telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... -Pope.html
OK, this is pretty funny and not terribly Ars related, but has anyone out there read the Chinon parchment mentioned in the article? What's the scoop?
Actually, I know quite a bit about this one. The Freemasons also believe that they are descended from the Templars. I am a MM, and I can tell you up front that there is no direct evidence proving this. Just a preponderence of circumstantial evidence. Needless to say, this document was of great interest to the Lodge as well. And, AFAIK, it is legit. The Templars were officially absolved of crimes as an institution. The issue was political & economic. The pope was pretty much bullied into it by king Phillip. As for confessions of crimes, well, the Vatican has also recognized that you can get a man to pretty much confess to anything if you burn his feet off and shove the coals in his face (which is something they actually would do to these men).
So it's legit, and the modern Vatican has admitted it is legit. The papacy had indeed absolved them of all crimes they were accused of.
See Barbara Frale's article in the Journal of Medieval History, Volume 30, Issue 2, June 2004, Pages 109-134. Failing that, wikipeida has a good article. One of my friends belongs to a Templar successor Order (DC for those who know him) so I have to hear about this stuff...
cj x
Thanks, I'll check out the article.