Josh, does this mean you have extra insight on how to crack the Da Vinci Code?

I'm sorry, if I told you I'd have to kill you.

I've always wondered how one becomes a member of the Knights Templar. Is that a secret also?

Congratulations! I wish you the best of luck for the request, and I look forward to officially good relations between my church and your organization.

Of course, there's almost no verifiable historical connection between the modern order and the old one, and they share almost no practical similarities, but after 700 years I don't care much. As long as you don't invade Jerusalem without asking, I'm fine.

I'll take the chances with death (my plastic surgeon says I have a good survival chance), so arent the Knights intergrated with the Masons these days?

No. They are a branch of the Bavarian Illuminati. Much like Skulls-n-Bones.

"By 1307 it had fallen foul of Philip IV of France . . .

Um, can you say alliteration overload?

I'd be interested in knowing the straight dope on this topic. (The perceived persucution of the Templars, not alliteration.) I picked up a decided slant in the piece. Anyone else? There seems to be so much revisionist history when it comes to the Templars, the Crusades, etc, that I tend to be suspicious. Any medieval historians in the Agora?

"I've always wondered how one becomes a member of the Knights Templar."

The Knights Templar are a celibate order which pass membership down from father to son. ;)

(Slight homage to Hot Shots: Part Deux)

First, the Knights Templar are in fact integrated with the Masons, at least in America. The British have a somewhat varied system, but in America the Knighs are all Masons, but not all Masons are Knights.

So to answer the second question, how does one become a member, you must first become a Mason.

As for the general questions regarding its history, that's widely available elsewhere. In short, the group escorted those taking part in the Crusades and over time built up so much power and wealth that monarchs and others got worried/jealous, leading to their eventual demise as it was known in the Crusades.

My own view is that membership in secret organizations is inconsistent with Christian teaching and incompatible with the practice of the Christian faith. However, any group that has been persecuted deserves to have its grievances addressed.

To elaborate on what Josh said, the Knights Templar became a major moneylender, leveraging their riches and holding the power of debt over many kings and princes. Phillip IV was heavily in debt to them, and managed to wipe out that debt through the convenient manner of wiping out the creditor.

Joel, you have an interesting point, one echoed by this C.S. Lewis lecture: http://www.startribune.com/stories/1389/646315.html

Why do you think it is incompatible? I'm not sure I disagree, but I'm interested in your reasoning.

What do you make of the gnostic Christians, who were a major force in the development of Christianity for the first few centuries after Christ's death? They passed down hidden knowledge in private ceremonies, yet considered themselves the Christians most true to Christ. Until the Romans/Pope suppressed their teachings and books, they had an active theological and intellectual life.

Here is some interesting info that was posted by Sandra Miesel

The Knights Templar were indeed a real medieval Order. Their rule, approved in 1118, was written by St. Bernard of Clairvaux who called them "the new knights of Christ." But most of the information in this article is false. The Knights' wealth came from donations of valuable property in Europe, not from plunder. They used it to act as international bankers and made still more money.

This attracted the attention of Philip IV the Fair, King of France, who coveted their wealth to run his government, not to wage war on England. A turncoat persuaded Philip that the Knights wer up to all matter of naughtiness and he had the ones in France arrested in 1307. But it wasn't with the blessing of the Pope, who only heard of this after the fact. The 2000 men arrested weren't all professed knights but would have mostly been armsmen, servants, etc. The Knights' appeal to the Pope--a Frenchman living at Avignon--was outweighed by about 100 confessions extracted after horrendous tortures, even though the confessions didn't agree with each other. More than 100 Knights were burnt at the stake in France for not confessing or for attempting to retract a confession. The Order was supressed in 1312. Most members outside of France either joined other Orders (new ones in Portugal) or accepted pensions. They did not retreat to France nor save Robert the Bruce's bacon at Bannockburn.

The current Templars are the highest rank of Royal Arch Freemasonry and have no direct connection to the medieval Templars at all. But the Templars have been darlings of occultists since the 19th C when Josef Hammer von Purgstall claimed they were secret Gnostics. For details see Peter Partner's The Murdered Magicians. But Rome indeed ought to appologize for its cruel and cowardly treatment of the historic Knights.

Have you ever read Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum"? It's a knock-you-on-your-butt-tocks novel about the modern day survival of the Templars. It's not Grisham-ish fluff like Da Vinci Code but it's well worth the effort, probably the most cerebral thriller you'll ever read.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345368754/qid=1101874087/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/104-0250601-7760707?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

"But most of the information in this article is false."

Yeah. Revisionist history. See, I've read enough about the Templars to know that when something gets printed in the MSM, there's more often than not an agenda behind it, at the expense of historical fact. Not to mention that of the Catholic Church. Hey, why check facts when the generally accepted lie sounds so good? Helped Dan Brown sell a few bazillion books. I knew Sandra would know the straight dope!

Silly people. You'd know that the Knights Templar amassed a great treasure and then the Masons who were founding fathers hid it underneath a church in Philadelphia and left a map on the back of the Declaration of Independence in invisible ink and it was discovered by Nicholas Cage, if you'd seen National Treasure like I have.

Moochie's a little too close to the truth about the Templars and their ties to the Stonecutters. Josh, it's time to invoke the Call of Uluhtc and quiet him. If you succeed, you will be allowed to wear the Stone of Triumph.

A Steve,

I consider secret societies such as freemasonry incompatible with Christian teachings because of their pseudo-religious content that seems cultish and gnostic in flavor. Christians are called to an open, not closed community.

In the United States, the history of quasi-religious groups such as represented in freemasonry is steeped in a history of anti-Catholicism, racism, and anti-Semitism.

I'm not claiming that one can't be both a Christian and a secret society member, only that membership in these groups falls short of the ideals of open fellowship that Christ calls us to.

Christianity doesn't have secrets. It is the practice of a faith revealed in the light and universally available. In Christ there is neither Greek nor Jew, slave nor free, male nor female. Secret societies compete with that notion of freedom in Christ.

Although there are and have been Methodists who were freemasons, John Wesley condemned such membership. The British Methodist Church and the Southern Baptist Convention have taken particularly strong stands in urging their members away from things such as Freemasonry.

Joel, you accurately describe the Christianity of today, but it has not always been so. Gnostics were not fringe movements, but mainstream ones that seriously threatened the authority of the Church. Even more recently, Southern Methodists, Southern Baptists, and some other groups did recognize the difference between slave and free, often going so far as to bar slaves from reading the Bible.

I agree with you that Christianity should be a model of egalitarianism, but we stand in a tiny, relatively new minority in the history of the Faith.

Every one's focused on Josh's connection to the DaVinci Code. Personally, given where he calls home, I'm much more interested in his acquaintance with "Indiana" Jones! :)