The Graal Magazine 03 May 2016.pdf

+Non Nobis Domine, Non Nobis Sed Nomine Tuo Da Gloriam+

May 2016 Nº 3

Magazine

The Reconquest of Seville

Sovereign Brotherhood of Dames and Knights of The Temple OSMTJ-SPAIN

Digital Magazine

Sovereign Brotherhood of Dames and Knights of The Temple OSMTJ-SPAIN

May 2016

Director:

Ms. Fuensanta Santos de la Rubia Contact: [email protected]

Editorial Board: Priory Council of HSDCT.OSMTJ. Mr. Jose Maria Fernandez Nuñez

Writers:

Mr. Josè Mª Fernandez Nùñez Mr. Josè Maria Arregui Mr. Sebastian Carbajosa. Mr. Juan Antonio Cabezos Martinez. Ms. Fuensanta Santos de la Rubia

Designer:

Ms. Fuensanta Santos de la Rubia Mr. Jose Antonio Navarro

International Order Contact: Mr. Agustin Ibañez Aguirre Tfno: 0034 672 110 817 [email protected]

International Translator Contact: Mr. Luis Antonio Colòn Arce [email protected]

Translators:

Mr. Luis Antonio Colòn Arce Ms.Mary Angeles Santiago

Edited:

Magazine published in Màlaga, Spain All rights reserved copyright. The totality of this website (text, images, marks, logos, software files and color schemes etc.) is protected by laws and regulations of intellectual property. Editing rights reserved by the Sovereign Brotherhood of Ladies and Knights Templar. It is prohibited the total or partial reproduction without the written permission from the Editor.

Table of Contents Credits.................................................................................... 1 Index....................................................................................... 2 Editorial.................................................................................. 3 The Templars Last Crusade .............................................. 4 Justice and Charity Jesus Perspective............................ 13 The Reconquest of Seville ................................................... 22 The Influence of Women on Jesus...................................... 32 The Templar Seal, Dome Roch............................................ 37 Miguel Mercurio report, Rome OSMTJ........................ 42 Investiture Of Tampa OSMTJ.USA................................ 43 The Grail Translator Team............................................... 44 Posting Rules........................................................................ 45

The Grail

Editorial

By Juan Antonio Cabezos

We present to our English speaking readers, several articles that are a novelty in the neo Templar world, thus has the historian Jose Maria Fernàndez written about the last Crusade. The Prior of the Brotherhood explains the Exodus (letting go of Jewish prejudices) that Jesus suffered His relations with women; the theologian Jose Arregui speaks to us about Justice and Charity from Jesus Perspective; symbology is present with an article on the Seal of the Dome of the Rock written by Master of Ceremonies of the Brotherhood Fuensanta Santos; and last but not least, the reconquest, that is, the recovery of Spain by Spaniards, expelling the Muslim invaders, this last, the work of Sebastian Carbajosa and it deals with the retaking of the city of Seville. We think that it is a very complete edition, as there are two articles on history, one on symbology and two articles on Jesus. We invite our English speaking brethren to consider The Grail, not as a review written by Spanish speaking men and women, but also your review and above all, the Templar world’s review. To all you English speaking readers, many thanks for the support received, for your show of gratitude and affection for the review. We wish for The Grail to be considered as a unique review of the neo Templar world. “Aeneas” Prior.

The Templars Last Crusade Jose Maria Fernandez Nùñez

As an Introduction The present finding illustrates the crass error of those who opine that history is a dead science, including those within the very profession, the current one that defends its contemporary relevance, in its purely conceptual version, not ainonr secular one; tend to coincide with medieval confederations, crowns and spurious denominations of territories or nonexistent societies for that period, should also reflecton its multiple gratuities coneenmmng the contribution of one of humanity’s most ancient disciplines.

The Templars Last Crusade

he was assigned to defend. During his mastership the Templars would not return to the Holy Land. He departs for Cyprus, his excuse like Palafox in the defense of Saragossa, to recruit men tcohold Ptolemaida. Once he saw that his hide was safe, he forgot about his “mission”, he would pay for this in due time. According to some source, his death was caused by his gnawing conscience, that invisible god that accompanies you everywhere and which you cannot shake, justice was done on 16 April 1292. Jacques de Molay, (whose disengaged biography I omit) after his post as Order Marshal, replacing Pierre de Sevrey, at the end of 1292 and after GaudanTs death, is made Master of the Order. The sermon’s of Nicholas IV, offering new indulgences, one for 100 days that is granted to those in attendance, even though the sermon’s were read by his ministers, to aid the defenders of St. John of Acre in the new Crusade, in hopes that once heard and in light of Christianity’s situation in the Holy Land, they would warm the cold hearts that no longer expected anything from the East. Accused by some of being passive, but this was not so, as he sent missives to emperor’s and kings: the Greek Andronikos Paleologue, Emperor of Trebisonde, to the kings of Armenia, Georgia and Cyprus, urging them to get involved in the Crusade that would be the tenth; he received no replies.

He dispatched two missionary’s to the Tartar Court of Arghum, charged with offering the Mongol emperor, the blessings of the Sovereign Pontiff and to ask for his A brief historic introduction after the disastrous loss of powerful aid against the Muslims. Ptolemaida (Greece) (St. John of Acre, name given Can also be read in the ecclesiastical annals, the letter when re- taken after the third crusade) the 28th of May that the Pope sent to Arghum, exhorting him to join 1291, the remaining survivors took refuge in Cyprus with the Western Christian’s and the one written by where they remained until their suppression. his son Carbagan, whom he had baptized. These two documents are dated at Viterbo the 10th and 12th of The island purchased by the Temple from Richard the September of that same year, 1292. (1). Lion Hearted, and they in turn yielded it to the sadly famous Guy de Lusignan. In those days, its governor In spite of the St. John disaster, the Order still held received these destroyed armies. two castles: Athlit and Tartus, both lacking garrisons and defensive embellishments, they were open cities, Their new Master, Thibaud Gaudin (the previous one, probably why Gaudan ordereé them evacuated. Due Guillaumede Beaujeu had bravely fallen in the defense to its;improbable conquest, the decision was made to of Ptolemaida) a person of dubious honor, accuses Roger remain on the island of Arwdad. Former Phoenician de Flor, (sergeant of the Order captain of the Templar settlement better known to the crusaders as“Ruad’s fleet, of having appropriated relics and goods of the Island”, some three kilometers in a straight line from Order, a fact that he was never able to substantiate, but Tartus. that gave cause for hom to resign from the Temple. Following the failure of Pope Nicholas IV (dies This new Lusignan, deserted his men and the post 4/14/1292), to rally another crusade in support of

Ptolemaida, to whicgéonly the Khan of the Tartars responded, governor of the Ilkhanat L-$ Of Persia, and affected along with the Christian’s by the Islamic advances Arghum was assassinated on 10 March 1291, his brother and successor Gaikhatu, a man of dissolute pleasures, more preoccupied with idleness thantwith the assumed responsibilities following his brotherts murder, that allowed him access to power; abandoned the task started by him, due in part to pressure from Tagachar, who was responsible for his elevation and also a supporter of a theoretical support tor Muslims, thus preventing any involvement that favored Letter written by King James the leader of the Mongols of Desportes, as his ambassador affairs in the Holy Land and Christian’s.

Registered accordingly in the Royal Archive of the Crown of Aragoh in the Secretorum Jacob register of 1292 through 1300. File 75: confirmed by Don Juan Sans in Barcelona on 23 October 1801.

