regulation was written,
30:59in which it was explained in detail
31:01the process of adherence to the order,
31:03including the initiation rites.
31:06The regulation was kept under lock and key
31:08within the order,
31:10and the details it contained
31:12were not distributed or disseminated.
31:15It was treated as an internal matter.
31:22According to the official code of the Templars,
31:24the initiator was asked if he wanted to be
31:26a servant and slave of the house forever.
31:32He was warned that if he had a deal with women,
31:34heavy chains would be placed on him.
31:39In the end,
31:40a psalm was pronounced
31:41when presenting the Templar tunic.
31:46But despite the papal absolution
31:48contained in the parchment of Chinon,
31:50the confessions of the Templars
31:52had raised the veil of secrecy
31:54covering their rituals,
31:56and what was revealed about them
31:58shocked all of France.
32:02According to the confessions,
32:04the Templars were forced to repudiate Jesus Christ
32:06during the initiation.
32:08A translation of the evidence provided
32:10by the Templar Godofredo de Charny
32:12describes how another gentleman
32:14showed him a crucifix
32:16and ordered him to deny Jesus Christ
32:18instead of swearing faith.
32:24Hugo de Porreau confessed that
32:26the ceremony of Templar initiation
32:28was supposed to deny Jesus Christ
32:30and spit on the cross.
32:34Jacques de Molay repeated
32:36the confession he had given to the king,
32:38according to which the receiver
32:40taught him the cross and exhorted him
32:42to renounce the God whose image
32:44represented that cross
32:46and spit on it.
32:48It is said that another Templar,
32:50Hugo de Porreau,
32:52described heretical conducts
32:54and sexual depravity
32:56among the initiates.
32:58After being admitted and
33:00making them surrender
33:02to the Templars' tunic,
33:04they were ordered to curse the crucifix
33:06and kiss the receiver on the nipples,
33:08on the navel and then on the mouth,
33:10although he continued to say
33:12that the rejection of Christ
33:14was not spiritual but merely oral.
33:16Some scholars claim that the kiss
33:18was a way to settle ranks.
33:26The kiss was a humiliating part
33:28of the ritual for the new Templar
33:30and was done so that he understood
33:32that he had to be obedient
33:34and subordinate to his superior.
33:36Hugo de Porreau could also confess
33:38that homosexuality was encouraged
33:40and that in the eyes of the Church
33:42was an abomination.
33:46They were imposed the abstention
33:48of establishing relationships with women
33:50and in case of being unable
33:52to repress their lust,
33:54they had to establish them
33:56among brothers of the order.
34:04They established a ritual of obedience
34:06that was of an indecent
34:08and inappropriate nature
34:10for a religious order.
34:16The confessions of the Templars
34:18were added to a litany of heresies.
34:20Apparently, they had admitted
34:22their homosexuality, blasphemies
34:24and profanations of the cross.
34:28Philip IV had started the first
34:30confession to the Templars
34:32through torture,
34:34but had the men of the Pope
34:36proceeded in the same way?
34:46We are sure that in the trials
34:48carried out by the Pope,
34:50the Templars were not tortured.
34:54In any case, the Templars
34:56were in a mess.
34:58The Grand Master and his lieutenants
35:00had condemned themselves
35:02before the representatives
35:04of the greatest Christian authority
35:06in the world.
35:08There was a minimal opportunity
35:10to save themselves from the death penalty,
35:12for the Pope to officially absolve
35:14the Templars.
35:36For centuries, it has been believed
35:38that the Pope condemned the Templars
35:40when he had actually saved them.
35:44The parchment of Chinon
35:46proves that he unconditionally
35:48absolved De Molay
35:50and the other leaders.
36:02There was a certain tendency
36:04to believe that the Church
36:06condemned the Templars.
36:08That is false.
36:10If the Pope had had
36:12the slightest suspicion
36:14of heresy,
36:16he would never have allowed
36:18them to receive Communion.
36:20The Pope absolved the Templars
36:22because he believed that they committed acts of heresy
36:24as proof of resistance
36:26to prepare for the extreme challenges of faith
36:28to which they could be subjected
36:30by the Muslim enemy in the Holy Land.
36:36It was theater.
36:38Something like
36:40an obedience test.
36:44Strong men were needed,
36:46with discipline and courage,
36:48to fight in the Holy Land
36:50against the Muslims
36:52who used to force
36:54Christian prisoners
36:56to renounce their faith or die.
36:58But there are other proofs
37:00that indicate that not all Templars
37:02were firmly loyal to the Christian faith.
37:10In the walls of the prison in Chinon,
37:12the Templar prisoners
37:14left behind
37:16strange inscriptions.
37:20Between geometric shapes,
37:22it is clearly seen
37:24on one of the walls
37:26the symbol of Venus,
37:28pagan goddess of love,
37:30to which the Romans
37:32worshiped.
37:34A heart from which
37:36a flower emerges,
37:38indicates a reference
37:40to the Greek version
37:42of the same goddess,
37:44whose name is Aphrodite.
37:50Both goddesses are pagan.
37:54Any kind of appreciation
37:56of pagan culture
37:58is flagrant heresy
38:00to the eyes of the Church.
38:02Part of the accusation
38:04was based on the worship of an idol,
38:06called the Baphomet.
38:16One of the many rumors
38:18about the Templars
38:20is that they found a relic
38:22under the mount of the temple
38:24of which it was said
38:26that it was nothing less
38:28than the embalmed head
38:30of John the Baptist.
