C31 Templars

"Skeleton Society... What is it? " I've been numbed tonight by words I've never heard before.

"It's a very mysterious organization. Rumor has it that it's a branch of the Temple Knight Regiment …"

I helplessly looked at the Taoist. He was stunned for a moment before he shrugged his shoulders as if he had woken up from a dream and made a gesture of surrender.

"Ugh …" The Temple Knight Regiment... And this is something that I have to start from, King Solomon … "

The Taoist grabbed a cushion from the sofa and loosened it. Then he leaned it against the arm of the sofa, took off his shoes and lay down on the sofa. He gave a comfortable groan, cleared his throat, and began his long and strange narration.

In the late stages of the reign of King Solomon, the Jewish kingdom split, the northern tribes broke away from their kingdoms and established the kingdom of Israel, and Jerusalem became the capital of the southern Jewish kingdom. Over the next 400 years, the holy city was conquered by Assyrians, Babylonians and Persians, and the vast temple was repeatedly destroyed by the flames of war.

When the Roman Empire occupied Jerusalem and the Roman Emperor Hadrian rebuilt it, the Jews were allowed to enter the city only on the ninth day of the month of Aphrodite, the day on which they could weep in front of the western wall. This western wall was what was now known as the Wailing Wall.

Until the seventh century A.D., when Jerusalem became a part of the Arab Empire, the Middle East was not as prosperous as it is now, as the two great centers of the world. As a nation and a nation, as long as they were prosperous and strong, they were basically tolerant, and the Arab Empire and Islam, with equal tolerance, allowed the Jews to settle in their holy city of Jerusalem.

But the good news was that in 1096, in the name of helping the Byzantine emperor, Alexei I, the then Catholic emperor Urbain II, summoned Christians from the Western world and launched the first Crusade. The barbarian criminals, the bankrupt, and all sorts of malevolent people shouted for the recapture of the Holy City, the expulsion of the infidels, and the liberation of the Islamic dominion, and in 1099 he invaded Jerusalem. They massacred Muslims and Jews throughout the city, wrote a surviving chaplain in his diary.

Inside the city, the streets were piled with hands and feet. I had to find my way between the man and the horse. But compared to what happened in Solomon's holy temple, this was just a small matter. It was a place where religious rituals were performed. But now? If I told the truth, no one would believe me. Let me say at least this much: in Solomon's shrine and porch, blood ran all the way down our knees and pedals as we rode. Indeed, it was the justice and judgment of God that filled this place with the blood of the infidels, for it had endured so long their blasphemy. The whole city is full of bodies and blood...

After that, the robbers who had tasted the sweetness began the nine crusades of two hundred years, the most turbulent years in the long dark medieval history of Europe, and the thousand years of hatred between Christians and Muslims.

The Templars were an organization that had appeared during the first Crusade. After the Catholic Volunteers took over Jerusalem, Christians in Europe went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to visit the tomb of Jesus. The roads were unsteady, and pilgrims were robbed or killed from time to time. At the time, nine knights from France and Flanders, including today's northeastern France and the greater part of Belgium, came before King Dubois II to plead for the voluntary protection of Christians along the way. DuBoan II agreed and stationed the knights a corner of the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount, built on the site of the legendary Solomon Temple.

According to the article on the dark net, the nine knights at that time actually had other goals. Their mission was to find a secret hidden away in the ruins of the holy city for a thousand years, and the person who possessed this secret could become the ruler of the world, rich enough to live forever. After nine years, six of the nine knights returned to France with a carriage full of treasures. Many people thought that their mission had been a great success …

"Isn't that what the Da Vinci Code says?" I thought about the movie I saw with MaggieQ last night. "They found the Holy Grail, uh... "It's a girl …?"

"Haha …" The Taoist laughed lightly and continued, "Regarding the secrets of the Temple Knight Group, all sorts of versions have never been stopped. Some say that it is the Holy Grail, some say that it is an alchemy stone, and some say that it is the black magic of King Solomon. But no matter what version it is, it seems to believe that the Temple Knight Group has obtained and grasped this secret."

The Taoist paused for a moment and pondered for a while before beginning his narration again:

In the following few short years, the Templars developed into a powerful and wealthy organization. By the end of the twelfth century, the Templars had an immense wealth that could only be described as unrivalled wealth! The Order has more than 9,000 estates in Europe, including some famous churches and castles, such as the Temple Church in London and the Temple Palace in Berlin. For a time the Order even owned the whole island of Cyprus. Their wealth allowed them to maintain a strong professional army, allowing them to quickly recover even though they had suffered great losses on the battlefield. At that time, Saint Bernard, the famous monk, also wrote an article supporting the action of the Templars. In 1139, Pope Innocent II issued an oracle confirming the status of the Templars. The Order was responsible only to the pope, and no other secular power had the authority to command it. At this point, the Order of the Templars became the most reliable force the Holy See possessed.

But just like the ancient Chinese saying — watch him rise up from his tall building, watch him feast on guests, watch his building collapse! In 1291, the Arabs captured the Christian Autonomous Region of Saint-Jean-Arc, and the Crusaders in Syria collapsed. The Templars had no choice but to withdraw to France, and the force of their power was quickly dissolved, which made King Philip IV of France covet the secrets they held.

On Friday, October 13, 1307, almost all the members of the Order of the Temple in France were arrested without warning, tortured most cruelly for the crime of worshipping the devil, most of them tortured to death during interrogation, and Jacques de Molay, the then head of the Order, was sentenced to a burning sentence! This is also the origin of the western legend Black Friday. He cursed King Philip IV and Pope Clement V before the execution, saying that they would face an eternal trial within a year, and that was true. Pope Clement V died of an illness a month later, and Philip IV died suddenly six months later while hunting.

And the whole Order of the Templars was eventually found guilty of denying the existence of Jesus Christ, denying the Trinity, worshipping idols, sodomizing, spitting on crosses, or urinating. From the mouths of the tortured knights, they got a few confessions, and all of them had the name of a devil.

"Solam?" "No," I whispered.

The Taoist grinned, nodded and continued:

After this, the nominal Order of the Knights Templar was completely destroyed, but in fact, a large portion of the knights were not captured. Their activities went underground, and they developed various secret organizations such as societies, brotherhood, and other such organizations. They also developed a set of secret symbols to connect them. And the Skeleton Society, was an existence a level higher than the Freemasons.