He is succeeded to the Throne of St. Peter by Celestine V, in July of 1294, until 13 December of the same year, who had no u relevance to the governing of Rome, in spite of this, he was canonizeg by the pathetic Clement V, in 1313 (5). The following day Boni ace VIII is elected pope, who during his tumultuous and proper pontificate; maintained the edict of recovery of the Latin States, He dies on October 11, 1303. That same year Benedict XI is elected, but he dies a scant eight months into his reign, in July of 1304, which paved the way for the puppet II of Aragdn in November of 1293 to all the Levant, Clement V. dispatching Pedro and witness as to the state of to negotiate the means to carry out its retaking with a TENTH CRUSADE MONGOLS, MILITARY general outline for this undertaking (4) ORDERS AND GENOESE WOMEN

Don Jaime Letter To The Chuief Mongol in Latin ““Illustri et Magnifico Olvecacu Dei gratia Regi deisMogoyls et partium totius Levantis. Jacobus per eandemRex Aragonum Sicilie Maioríce et Valencie ac comesBarchinone salutem et prosperos ad vota successus. Principale dilectionis initium quod extremorum absentia votivis continuata successibus interdixit puritas scribentis corroborat et diligentís sinceritas ex amoris integritate confirmat. Cupientes igitur de felici continentia status vestri in cuius prosperitate noster gloríatur auditus vestrorumque felicitate successuum informari Petrum de Portísfamiliarem et fidelem nostrum ad vestram Excellentiam providimus transmitendum propter quod vestram amicitiam deprecamur quatenus nobis per eum continentie vestre statum ae etiam statum et conditionem terre sancte et ipsius detentorum velitis et placeat nostre magnitudini reserare cum nobis cordi sit quod consumato tractatus paces que inter nos et hostes nostros per quosdam mundi Principes tractatur ad presens circa ipsius terre sancte recuperationem et perfidorum terram ipsam detinentium vires totaliter enervandas vobiscum insimul sumopere laborare.

September of 1272, is accepted as the date of the last great crusade (9th for some historians incl?ded in the 8th) carried out by Western Princes, however there were two more, one undertaken by the Mongols, in narrow collaboration with the Hospitallers and the Templars, in addition to an aborted attempt before it came to pass, by women from Genoa and another one attempted by Preterea cudi super predictis dicto Petro tradiderimus the Knights of Rhodes, none of them would restore the quedam capitula vobis pro parte nostra presentanda per eum ac eidem super ipsis comiserimus quedam vobisore ancient possess sions to the Christian fold. tenus explicanda rogamus vos ut sibi de hijs que super predictis vobis ex parte nostra rctulerit placeat fidem It is difficult to understand the Palestinian situation in this last stage of reconquest without the presence and indubitabilem adhibere. Et quia vos gaudere credimus cum de prospero statu nostro vobis felicia nuntiantur excellentie vestre providimus presentibus intimandum nos per gratiam Regis Regum salubriter vivere et feliciter dominan eunctis nobis succedentibus prospere iuxta votum. Si qua de partibus istis vobis placent nobis fiducialiter amicitia vestra requireret non omitat. Dat. Barchinone quarto. Id. Novembris An. Dom. Millmo. Ducentesimo. nonagmo. tertio””

participation of the Mongols. Although there had already been contact and collaboration with the Persian Tartar Ilkhanate, and Latin States of the Fertile Crescent in a recent past, it will not be untilthis moment when it reaches a special relevance. From its inception, Hulagu Khan had shown greater congeniality for the Christian faith than for that of Islam, even Gazan (Kazan Khan), although converted to Islam joins and requests Christian support to retain his lands.

Kazan’s fiery victory was enough to cause the Egyptian to flee and retreat to await a bettev opportunity that would not be too long a wait. Aleppo and Damascus opened their gates to the conquerors. The friars of the Hospital and the Temple saddled up and headed for Jerusalem, their goal, their dream and their justification in this Crusade, to take it without resistance. The historian Hayton, eyewitness tells us that, the Christian’s then again entered Jerusalem. The emperor of the Tartars visited alongside them, Jesus‘ sepulchre.

It is from this date when de Molay, in his zeal to recover lost lands, requests of his bailiffs and commanderies, a supply of bodies and military hardware for this task (6). He enters the fray alongside the Hospitallers and the Mongols into the tenth Crusade, his Order was sustained by a mandate received in Jerusalem, abandoning Palestine was out of the question, not only was it the Order’s cradle, but, the reason for its very existence. With Jerusalem everything, without the Holy City... nothing. Kazan (7) before the unstoppable force that the Muslims presented in their quest for a theocratic world order, became aware of the danger that his Ilkhanate could disappear, which led him, as his father did before him, to arrange alliances with the common enemies of Islam. It would not be until October of 1299 during the rule of Gazan or Kazan, son of Arghum who upon the death of his uncle in 1295, reviews the pact of aggression begun by his father and supports the Christian cause in spite of his conversion to Islam. His actions were not in response to the papal call to be a part of a new Crusade, but rather to the clear danger of the imminent threat to his domains, but for this he had to show up with something in his hands otherwise it would not be believable. He leaves Persia leading his army and alongside those who like him felt threatened, unity has always shown strength. The kings of Armenia, Georgia and Cyprus, the Orders of St. John and of the Temple, alerted to their plans, had marched to join their banners .

Once the desired objective is reached, Kazan sends ambassadors from the immortal city to the Pope and to European sovereigns,(1O) to request their alliance and offer them ownership of the Holy Land. His political objective was directed, more to shore up his holdings than the gracious gesture with no strings attached, what he was giving them was the most turbulent part of the Fertile Crescent, which made them more of a coercive police force, rather than true proprietors of the perennial and ethereal which definitely was the ancestral character of the territory. Some barbarians had come from camps located on the banks of the Jax- arte River in Central Asia, and they lay in wait on Calvary and Mt. Zion, for the warriors of France, Germany or Italy, to do battle theoretically with the enemies of Jesus Christ. This, did not come to pass, but a reply did come; precisely from a faction that no one had expected due to their circumstances, but that, the pages of history constantly speak of their prowess, and that, to great shouting they open the path in spite of the stubborn attitude of those who fear the loss of one parcel that is not rightly theirs. This faction unjustly dismissed: has always been relegated to the benefit of the opposite side. The Pope received Kazan’s ambassadors, but could not reply to their petitions, nonetheless, he made them a multitude of prominses that, like smoke, vanished almost as quickly as they had been made. The powerful Colonna family, enemies of the Gaetani, whom the pope belonged to, both at odds over their candidate for the Throne of Peter, would not cease imposing upon Boniface VIII who was attempting to impose his authority in Sicily, which left him no time to attend to overseas affairs.

Besides, his preachingfs and efforts, appeared to elicit noreply from the kingdom’s of old Europe. During this drama, from the city of Genoa, at that time EXcommunicated and therefore forbidden and barred from any subject concerning the interests of the church, arose A great battle took place near Emesa, (8) (today Homs). a group of women which are well remembered (11) It has passed into history as Wadi-al-Khazandar, on 23 offering as example of the vanity and utter folly of men. or 24 of Dec. 1299 (9), little to nothing is known about this battle that has not left any written account in spite of That gesture did not go unnoticed by Boniface, in a brief its importance, its principal source is F. M. Constantin. he lauds those ladies and publicizes them via his bishop’s, The Sultan of Egypt, Nazer-Mohammed, a sworn enemy of Christian’s gathers a formidable army, composed chiefly of Mamelukes, and marches to meet them, from Acre, which was under their control.

throughout Christianity with great hope that now, this time, for sure the gentlemen would respond to the call. These women, forever remembered as heroines, but not acknowledged, had no fear in enlisting in Kazan’s army, offering their lives as warriors supporting the recovery of the sacred land of Palestine. Such great project; produced no results. This was not, the help that the Tartar’s and crusader’s at the walls of Jerusalem were expecting. This crusade was not publicized as such. Without a doubt, the pope only gave it his attention to inspire the knight% to follow suit and to offer the prince’s a lesson that they did not take advantage of. The Genoese archives have preserved all the letters written during that period, by Pope Boniface VIII. In the last century, they still displayed in that city’s arsenal the helmets and breastplates with which the Genoese ladies were to arm themselves with for their overseas expedition. (12) History has preserved two other letters from the pope, one addressed to Porchetto, Archbishop of Genoa, the other to four Genoese nobles who: were to lead the expedition.

Oh marvel1iOh miracle!’said Porchetto,”a weak and fragile sex advances towards the knights in this great work, in this war against the enemies of Christ, in this combat against these contrivers of iniquity. The lord princes of the world, disregarding all the entreaties and pleas heaped upon them, refuse to send aid to the banished Christian’s of the Holy Land, behold there, those women that come without being bidl, From whence is born such magnanimous resolve, but from God, the source of all strength, of all virtue!