38:32Claiming that the Templars
38:34wore pagan costumes
38:36and cut heads,
38:38it seems that the behavior
38:40of the Templars
38:42also undermined
38:44their reputation
38:46as Christian monks.
38:48Although they were heroes
38:50of Christianity,
38:52the Templars were also
38:54people of flesh and blood,
38:56with all the defects
38:58that that entails.
39:00This is reflected in a saying
39:02of the Church
39:04with the purpose of training.
39:06But they undoubtedly
39:08had been giving life
39:10for the Christian cause
39:12for about 200 years.
39:14And the Pope had returned
39:16that loyalty to them,
39:18officially expiating
39:20all their sins.
39:22The Pope was, of course,
39:24the greatest religious authority.
39:26By absorbing them,
39:28the Templars would be
39:30free of sin.
39:32The Templars were saved.
39:36But the King of France,
39:38who longed for his riches
39:40and his fall,
39:42did not think
39:44to give up so easily.
39:46Philip IV played
39:48his last card.
39:50Philip IV blackmailed the Pope.
39:52Either he accepted
39:54the destruction of the Templars,
39:56or the King of France
39:58threw his order
40:00a battle between the King
40:02and the Pope for religious power
40:04in Europe.
40:06Faced with the dilemma
40:08of dividing the Church
40:10or giving up
40:12in defense of the Templars,
40:14Clement V surrendered.
40:16Despite having
40:18absolved the Templars,
40:20he ended up selling them.
40:22In a final act of betrayal,
40:24he abolished the order
40:26of the Templar Knights
40:28in March 1312.
40:30After 200 years of crusades
40:32and Christian devotion,
40:34the order that had been described
40:36as a body of men
40:38who did not fear anything was extinguished.
40:40But the outcome
40:42would still suffer
40:44a last twist
40:46and an overwhelming disappointment
40:48for the Templars.
40:50The abolition
40:52of the Templar Knights
40:54took place in the middle
40:56of a power struggle
40:58between the King
41:00and the Pope.
41:02The booty was their wealth
41:04and they the price.
41:06Despite having been absolved
41:08of the most serious accusations possible,
41:10including the heresy,
41:12Pope Clement V had erased
41:14the order of the map
41:16and left the reputation
41:18of the Templars.
41:20His evil Grand Master,
41:22Jacques de Molay,
41:24had spent more than six years in prison.
41:26He was exhausted.
41:28Before they could force the old man
41:30to ratify his confession
41:32and condemn the work of all his life,
41:34he retracted,
41:36thus despising the absolution
41:38of the Pope.
41:40He was surprised.
41:42He realized that he had made a mistake,
41:44that he had made a mistake.
41:46Those mistakes are false,
41:48the order is pure, the order is holy,
41:50and I defend it.
41:58Philip IV
42:00took advantage of the occasion.
42:02In a matter of hours,
42:04he arrested the 72-year-old
42:06and took him to the Sena River
42:08to execute him.
42:16De Molay asked to untie his hands
42:18to be able to pray to Notre Dame
42:20while they lit the pyre.
42:30But apparently, the old warrior
42:32took a great secret to the grave.
42:36While the Templars were exterminated,
42:38their largest bank,
42:40the Temple of Paris,
42:42was assaulted by the King's men.
42:44The possessions of the Templars
42:46in Normandy added more wealth
42:48than all of England had.
42:50Despite this,
42:52nothing was found.
42:54The destruction by Philip IV
42:56of the Templar Knights,
42:58guided by his desire for wealth,
43:00had not yielded any fruit.
43:02The ineffective part of the treasure,
43:04the gold, disappeared completely.
43:06It was not found in any of its main
43:08focus of activity,
43:10such as London, Paris or Vienna.
43:12Let's go back to where we left off.
43:16The Templars must have received
43:18some kind of warning
43:20about the plans of Philip the Beautiful,
43:22which had allowed them to prepare
43:24the escape of the Knights of lesser renown.
43:26Could they have taken the treasure of the order?
43:32Shortly before the arrests,
43:34the fleet of the Templars here,
43:36in La Rochelle, disappeared.
43:38No one has been able to assure
43:40how many ships were here,
43:42or what they contained,
43:44but they completely disappeared
43:46from the face of the earth.
43:48Is it possible that the Templar Knights
43:50laughed at the latter?
43:54The best place they could flee
43:56with their treasure was Scotland,
43:58where Robert I would protect them.
44:00But to this day,
44:02nothing has been found.
44:04The order of Malta
44:06was accepted by many Templars
44:08in the bosom of a rival
44:10and older order,
44:12the Order of Malta.
44:14Before the arrests,
44:16the Pope had suggested
44:18the union of both.
44:20A combined order could have
44:22survived the attack of Philip IV.
44:24But Jacques de Molay reused it
44:26and paid a high price
44:28for rejecting the Pope's plan.
44:34The Pope wanted to join
44:36the Templar Knights
44:38and the Order of Malta
44:40to create a new order
44:42that was clean of sin
44:44and was useful for the reconquest
44:46of Jerusalem.
44:48The Order of Malta
44:50became the authentic untouchable order
44:52and is still active today.
44:56With a headquarters in Rome,
44:58it holds the position of observer
45:00of the United Nations
45:02and is the oldest
45:04organization of beneficence in the world.
45:06As for the Templars,
45:08their order,
45:10formerly immense, powerful
45:12and enormously profitable,
45:14vanished without more.