Modern history and more recent finds have suggested that the heretical Knights Templar held the true identity of the true Messiah. They believed that John the Baptist was indeed the real Messiah and Jesus was to say the least his disciple/servant.....

Anyone know much about this subject? How much truth is there in this? All views and opions welcomed....

Thankyou

Hi explosive

Don't know a great deal about the Knights Templar, but I do know that they were a monastic military order formed at the end of the First Crusade with the mandate of protecting Christian pilgrims on route to the Holy Land. They were greatly feared as warriors and highly respected for their charity and business acumen.

In fact, they established modern banking as we know it as they were the first businessmen to allow a traveller to deposit money in one country and draw it in another via their connections accross the globe.

The templars became so powerful financially, that the Pope and the King of France saw them as a major threat to the wealth and authority of the catholic church. They therefore attempted to destroy the templars and take their wealth, having most rounded up and killed on one single day in October 1307. The day happened to be Friday the 13th and it is believed that this is the reason why superstition has labelled Friday the 13th an unlucky day.

The survivors escaped to Scotland and Malta where they went underground, starting secret societies such as Freemasonary.

It is believed that one leading templar knight, Jacques de Molay, cursed Pope Clement and King Philip of France whilst being burned at the stake in 1314. Clement died one month later and Philip seven months after that.

With regard to John the Baptist, I believe that the templars regarded him as the main man and, as you said, that Jesus Christ was simply one of his followers. Also, as I'm sure that you have read in the Da Vinci Code, it is believed that the holy grail, which the tempars are said to have protected and hidden, was not a challis, but the blood line of Christ and Mary Magdalen.

As I said, I don't know much, but I hope this helps.

markp.

All I can help you with is that I live near a stately home that was built on the site of a grand meeting place of the Knights Templar. It takes its name from them as Temple Newsam house, but ashamedly, I know very little of the Knights themselves, other than their occupation of Jerusalem, to defend it from falling into non christian hands, though I suspect the motive was probably more about trade than that, and the religious tilt was used to attract devout christians who would lay down their lives if necessary.
Nothing ever changes, does it?

Temple Newsam is a magnificent Tudor-Jacobean house known as 'the Hampton Court of the North'.

The house is named after the Knights Templar who acquired the estate in the mid-12th century. When the order was suppressed in the 13th century the property passed into private hands.

During the first two decades of the 16th century Thomas, Lord Darcy one of Henry VIII's courtiers, built a large brick courtyard house on the site and parts of this can still be seen in the present building.

Lord Darcy was later executed for his part in the Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion and the estate subsequently passed to Henry VIII's niece, the Countess of Lennox. Her son, Lord Darnley, the husband of Mary Queen of Scots and father of James I, was born at Temple Newsam.

In 1622 the Earl of Lennox sold the estate to Sir Arthur Ingram, a courtier and financier, whose rebuilding work was completed in 1637. Sir Arthur's grandson was raised to the peerage as Viscount Irwin after the Restoration and in 1738 - 75 the 7th Viscount commissioned Daniel Garret, a pupil of Lord Burlington, to modernise the interior of the house and provide a suitable setting for the art collection amassed in Italy by his elder brother, the 4th Viscount.

In 1796 the widow of the 9th, and last Viscount, engaged Thomas Jackson of Leeds to rebuild the south range in the Jacobean manner. Her daughter and heiress, the Marchioness of Hertford (one of the Prince Regent's mistresses), redecorated several of the rooms in 1827 - 28.

The property then passed through the female line, and in 1890s the Hon. Emily Meynell Ingram engaged C.E. Kempe, the stained-glass maker and decorator, to make further changes to the interior.

By this time the city of Leeds had reached the gates of the park and in 1922 the Hon. Edward Wood, later Lord Halifax, sold the Temple Newsam estate to Leeds Corporation. Although the contents of the house were dispersed some pieces from the family collection were returned. Leeds City Council has refurnished the building and the house now contains one of the finest collections of decorative art in the north of England.

Temple Newsam has a three-storeyed main block with long wings projecting out towards the park. The courtyard of the Tudor house was originally closed by an east rang,e but this was demolished by Sir Arthur Ingram and never replaced. The central (west) range with its early Tudor brickwork houses the great chamber wing. The Hall is located in the south range and a gallery is found on the upper floor of the north range opposite.

The rather austere appearance of the house is relieved by large mullioned and transomed windows and an inscription on the balustrade which runs around the courtyard, this was carved in 1628 but was replaced in iron in 1796.

There are over 30 rooms open to the public at Temple Newsam and the contents include Old Master paintings, furniture, silver and ceramics. Many of the items on display have been collected by Leeds City Council at country house sales.

The Hall was decorated in 'Old English' style in 1827 - 28, has side tables, attributed to Mattias Lock, originally at Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire. To the east of the Hall is the Library, decorated in neo-Georgian style in 1912, contains a magnificent writing table by Chippendale, dated 1770, originally at Harewood House. The adjacent Drawing Room is in the Chinese style used by the Prince Regent at the Brighton Pavilion.

The Dining Room is on the site of the Jacobean parlour, and the present Jacobean decoration, was created in 1888 - 89 by Kempe who based the design of the plaster ceiling and chimneypiece on examples at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire. The room is now furnished with English and Continental pieces from the 16th and 17th centuries.

An impressive wooden staircase leads up to the first floor. Some of the bedrooms here were decorated with Rococo plasterwork by Richard Wilkinson of York in 1741 - 42, and behind these are windowless rooms for the servants. The main rooms have been skillfully decorated with reproduction wallpapers and silks and furnished with furnished with 18th century pieces. One former bedroom contains mid-18th century Gothic furniture and was designed for the Countess of Pomfret's spectacular house (now vanished) in Arlington Street, London.

The Picture Gallery was created from the long gallery of the Jacobean house in 1738 - 45 and is the finest and least-altered room at Temple Newsam with intricate Rococo plasterwork by Thomas Perritt and Joseph Rose of York and portraits of George II and his family. The paintings here were mostly collected by the 4th Viscount Irwin and his successors in the 18th century, with works by Giordano, Vasari and Guardi and family portraits by Philip Mercier and others.

The Georgian Library has Corinthian columns along the walls and an ornate plasterwork ceiling, in 1877 the room was converted into a chapel but in 1974 the Georgian Library was restored to its original appearance.

The top floor of the south range has bedrooms decorated in the manner of the late-18th and early-19th century. In the Prince's Room there is a superb Gillow bed dated 182, whilst the South Bedroom has a set of tapestry-covered furniture dated 1771 and a fine portrait of Lady Hertford by Reynolds.

In the Darnley Room, redecorated in neo-Jacobean style in 1890, the furnishings are 16th and 17th century and the paintings include a portrait attributed to Gheeraerts, and an adjacent room has an elaborate velvet-covered suite of furniture made for the Duke of Leeds in 1700. The Tudor Room next door has early-16th century linen-fold panelling from Bretton Hall, near Leeds.

Other rooms display silver, including work by Lamerie, and some fine ceramics.

Temple Newsam House is surrounded by 1,000 acres of parkland created by 'Capability' Brown. There are flower gardens and the park contains the Home Farm and a rare breeds collection.

My sister had her wedding reception there as well.
1978 I think it was.
Just in case you wish to add it to the history!!
Your knowledge of an estate I can almost see from my house does me shame.
Alan

Thanks everyone for the posts above, like all "secret societies" information hard to find and often conflicting. I'm currently reading "The Stargate Conspiracy" and an eye opener I may add!!