Following the victory over the Sultan of Egypt, the Orders were able to take Jerusalem, and for the last time the ever so brief occupation of the city. A fact barely known is that abandonment by the Orders, was imposed by the state of the fortifications. Upon their arrival they observed that in this city as well as others they passed during their conquest; it was an open city, the Muslims had destroyed its walls down to their foundations; walls, towers as well as any defensive element that protected cities possessed that allowed them acceptable resistance or at best an intimidating impenetrable one. These, the Christian defenders, Hospitallers and Templar’s exclusively, had accepted annihilation and resistance until the end, attempting thus to to create conscience among the European states and the Pope to undertake another new Crusade in final push towards territorial recovery. The knights, unprotected upon the retreat of the Armenian’s and Cypriots, saw themselves with no other choice but to abandon the city, where they had begun to rebuild its defenses. Their exit was swift, alerted by the proximity of the Egyptian and the lack of sufficient forces to engage the Sultan’s army, that was already on the march, and who was well aware of their situation. This would be the final time that they held it- As stated by Francisco Perez de Anaya, “they entered as conquerors and left as palmists”. But at least for one brief moment in time, the city was once again Christian. It is for this battle that he demands of his subordinates the necessary support for the conflict, seeing that the European monarchs were no longer interested in Palestine and the papal entreaties fell on deaf royal ears. Kazan, attempted a second expedition that he also abandoned when during the third invasion, he had advanced his army as far as Damascus, he fell ill (poisoned as custom demanded, in May of 1304) he died, taking to the grave the final hopes of the Chris- tians (13).

Kazan was obliged to leave Syria and return to Persia; problems in his lands demanded his presence, the Mongol troops lent by him to consolidate the occupation of the Holy City, had to abandon it upon being recalled by him to pacify the restless citizens of his Ilkhanate, casting aside what could have been a solid permanence in the Holy City.

Next on the Throne of St. Peter, was the pusillanimous Clement V (1305-1314)nee Bertrand de Gotor or Goht, from a family closely tied to the Templars since their inception. Clement owed his elevation to the French_king. He was not entitled to the post, bes, cause among other things, he did not belong to the Colege of Cardinals, but this was nothing new in the ruling class of the church, the Jerusalem patriarchy was well aware of that. From the very beginning of his appointment as head of the sect, he stood out for what would be a continuous, exuberant and absolute service to Philip IV. One payback for these favors was the elevation of nine French cardinals, also sectarian and servile to Philip, nullifying all the measures that Boniface had imposed, so that this “little character” (of Aragonese blood) would not abscond with what was his obsession, the goods of the church to finance his bellicose adventures and fatten his coffers. His voracity was limitless.

were not sufficiewt for these two grand expeditions, for which nothing was accomplished except sterile votes, empty goals, the warriors did hot take the cross, the clergy was little ?unclined to pay the tithe demanded by the Pomtiff. Clemeht was obligated at this poiht to advise moderation to the collector’s that formally forbade them from seizing chalices, books ahd other church orhamehts as had previously been dohe by Bohiface who made known his plehitudo potestatis issuing, on 25 Feb. 1296, the bull Clericis laicos, through which he forbade the taxing of clergy without papal consent, a fact that tied Philip’s hamds who locked horns with him. This boldness ow the part of the pope highlights the difficult and unacceptihg spirits of a society that withessed how their altar’s were stripped to fill perverse pockets under the guise of a new Crusade that never materialized; undoubtedly it contributed negatively to the initial exultation of spiritual zeal, leaving eagerness to The highlight of his sad papacy was: subservience to the chill, if it ever existed, of participating. French king, being a slave to his every whim, resolving the case of Boniface VIII to his master’s pleasure, transferring ELEVENTH CRUSADE the papal seat to Avignon to be closer and better serve his god, the abolition of the Templar‘s, by express desire Carried out by the Hospitallers and of his true lord and master, as well as the boorish and remaining distressing behavior with wordé and the cunning of his high position towards the allies that would have allowed Templar’s in 1307 him to expand the territories, of a cross evermore sullied by those who professed to serve it. While this betrayal brewed, many of them fell in battle, in.a Crusade that these pathetic creatures were not capable of organizing. Crusades not acknowledged because they would constitute the shame of petty kings and shamans of still existent sects and for the difficult justification of charges against the Temple, and as the three demons (14) arrested its defenders with childish and foolish arguments, other brother’s fell in the hame of what these insignificants claimed to safeguard, this dichotomy would not be understood nor accepted, as it was not in the rest of the Christian states, fully exposing the cruel slap delivered to the true believers by these satahic beihgs. Spurious characters such as these existed throughout the Middle Ages ih Aragon, its syhohym was James I, Philip’s grandfather, (the dog in his genes) in this case it was the skirts and power lust of Yolahda, (other hames: Andrea, Violahte, etc) who united with the powerful ahd feared Barcelona oligarchy, trashed the powerful kingdom of Aragon.

The Khights of St. John of Jerusalem, faced with the resulting expectation of perhaps having awakened something in the old European kingdoms and dominiohs, continued with their established program, not expecting support from the West or from Rome.

Another traitor whom shamefully wore a crowh...but In the year of 1306, was when the Hospitallers, aided this, is another story. by an army of Christian’s, began attacking the Island of Rhodes and five nearby islands, ihhabited by Turks who Pope Clement V, whom had fixed his permanence on were subjects of the Emperor of Constantinople. this side ofthe Alps, attempted to excite with his apostolic admohishme? its, the enthusiasm of the local hobility. He The Hospitallers first took some islands, some castles, convened an assembly in Poitiers to which the kihgs of afterwards, they fought durihg four years, sometimes as Frahce, Navarre, Naples and Charles de Valois, Couht besiegers, sometimes as besieged, at last they became of Flanders assisted, and which attempted to displace masters of Rhodes in 1310, Assumption Day. at once from the kingdom of Jerusalem: the Saracens, Greeks and the Byzantiwe Empire. The western forces Grand Master Fulk de Villaret reaped all the honor of

this conquest, his knights henceforth received the title of Knights of Rhodes. (see the Chronicle of Bern) According to the ehcyclical letters of Pope Clemeht,qQ§{ Templar’s that had joined the Hospitallers, shared in their glory. A great many warriors, excited by the tales of adventure experienced by the knights in their passion for military glory, had followed the Hospitallers in their work; even women desired to take part in this expedition, they sold their jewels to help defray the cost of the war. The army of the new Crusader’s sailed from the port of Brindes, the news that the Hospitallers had taken possession of the Island of Rhodes as well as five other islands? spread like wildfire through” out the western world. Their fame spread everywhere, the deeds of the Hospitallers and companions at arms reached all corners of the known world; in those days the kihg of France orders the detention of the Templarfs in his kingdom, in 1308 the pope convenes an ecumenical council (Council of Vienna) to officially determine what was already known beforehand concernihg the future of the Order and its friars that continued their battle in defense of Christianity. Had this person directed the desire for war towards Palestine, in place of the servility pledged to his master and involved himself further in the defense and recovery of the Holy Land, alongside “The Fair”, perhaps, and only perhaps, he would have been worthy of respectful remembrance.

I relate *While also having expelled from them Greeks ahd Muslims. it verbatim as explained on the page of the Ministry of culture (ACA) and the transcription by the author that the bibliography is as written, without adding or removing a single comma. DISCOVERY OF AN UNPUBLISHED LETTER OF JACQUES DE MOLAY Letter from Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Order of the Temple, to Raymond de Bellocq, Knight Commander of Torres De Segre (Catalonia), informing him of his decision to remove himself to Cyprus on June 24. and requesting the owed funds of his Commandery, a third of his rents, towards the military efforts of liberating the Holy Land. A recent find by Beatriz Canellas, head of the Description Dept.at the Ministry of Culture, has made it possible to locate an unpublished letter from Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Templar’s, to Raymond de Bellocq, Commander of the same, on January 21, 1296. De Molay was the last Grand Master of the Militia of the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, and he died executed on a burning stake on the Isle de la Cité in Paris, March 1314, during the process initiated by Clement V and King Phillip IV (The Fair) of France against his Order. The Templar’s had been created at the Council of Troyes in 1129 and tasked with accompanying and protecting pilgrims to Jerusalem, in the frame of the Crusades ,with the loss of St. John of Acre in 1291, the Order sees itself immersed in the power struggle between the papacy and the crown of France, a conflict that would finally prove fatal to it, as on 13 March of 1312 the pope, under whose protection the Order traditionally came, signs its decree of dissolution for crimes of heresy.

