Continued From Part One

Article © 1998 Alan Butler & Stephen Dafoe

An excerpt from The Warriors and the Bankers
by Alan Butler and Stephen Dafoe

We demonstrated at the start of this book that the fall of the Templars began with the arrest of the French brethren on October 13th, 1307. However, King Dinis, in common with his trading partner, King Edward of England, did not believe the accusations made against the Templars, although the papal bull, "Regnas In Coelis", written in 1308 ordered the heads of all Catholic countries to fully investigate the order. Eventually Edward of England bowed to the whims of Pope Clement and arrested the English Templars, imprisoning the English Grand Master in the Tower of London, where he later died. King Dinis, however did not arrest the brethren in his lands, but spent two years investigating the order as his response to the Papal request. To what degree he genuinely examined the order remains a matter of conjecture, but the Pope is said to have written a letter in 1310 to the Kings of Portugal, Castile, Leon and Aragon complaining that not enough torture was being used in their 'inquiries': He maintained:

"The Bishops and delegates, have imprudently neglected these means of obtaining the truth; we therefore expressly order them to employ torture against the Knights, that the truth may be more readily and completely obtained"

Later that year a joint policy was issued between Portugal and neighboring Castile, which found the Knights Templar innocent of all crimes on Iberian lands. So it seemed that the Templars would be allowed to continue in the Iberian territories, unhindered by the long arm of the Holy See. However, this was not the case, as another Papal bull was issued in 1312, which hit a little closer to the coffers of the King of Portugal. Clement's bull, "Ad Providam", which we looked at in chapter one, bequeathed all Templar holdings to the rival order of St. John. It is at this point in history, that King Dinis turned from protector of the Templar knights, to protector of his own political interests. Dinis argued with the Pope that the lands occupied by the Templars did not truly belong to the order, but rather they were only granted perpetual use of the properties. Ownership of the forts, castles and chapels, he asserted, properly belonged to the Portuguese crown and that crown belonged to King Dinis himself. It was for this reason and perhaps no other that Dinis formed his own religious and military order which he named "The Order of Christ."

Several years after the conversion, on March 14th, 1319, Pope John XXII issued the papal bull, "Ad ea exquibis", which confirmed the new order of knighthood. This Pope became the order's patron and interestingly enough gave it a Cistercian rule, which had also been granted to the Templars two centuries before. Soon after the papal sanction, the order expanded its activities into Spain, Italy, Germany and its former home France. All Templar holdings including the city of Tomar were transferred to the Order of Christ, which chose the Church of Santa Maria do Castelo as its first headquarters under the leadership of its first Grand Master, Gil Martins. Martins had already been the master of the Order of Avis and so was always a likely candidate to head Dinis' new order. Martins' past experience with military orders was probably the catalyst that allowed the order to quickly expand to 69 knights by 1321. Additionally the fledgling order had nine chaplains, six sergeants, a Grand Prior, Grand Commander and the standard bearer which was called "the Alferes."

That standard would prove to be similar to, but not identical with, the Cross Patee of the Templar knights. Like the Patee, it was a blood red cross of equal arms, each of which flared out forming an octagon shape. In addition the cross of the Order of Christ contained a twist of silver in the middle of its body. It is this modified Templar cross that many readers will recall from childhood history books, emblazoned on the sails of explorer's ships. Indeed many of the first oceanic navigators were members of, or learned their craft from, this newly established order. The Knights of Christ had, in turn, gained its expertise in seamanship from the Templars who had transported, pilgrims, warriors and goods from Europe to the Holy Lands, centuries earlier.

One of those explorers was the famous Prince Henry the Navigator, who is not to be confused with Prince Henry St. Clair of Roslin, a man we will look at again in the next chapter. Prince Henry of Portugal was born in 1394, the third son of King Joao I. At the age of twenty, Prince Henry, accepted by historians as a devoutly religious man, persuaded his father to embark on a Crusade against the Muslim port of Ceuta, on the northern coast of Africa. The purpose of this Crusade was to bring the faith of Jesus Christ to all the Muslim souls wishing salvation. Legend has it that Henry was actually hoping to find the legendary Christian king, Prester John, who was believed to hold court in Africa.

Continue to Part Three

The above article is a reprinting of a chapter of "The Warriors and Bankers" and is © 1998 by Alan Butler and Stephen Dafoe. It is not to be distributed in any fashion without the express written permission of the authors or the publisher Lewis Masonic.