After having spread through France, the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Crown of Aragon, the Crown of Castille-Ledn, Portugal, England, Scotland and the After receiving the Knights Templar on the Island of Germanic Kingdoms, the Order was abolished and its Cyprus, they removed themselves to Sicily, where the properties confiscated. king had employed themin an expedition against Greece. The letter we now present, details the preparation for With this powerful militia, he captured Thessalonika the mobilization of the new Grand Master, that had (15) and Athens, advanced towards the Hellespoint, assumed the position sometime between 1292 and laid waste to a part of Thrace. After this expedition, 1293, upon the death of Master Thibaud Gaudin on 16 the Templar’s refused the possession of the cities that April 1292, to Cyprus with a strategy of inteit to recover had fallen to them, leaving the conquered lands to their the Kingdom of Jerusalem following the disaster at Acre. compaziohs at arms, taking for themselves the riches of the defeated people. Thus, laden with the spoils of Greece, they returned THE LETTER to settle down in the West especially in France where their opulence, their luxury, their idleness, scandalized The document can be found within a judicial process file the piety of the faithful, elicited the envy and distrust of of the Ministry of Culture’s Royal Chancellery((ACA), the princes, and provoked the loathing of the clergy. (16) bundle 2, Number 4) and relative to the dispute presented before the Royal Curia concerning the territorial conflict This document of regular importance due to its content, between the Templar’s of Miravet and Berehguer de

Entenza between 1288 and 1293. The document on (105 X 305mm), was originally loose but is now affixed within the last folio. It remains in a relatively good state; one can can see the original five folds and 40% of the black sealing wax that rendered it private and valiéé?éd its authenticity and which was broken upon receipt by its intended recipient for his perusal.

Molay jourhey’s to Cyprus, subject of this missive).

The text of this letter is practically identical to the missive whose findixg we commented oh. In it, he informs of his intention to go to Cyprus, in accord with the pope, setting the date for 24 June, Feast of St. John the Baptist; But first he wants to convene a general chapter in Arles (consulted on 7/11/2014), although the literal The remains of the seal, that originally would have expression of the place did not convince Finke at the measured approximately 30mm, allow one to distinguish time of publication. the word””MILITV” from the lower part of the of the original legend (“[SIGILLVM:] MILITV[M:XPISTI]”) The chapter took place effectively on 15 August 1296, as well as the hooves and uhderbelly of a horse and whereas, finally, his move east was delayed until a Greek cross upon a field. The letter, is not, original, autumm. however, and not writte? by the Master. It most likely HISTORIC RELEVANCE was written by a secretary in de Molay’s service, a Frenchman judging by the graphic style of the writing, We have not been able to locate an author that can cite similar to mahy parchments of French origin which are this missive to Bellocq, in all coinciding points with the kept in the ACA archives. one sent by him to Pere St. Just on 21 January 1296, that Fihke edits and Demurger dates. Pere de St. Just, The folio that this document is in contains copies says, this last author, was a friend of De Molay. of letters from 1288 through 1294. It is immediately preceded by the registry of several letters of safeconduct But thenwhat about Bellocq? St. Just was Commander signed by James II to assistants of the general chapter of Granena at the time of its receipt (the English historian of the Order of Montpellier of August 9, 1293. The Alan Forey (19) shows no commander for Grane?a document previous to the letter is the order to his officials, between August of 1294 and July of 1297, and places to not impede passage to Jacques de Molay through St. Just as commander sometime between 1301 and his territories and it is dated in Tarazona (Aragon), 24 1307). Bellocq was that of Ascd in April of 1296. August of 1293 (registered ACA, Chancellery, Registers, Num- 98, Folio 275v) surely coinciding with the journey Perhaps it may hot be presumptuous to hazard a guess that the Master had planhed, to meet with the King of and point out that there may have existed some other Aragdn, to deal with the conflict over the surrender of letters addressed to other commander’s, informing them of his transfer east and request?g their respective Tortosa. commanderies help. The ACA also preserves another safe conduct in favor of de Molay of 3 fuly 1294 (ACA, Chancellery, Register, In such case the importance of the letter held by the Num. 99, Folio 264r). With Number 18 of Vol. III of ACA rests in its singularity and at the same time being his Aragonese Act, the great German historian Heinrich the confirmation that Jacques de Molay commenced Finke (17) (1855-1938) gathers a letter from the Master his passage to the East with the intention of recovering to Pere St. Just, Knight Commander of Granena (Grah the Holy Sites, beseechihg the help of the western nenya), dated in Rome on the 21st of June (which Finke commanderies. In his European tour of 1293 and places with doubt in 1295 and which the historian Alain 1296 he had obtained, qamong other monarchs, from Demurger (18), moves it up a year to 1296, when de James II the right of the Templar commanderies of their

domus miliciae Templi de Turribus in Aragonia preceptori.

kingdoms to freely send supplies, weapons, horses and money to the East. And precisely this, a third of the rents which the commanderies contributed to the combat efforts of the Order, is what he requests of Raymond de Bellocq in the letter that we presented.

SOLIICCGS I ACA, Royal Chancellery, Judicial Processes in Folio, Leg. 2,Number 4, fol. 221 r – v

Bibliographical Notes:

This letter augments the brief number of missives of Jacques de Molay, some 20 score among various European archives (20 in the ACA, 3 in the Vatican Archives, 2 in the London Public Records Office ahd 1 ih the National Historic Archives, Madrid). The ACA had custody until now of 19 origihal’s and one insert. LATIN

Frater Jacobus de Molayo, Dei gracia pauperis milicie Templi magíster humilis, religioso et honesto fratri Raymondo de Bello Loco, preceptori domus Templi de [dot…] , salutem in Domino. Debet scire vestra discrecio nos pro comuni christianitatis utilitate et comodo domus nostre de transmarinis partibus pervenisse, et non capientes exemplum predecessorum nostrorum nec illorum qui fuerunt loco sui, nec ballivos nostros et ballivias nostras in aliquibus opprimentes, nec pro adventu nostro de transmarinis partibus nec per transitum quod per diversas terras evidenter fecerimus neque moram quam in romana curia fecerimus diuturnam, vos inde multum non requisierimus, nec honoraverimus vos in aliquo pro nobis neccesario succurrendo licet fuisset nobis competens et neccese. Nunc autem de voluntate domini pape et nostra progreditur, de quo quam plurimum congaudemus, quod nos debeamus ad instans festum beati Iohannis Babtiste transfretare. Ea propter vobis rogando mandamus quantum possumus neque scimus quod Deum vos habentes pre occulis in nostro passatgio nos iuvetis, ita quod Deus vobis retribuat in eternum et quod mundus de vobis super hoc se teneat pro contempto et nos vobis ad graciarum merita teneamur. Mandantes vobis quod ibi excusatio nulla fiat, nam presens proverbum non mentitur: fidelis amicus in necesitatis articulo comprobatur. Et nos Domino concedente apud Alle ante nostrum passatgium quodam faciemus capitulum ubi videbimus qui bene facient cognoscentes unicuique reddentes secundum sue merita probitatis. Valete. Datum Rome XXIº mensis ianuarii. Viro religioso ac honesto fratri Raymondo de Bello Loco,

Rafael Conde y Delgado de Molina (Scientific Study and Trahscriptioh) Jacques de Molay correspondence and handwritten letters of the Templars._en”secretum templi” - Valencia, 2005 Ediciones Grial. FOOTNOTES REFERENCES

AND

(1) F. J. Michaud, History of the Crusades, Vol. 10, Book 19 pp 4 (2) Territorial subdivision of the Mongol Empire. (3) The Ilkhanate (Khan subordinate) Following the campaigns a of Genghis Khan against the Chorasmian Empire between the years 1219-1224, his grandson Hulagu Khan creates this subdivision after the defeat by the great Khan. At its apex, state expahded tto include what today constitutes most of the nations of Iraq, Armenia, Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey etc. (4) F. J. Michaud, History of the Crusades (overseas wars) 1832, Vol. 12, pg. 208 (5) Wikipedia, Voz Celestino V (6) witnessed document ACA (attached) re: requesting resources from the commanderies. (7) Veracity and Virtue (Eastern History, Chapter 40) (8) F. J. Michaud, History of the Crusades, Vol. 10, Book 19,pag 4 & ss. Concerning this battle and told some days before Christmas of 1299, one may consult Juan Villani, Book 8, Chapter 35; Antonino, para. 3, 21d title, Chapter 8, to the historian Hayton, Chapter 41, who was present.. (9) Constantin d’Ohsson, F. Muller Historie de Mongols, depuis Tchinguiz-Khan, jusgu‘a Timour Bey ou Tamerlan, Vol. IV, Chapter VI, ppgs 230/241 (10) As to this embassy sent by France and England, consult the Chronicle of St. Dionysius, kingdom of Phillip The Fair, Chapter 49 The Acts of Eimer, Vol. 2, ppgs 918~919, and the memoirs of Mr. Abel-Remusat concerning political relation- ships of Christian kings, particularly the kings of France, with the Mongol Emperors, pg. 588, Vol. 7 cited above, the death of Kazan in 1304, left this embassykobjective pointlesg (11) These are the names of the Genoese ladies: A. de Carmendino,

I. de Gisulfes, M. de Grimaldi, C. de Franeta, A. de Auria, B. de Spinula, S. P. de Cibo, P. de Caris. These ladies contributed their goods for the arming of a squadron. Some of them dedicated themselves to military service. Their example drew others who sold their jewels to fund the defense of the faith against the Saracens. The commanders of the squadron were: Benito de Zacheria, Lanfranc, Tertaro, Santiago Lomellih, Juan Blanco. (See Book 7, The Epistles of Boniface VIII, Ep. 59, 60, 61, Ecclesiastical Annals of year 1301,

those hazards, they won the Euphrates, suffering yet new losses. The historian Hayton, who gives us these details, was also a part of that expedition. Khazan died in 1304. Hayton bitterly laments the loss of this prince that had shown

(12) In A New Trip to Italy, translated from English, Missoo, The Hague, 1702, Vol. 3 of 12, pp 41. We have also been shown in Genoa’s small arsenal, some breastplates made for women as one can observe from the curvature that allows for the comd’fort of a woman’s upper torso. It is said that some Genovese noblemen made use of these in a crusade against the Turks.

(15) Bosius in his History of the Knights of Jerusalem, Part 2, Book 1, makes reference to a Templar Knight named Roger, a man quite skilled in the use of arms, and was the one who led this expedition. The Templar’s, after having taken Thessalonika, set upon the Latinas that occupied some provinces of Greece; forthwith they sacked the maritime coasts of Peloponesia, Thrace and the Hellespoint,(130Q)

(13) Kazan’s second attempted expedition, never left the plann ing stage. News of this prince’s illness spread at the very moment that his lieutenant Colulosa had mustered the Cypri0t’s, the Lord of Tyre, the Grand Master’s of the Hospitallers and the Temple, and caused the retreat of the Tartar’s. The king of Armenia returned to his lands and the other Christian’s returned to Cyprus. The third expedition was planned in 1303, Kazan gatheredna vast army on the bank of the Euphrates, of such numbers that it occupied an ex ension of a three day march, but having Tartar lands invaded by a formidable foe, Kazan resolved to return to his lands, he gave Colulosa forty thousand men with orders to enter Syria, capture Damascus, destroy the Saracen’s. He entered Syria with fiery steel in hand and laid siege to Emesa where he expected to find the Egyptian army just as he first time. He took that city by force, and put all Saracen’s to the sword. Afterwards he headed towards Damascus, but the resident’s of that city had channeled the waters of the river throughout the irrigation canal’s, all through the night, flooding the entire countryside where the Tartar’s had set up camp, thus submerging great numbers of troops, horses, and cavalry equipment. The king of Armenia lost many men, supplies and baggage. The Tartar extricated themselves with great difficulty from

(16) F. J. Michaud, History of the Crusades, Vol. 10, Book 19,pp 15 - 16

Numbers 33 following).

such passion for the reinstatement of the Christian reli gion (V. The Eastern History, Chapter 45). (14) The Three Traitors mortally hate the Intimate Warrior or Secret Christ and they lead him to death within ourselves and our own psychological space. Judas, (Philip IV) the demon of desire, enemy of nature, will always betray the Lord for 30 pieces of silver; to wit, for liquor, riches, fame, vanities, fornication, adultery, etc. Pilate, (both) the demon of the mind, enemy of knowledge, always washes his hands, always declares his innocence, never guilty, constantly justifies his actions to himself and to ohhers, evasive escapes, to elude his own responsi bilities, etc. etc. Caiphas, (Clement) the demon of ill will, enemy of truth, incessantly betrays the Lord within ourselves; the Adorable Intimate gives him the staff to graze his sheep (inquisition). But instead, the cynical cynical traitor converts the altar into a bed of pleasure, fornicates incessantly, is an adulterer, sells the Sacraments, promises and does not deliver, does or does not, all the same to him, able to do, he does not, wastes time on fruitless hings of no importance, etc.

(17) Heinrich Finke.- Acta Aragonensia.Quellen zur Deutschen, Italienischen, Französischen, Spanischen, zur Kirchen und Kulturgeschichte aus des diplomatischen Korrespondenz Jaymes II. (1291-1327)- III.- Berlin-Leipzig.- 1922.- pp. 31-32. (18) Alain Demurger - Jacques de Molay, Le Crépuscule deg Templiers (Twilight of the Templar’s) Paris, 2002, Editions Payot et Rivages pps 118 - 123 et 338. (19) Alan J. Forey, The Templar’s in the Crown of Aragon, London 1973, Oxford University Press, ACA, January 2015. 20) (Sic) (21) divsas, Sic for diversas (22) (Sic) (23) Torres de Segre

Josè Maria Fernandez Nùñez •• Degree in History •• Regional delegate of the UNEE •• (National Union of Writers of Spain) to Zaragoza •• Member of the Medieval Foundation for Genealogy. •• University of Cambrigde

Justice And Charity Jesus Perspective

Josè Arregui Olaizola

As a way of introduction: reflections on justice and charity. I have been requested to reflect upon”charity and justice” through the eyes of Jesus. But, through the eyes of Jesus, is not that “and” left hanging in the air: “justice and charity”? Zwhat function does that conjugation truly have? Does it simply join two different termszgjustice and charity?Or does it sum up two different meanings?Or perhaps it compares them?. l Justice and charity perhaps express two different attitudes that one could exist without the other, or even one against the other? The past and the present of many religions justify the use of that topic, as o many occasions there have been appeals to charity to the detriment of justice, or justice has been presented as the threshold of charity and charity as the consummate result or even triumph over justice, As if there could be charity without justice, or justice without charity. There is no shortage of examples of this disasbciation in Christian tradition, in theology and above all in practice. How many times has charity been enforced to elude justice! How many times has justice been suspected as dangerous or negation of justice! Of course, justice requires the subversion of established order when it is disorderly, as it very often is. And established Christianity , as in all established religions in general, tend to be partial of keeping order regardless of how disorderly it may be. We have a government with ministers of daily mass that stand out for their fervent defense of of actual disorder established in this country, in this Europe, on this planet.

And justice without charity could it perhaps exist? It comes to mind that charity and justice are terms that have originated and developed in different circuits, as ethics and morality, or like spirituality and politics. Lets look at both terms.

The dictionary, following Roman law, which in this case follows Aristotle, defines justice as “a virtue that is inclined to give everyone what is rightfully their or which Today they defend the nations borders with anti corresponds to them “Suum cuique tribuere” (Cicero, immigration laws and barriers of swords; they rescue Ulpian, Justinian). It seems very clear, and it is. banks and evict people; they render the poor even more But, would he ever clearly agree as to what belongs or so and they make the rich even more so and along the corresponds to each person? In Greek, love is called way they may perform some charity. agape which is often translated as “charity” (caritas); For them, and for each one of us, for all who pretend to have faith and we could also say charity, while they disregard the naked and the hungry, the words of St. James still resonate: “Faith without actions is dead” (James 2, 17). No wonder James was Jesus‘ brother. He could have said the same thing, and his brother, our brother Jesus would have said it thus: charity with out justice is dead. It does not exist. Charity without justice does not exist.

it applies to gratuitous love, love that is received and is given freely, different from eros (love that seeks what it lacks and desires) and filia (love that one enjoys and that finds gratification in that object or person that they love).

None have formulated that capacity of agapevcaritas better than Paul, when he famously wrote in his hymn to love: 4.”Charity suffereth long and is kind; charity envieth not, charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5. Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil. 6. Rejoiceth not

in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 7. Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.” (1 Co 13, 4-7) All. Is this not excessive? yes. but does not every part wish for that excessive all? All love wishes to give itself freely, but precisely finding within there its grace, its gratification, its joy. “The ultimate purpose of all our deeds is love.

nor did He aspire to power for governing. But His gospel is political in the broadest sense: He proclaimed a radical inversion of values and structure, He announced a complete social justice that also brings about the healing of ailments and the end of sadness. The love that He calls for is practical and political, very worldly.

That is the goal; to reach it, we run; we run headlong towards it; once reached, we repose in it”. (St. Augustine, The justice of which He speaks is the justice of God, the justice of grace that in Epistulam Tractatus overflows, that spills, 10, 4). Charity and and there I find its full justice differ, then, in their joy. Let us see it. I will definition, etymology and point out some aspects history. But they are not of Jesus‘ political and parallel lines, at best they subversive charity, of are asymptotes: even its evangelical justice, when they do not meet moved by the consoling in our eyes and perhaps and transforming Spirit.1. it’s convenient that they do not, nevertheless, they are directed towards Ti b e r i u s ‘ a point_ imaginary, calendar utopian,where they meet and coincide. And and Jesus‘ year only there both are fully realized, one can’ meet of grace. the other, the one within In the year 31 B.C., the other: justice in Paulus Fabius Maximus, charity, charity in justice. governor of the province It is not therefore enough of Asia Minor (Western Turkey), said in Ephesus: “The to say that between justice and charity there exists a birthday of the very divine Caesar (Augustus) can be “narrow relationship” (Spanish Episcopal Conference, compared to the beginning of all_at least in practice, “Charity in the life of the church” 1993). One must insist being that he restored order when all was in shambles that in charity deserving of that name, implies justice. Or and falling into chaos, and he gave to the world a new is it the contrary? One must also say that justice fully aspect, a world that had descended into destruction with realized involves, definitely, the excess or fullness that great pleasure if Caesar had not been born as a common the term charity suggests, liberated, of course, of all its blessing for all. ambiguities, of which religious language is in good part responsible? Do not think that charity has to do with For this reason one could take that day as the beginning religion and justice with politics. of life and of the living and the end of sadness for being born” (J. D. Crossan, The Power of the Parables, 163). Justice is the end and criteria of politics, and politics is Proposing that day as new year’s day. the art of what is possible, but without losing sight of that in the haze of deceptive idealisms, it ‘would be The League of Asiatic cities accepted the suggestion with good if justice and politics never lost sight of their utopia, enthusiasm, ind the the proposal and acceptance were the horizon, the spirit that desires within ourselves set in stone; the most complete inscription come from nothing less than all. Put another way, transforming and southern Ephesus, dated 9 B.C., where the decree of subversive charity. Justice should be subversive and the new calendar is preceded by this solemn preamble: nothing should be more subversive than charity. Let “Being that providence, that divinely orders our us look towards the message and practice of Jesus, the existence, has applied its energy and zeal into bringing to gospel of political charity, of evangelical justice. life the most perfect and supreme goodness in Augustus, who was filled with virtues for the benefit of mankind, When He spoke of love. as when He spoke of God, granting him unto us and our descendants as savior, He was not speaking of disembodied entities, separate he, that put an end to war and ordered peace, Caesar, from real life. He was not interested in beliefs, rites, the whom, through his appearing, exceeded the hopes of the temple. He announced the Kingdom of God, to wit, a ones who prophesied good tidings (euaggelia) not only profound transformation of the social, economic and going beyond the benefactors of the past, but also not political situation. He did not propose a political agenda, allow ing any hope of greater benefits in the future, and

bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, and sight to the blind; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn.” (61, 1-2) Good tidings unto the meek, liberty for the captives, healing of the sick, freedom to those that are bound. Jesus‘ proposal has a marked political ramification, it signifies an upheaval of the unjust social situation. But from the lips of Jesus, the words that follow in the text of Isaiah, disappear: “The day of vengeance of our God”. Is only the acceptable year. Jesus‘ proposal is grace, liberation, healing for all. A year of political subversion and grace for all. A year of grace. What is the year of grace? It is the year of celebration of the ancient biblical tradition. And what is the year of celebration? 2. being that the birthday of the first god brought the world the good tidings (euaggelia) that are in it...” And here is the political theological proposal of the emperor: pure imperial theology, imperial order theologically imposed.

The celebration of forgiveness. What forgiveness?

Next December 8 (2015) the “Extraordinary Jubilee of Justice consists of giving every person what is their: Mercy” commences (until Nov. 2O, 2016). “unicuigue suum”. The jubilee year? If we read Misericordiae Vultus, Now the, everything belongs to the emperor: the land the official convoking Bull of the jubilee, what we are of fathers, the land of Israel or Palestine, the land of the offered above all are easements for the forgiveness of sins poor, had become the “Roman province of Judea” and and plenary indulgence, in other words, the liberation the lake of Galilee now becomes the “Sea of Tiberiadb of oneself or for the deceased, not only of the “reato” (a city that Herod Antipas had built in honor of Tiberius; (the obligation of atonement for a sin after absolution) the name of the lake of Galilee now becomes the or remainder, but also of the penalty and its obligation lake of Tiberius). Where does this leave justice? The the remainder of what we must expiate after death even theologically political proposal of Jesus requires the when thelfault had been forgiven by God in this life. we are offered special opportunities to achieve forgiveness complete inversion of the imperial program. and indulgence: visiting the two great basilicas in Rome No wonder that the Christian movement would credit (St. Peter’s in the Vatican and St. John the Lateran), or Jesus, in clear confrontation with the imperial project... other basilicas confession and Holy Communion (in the many of the terms applied to Caesar Augustus: God past one had to also recite the Credo and pray for the (incarnate), savior of the world, new creation, maker of guidance of the Holy Father). we are granted mercy as pardon for our sins and indulgence from the penalties of peace, new tidings...they are taken from the emperor the afterlife. and are attributed to Jesus; that is on the part of the Christian movement a gesture of protest, of rebellion lls this what Jesus refers to when He announces the against imperial spirituality and against the supposed year of grace in the synagogue at Nazareth? é Does He imperial justice. That spirituality is shattered, that refer to the forgiveness of sins, the absolution of faults imperial politic; Jesus inverts spirituality the emperors and the penalties of the afterlife? justice and proclaims a theology a spirituality and an alternative justice. That program inversion is expressed No, of course notl, it is not that. Jesus refers to in most graphic form in Luke 4, 14-19. It is the initial the inversion of the situation that causes poverty to programmatic scene of Jesus’ mission. Jesus has left his exist, people so saddled with debt that they must sell teacher, John the Baptist. For some powerful reason, themselves and their families, that there are sick people He leaves His circle, abandons the desert, returns by the wayside who do not aid or comfort, and today to Nazareth, His town, and there He repairs to the he would be referring to all the pain ful and dramatic synagogue, seeks the Text of Isaiah that best reflects His situations that so many close to us are enduring and dream, His project, and reads: “The Spirit of the Lord which our system promotes or tolerates with its criteria God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to of justice and legality. preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to Jesus refers to the jubilee year of biblical tradition.

Every 50 years (or on other multiple occasions), it was the “Jobel” (the name comes from the trumpet or horn, called thus, that resonated through the mountains and valleys announcing the commence ment of the jubilee year). The jubilee year was a special sabbatical year. And the sabbatical year prolongs the law of weekly “Shabbos”, throughout the year: “Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed. (Exodus 23, 10-12). That was Saturday, and it constitutes one of the greatest cultural contributions of Israel to humanity. The weekly feast of the Sabbath so that one may have respite, a day of rest for all, the stranger, the laborer, theox and the ass. The first mandate of the year of grace that Jesus announces is this weekly Sabbath: that all creatures of this world should rest. All.

For the Lord thy God blesseth thee, as . He promised thee; and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee. If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from the poor brother: But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth. Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, the seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him naught; thou shall surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him.” The ,perspective is clearly judeocentric, but it aims much higher; do not harden your heart nor close your hand to your poor brother. All the poor are your brothers. The pilgrim and strangers are your brothers. Open the borders.

How has it gotten into our minds that we are the center, the apex and culmination of creation, and that This Jesus’ perspective when. He announces the year we may use exploit and destroy it at whim and pleasure? of grace in the synagogue at Nazareth as an alternative to theology and imperial politics. That is how we have had to organize so many summits concerning climate change.é But what have Away evictions! Away borders! we accomplished during 20 such summits that there has been a need to organize a 21st? we have believed Besides the weekly sabbath and the sabbatical year, ourselves to be the center and absolute masters, as the there is the jubilee year. éwhat is the jubilee year? One empire believed it was the center and the crown and need only read one verse from Leviticus 25, 13 “In absolute lord of all humanity. And there lies the root of the year of this jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession,” “The jubilee is the square root of the evil. sabbatical year” (Rev. J.L.Ska, El Camino y la Casa, The year of grace or jubilee year is based besides, directly Verbo Divino, Estella 2005, Pg. 135). on the sabbatical year. gwhat is that...sabbatical year? The jubilee year is the rest so that there may be respite Let us read from the book of Deuteronomy 15, 1-10 (sabbath); it is the pardoning of all debts (sabbatical “At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. year); and it is the recovery of all property’s that the And this is the manner of the release: Every creditor that poorest had to divest themselves of so that they could eat lendeth aught unto his neighbor shall release it; he shall and survive. Recoup all the property’s: that is expressed not exact it of his neighbor, or of his brother; because it in a very special manner taking into account two is called the Lord’s release. Of a foreigner thou mayest situations: Servitude and loss of real estate. All slaves exact it again: but that which is thine with with thy regain freedom, our first property; freedom is barely the brother thine hand shall release; Save when there shall beginning it is an inspiration: you will regain freedom. be no poor among you; for the Lord shall greatly bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for Besides, many people, in Jesus’ time, particularly the an inheritance to possess it: only if thou carefully hearken peasant’s, had seen themselves forced to sell their land unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all in order to pay off their debts, their rent or simply to these commandments which. I command thee this day. survive (and many, so they and their families could live,

sold themselves into bondage). So then, the jubilee year arrives and those who lost their land regain it. The land belongs to God, a basic principle throughout the Bible; it is like saying: the land belongs to all; none have more right than another to land; there are are no borders there. It’s true that still, as we see in the Old Testament and the New one as well, borders are considered legitimate. iwhen will we reach the point where the laws of the sabbath, the sabbatical year and the fundamental law of the jubilee year are applied, beyond those limits and borders? Clearly, the problems of immigration and refugees require complex, reasonable and progressive solutions... but we cannot cite as an argument national frontiers and identification papers, and continue to justify that rights depend on the states with their borders. That is the aim of the year of grace, Jesus’ jubilee year: begone those limits, those borders. The other, whom we call immigrant is not a foreigner that has the rights that we wish to bestow upon them. No: the earth is their as much as it is yours. That the law of the sabbatical year and the jubilee year were never applied nor were they effective in Israel? For sure. But that is what Jesus dreamt about once more. That all regain freedom and land. That is what Jesus proclaims in the synagogue at Nazareth. Not the forgiveness of sins. And that is what He teaches when, in the Lord’s Prayer, He calls us to pray saying; “Forgive us our debts”.

monarchy. Kingdom of God for Jesus is a politically subversive metaphor. Kingdom of God is the inversion of the situation that Jesus, with deepest anguish in His soul, sees in His land of Galilee and the lake of Galilee. The utter misery and despair of people deeply in debt, the poverty, the sickness that has much to do with the social and political condition, the ill treatment, marginal treatment, social exclusion: that is the situation that Jesus want to invert when He says and proclaims the Kingdom of God.

A political metaphor: Jesus wants to change a situation where the emperor is the lord of earth and sea, lord of the land, lord of the lake of Galilee where fish abound and was the source of sustenance for many families. Jesus protests against that situation when He speaks of the Kingdom of God: that the land becomes once more the land of our fathers, to wit, the land of God, the land of all; that the Sea of Galilee is once more the Sea of Galilee, and ceases to be a private possession, a property And it is there that God is born and grows; when debts of the emperor. are forgiven, when land and liberty are regained, then God appears, then God grows on earth, then our dignity “Blessed are the meek”, thus He begins.”Blessed”, “year increases. That is what we wish for, that is what we of grace” “gospel”... for all, yes, but first the meek. agree to when we recite the Lord’s Prayer, that is Jesus‘ “Blessed are the meek, the persecuted, those who hunger, those who thirst, those who weep” : are different alternative to justice and imperial spirituality. ways of saying “poor”. That is where the program of charity or cordial justice that Jesus proclaims is The impartial prosperity of the poor political expressed. The teachings of Jesus, His life and resurrection had as He illustrates it quite well in the parable of the rich man an objective to create a new type of community, one that and Lazarus (Luke 16, 19-31) “There was a certain rich would make Israel’s wildest dreams come true, among man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and them the eradication of poverty (J. L. Ska, O.C., Pg. fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain 145). beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full Jesus returns to Galilee and there He proclaims the of sores, And desiring to be fed with the Crumbs which Kingdom of God: Jesus does not propose an absolute fell from the man’s table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. But we do not say it as if we were praying to a God, Supreme Lord to whom we owe something. we are not asking an offended God to forgive our faults and offenses; neither are we asking a distant God to forgive our debts or make us forgive our debts to each other; it is in our hearts and our hands. “Forgive us our debts” means: let us forgive our debts, give ourselves respite, let us return freedom and land to each other.

live in a world ruled by the concept of acquisition and not distribution being the objective and principal criteria of the economy; money is the end and not the means. Jesus inverts, He denounces, today as yesterday, this situation, this concept. Proclaiming the blessing for all, but beginning with the poor. The blessing of good fortune does not mean the same for the poor as for the rich, who provoke the situation of the poor. For the poor it means freedom from poverty; for the rich it means the transformation of their hearts, not only through a spiritual detachment, but a sharing of his goods, because they are not truly his; as the land belongs not to the one that holds it, but to all the living; the earth belongs to all.

Alms: justice or charity? “And I say unto you, make to yourselves friends of the

mammon on unrighteousness.” (Luke 16, 9), Jesus affirms in the parable of the crooked administrator. The proprietor says: “You are dismissed” (for having stolen from him). The fired administrator asks himself, “What will I do?”. He decides to continue stealing; to one he says; who owes four hundred fathom square of arable land, write two hundred, to the one who owes one hundred barrels of oil, write fifty...He continues to steal. And Jesus says: “Be as the unjust administrator”.

And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried.”. It is the story, our story so many against meaning where for the of brothers and sisters with opposing lifestyles, enemies, different ways of life that turns us into rivals, one the other, Jesus observes and opts. He opts for “Lazarusg “God had mercy” (its the only one of Jesus‘ parables a subject is called by What is He teaching? Some understand Jesus name). God favors Lazarus, has mercy poor soul at the encourages emulating the administrator’s dishonesty in rich man’s door. his moment of desperation. Others think, I believe with One goes to hell, and the other to heaven... But,éwill greater certainty, that Jesus relates a parable of defiance: the story end there, with that inversion in the after- life? He defies the sense of justice of His listeners and obliges them to opt. iThe crooked and selfish administrator is We will not have advanced at all. the model or better yet the antimodel of the Kingdoms This parable must be understood from Jesus‘ point of justice? think on it and opt. Discuss it and opt. view when he proclaims the blessing and the year of grace for all; including that heartless rich man. È how so The traces are clear. The first thing that surprises us is the same for that heartless rich man? Then All remains the cutting certification of money as unjust. when saying as before? No. “iChildren, how hard is it for them that “unjust money”,does Jesus refer to all kinds of money, or only the money unjustly acquired? It is highly improbable trust in riches to enter into the Kingdom of God! that Jesus would go into such examinations, and we It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, would be wise to do likewise. than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God.” (Mark 10, 23-25) “Then,iwhom can be saved?”, ask the What we we cannot avoid is the literal expression that is disciples of Jesus and with good reason (Mark 10, 26). placed on Jesus‘ lips: “the Mammon of unrighteousness”. And Jesus responds: “For men it is impossible, but not (Mammon: wealth personified, regarded as an evil for God: for with God all things are possible” (Mark, 10, influence) hupoh reflection, and which relates to Jesus 27). God is the possibility of blessing for all, including the not explaining if money is always “Mammon”, but it rich. iwhat dwhat sists there (Luke does this mean? does is not by accident that He speaks of money as unjust Mammon. “The rich man is a thief or a son of thieves”, a blessing for the poor consist of? . taught the Holy Fathers. The money we have, be it The blessing con of the poor ending their life of misery. much or little, is another’s benefit: “And if ye have not And for the rich is also a blessing, as we see in the story been faithful in that which is another man’s,iwho shall of Zaccheus 19, 1-10) where his heart is transformed, give you that which is your own?’. iwhich is wise and converted, his selfishness yields to effective solidarity righteous use of wealth? On that Jesus is quite clear. and the sharing of goods. It is not only about a spiritual The only wise thing is to share it. detachment from material goods, no; it is about sharing The only means of justifying ill gotten gain is to share it. them effectively. Solidarity is the only righteous thing. Here, again, Jesus That is what the story of Zaccheus states. So then, we breaks the Canon of justice, Unicuique Suum. But it

seems that what is yours is every one’s. All belongs to all. gwhat then can justice consist of if not the surrender of all? Giving all, is only possible when it emanates from within, and it can only come from an internal transformation brought about by a new sensibility. Let’s look at it from another perspective: Jesus finds Himself in the atrium of the temple, where He has just illustrated His radical criticism with a symbolic gesture of destruction, and He closely observes.

overcome. And that is rightly the etymological meaning of the term alm (Latin-eleemosyna, Greek eleemosyne), that come from the eleein which means having compassion “If you desire to be perfect, sell all you have, give it to the poor and follow me”. The intimate mercy allows us to be by giving to fully be by giving all, to be like God. Solidarity bursts forth from within. It is not a return to kindness. It is to open it to justice, and open justice to mercy, or to do justice from the mercy of the soul. Giving all is not a divine law.

He sees how the wealthy pour their large tithes into the temple’s coffer. He also sees how a poor and wretched Of course, there must be a legal justification, some widow deposits two mites (Luke 21, 1-2). Once again minimal requirements, non avoidable and binding for He is sickened by all, so that none this. The unjust may lack what economic system is necessary. condemns this Jesus aims poor widow for that plane to misery, and where legality is the religious accomplished, system of the where there is temple sanctifies justice and where e c o n o m i c justice finds injustice. itself with the total faculty; its Jesus takes in the image, the image scene, it clearly of evangelical shows His vision perfection, is that of the world and poor widow In religion: “And He that Jesus also said, of a truth I circles around say unto you, that the scheme of this poor widow things, of the hath cast in more general culture and offers as a model, the poor widow. than they all”

“For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury has cast in all the living that she had” (Luke 21, 3-4). What do alms mean? Alms do not consist of making donations from what we have in abundance, albeit two million dollars... No. Alms consist in giving what you have. Not what we have plenty of, but instead giving what we need. It is not a matter of giving much or little, but to give all. That is the only fair thing to do. {Is this excessive? iDo we risk going bankrupt in doing so? Jesus does not demand.

The vineyard workers: the last one first

Let’s talk about salaries as Jesus did. The parable about the vineyard workers, of Matthew, constitutes another radical defiance of our parameters of justice: Matthew 20, 1-16. Some journey men work for one day, others for half a day, and others only for the last hour, at dusk. At the moment of compensation, the compensatory justice is shattered. éls it restorative justice? éls it charity? There is no precise measure. But one must give all. Call it what you will. The matter is that if you want to give all, that your heart moves you to give all, and that none are deprived of Jesus denounces: a system that condemns these poor what is needed to live. These are the two criteria that men to awaitm each day in the square , at the crossroads Jesus suggests quite clearly. {Is this excessive?Do we risk or at the labor market for someone to hire them is going bankrupt in doing so? Pure necessity overcomes unjust. It is not right that someone should wait all day overcomes, pity or internal transformation, a changed for nothing. And it is not right that religious scribes say heart is what allows on to give all without internal nothing or justify it. The only just thing is that this poor family man, at the end of the day, can bring home bread bankruptcy. so that his family may live for another day. No one becomes righteous by pure necessity, when necessity does not grow from within and transforms That is Jesus‘ perspective. éwhat then does a just salary the Very will and becomes profound gratification. Pure consist of? It calls to one’s attention that Jesus‘ answer necessity overcomes. Pity or internal compassion do not so closely approximates the definition of a fair salary

defended not only by Karl Marx but also by the social doctrine of the church. The fairness of the salary is not defined by legal regulations, nor by the common criteria of justice: according to how much -you work, how much you produce, the value of your work...No.

least. LIs that not unfair? It seems so, but, jCan there be justice without that? That is, in any case the evangelical perspective. To put it another way, evangelical justice, or simply the true justice requires the inversion of what we understand by justice, Neither is this a case of comparing charity to justice, to appeal justice against charity or vice versa, Jesus proposes a political compassion that involves a different justice, a justice that takes for granted the inner compassion. It can be called political revolution or “revolution of mercy” (Pope Francis).

Love thine enemies, pray for those who beset you

A fair salary is that which allows the person or family that depends on it to live with dignity. The fairness of the salary is defined by what you need: a fair salary is what you need. And this is what Jesus says to the great scandal of one and all. iBut doesn’t the argument with which Jesus justifies the behavior of the vineyard owner at the complaints of the workers that labored all day and have received the same wages as the ones who worked at the last hour, leave us a bit unsatisfied? iCan i not do with my goods as I please?” (Matthew 21, 15). No one today would accept that argument. Neither would Jesus, no doubt. But the parables are just that: stories taken from daily life. Jesus does not make up stories of example, nor logical ones, but true stories that make one reflect and think, stories that often scandalize, that always have appeal and force you to opt. The owners argument is unacceptable, but that is not what matters in the story, but rather the part they play in it. The logic of ordinary justice that defends the workers of the first hour is trashed. Jesus unmasks the motivation that moves them: they care not for the needs of their companions nor their families, but instead their own merits. They feel jealous. They recover a compensatory justice, more than a distributive and restorative one. Jesus‘ justicg is rules by the needs of the poor, and is inspired by compassion, which is much more than we understand as “charity”. “The last shall be the first”, repeat the two verses among which the parable is included (Matthew 19, 30 and 20, 16): The first shall be last, the last shall be first. “Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first.” says, the master of the vineyard to the foreman (20, 8). First the last, the ones who worked the

Èls it reasonable, is it righteous? That is Jesus‘ point: love thiné enemie 5- La Bondad Insensata (Inane Goodness) is the title of a beautiful book by Gabriele Nissim (Italian journalist, historian, essayist) The secret of the just, Siruela Press, Madrid, 2013. It narrates the cases studied by a Jewish judge (Moshe Bejski) who dedicated his life to finding persons that had saved Jews during the holocaust. These saviors are the“righteous”, and he creates the so called “Gardens of the Righteous” in Jerusalem, where one finds engraved, the names of all these saviors. In this book an attempt is made over and over to define what it is to ne righteous. The righteous are the good. The good are the righteous Finally, justice and goodness are identified. But Awhat does true justice or true goodness consist of? Is Gabriele Nissim correct in writing that “the image of the righteous man cannot be of a superman who wages an eternal battle against abuses, as if were a Don Quixote in the never ending struggle against windmills. It is some what comical to think of a figure, of someone, capable of battling from dawn to dusk for all human rights. against all inequality, against all dictatorships, against all genocides, who feels involved in all possible battles and who, finding themselves all alone in an extreme situation, is the protagonist of resistance culminating in exhaustion.” No, it would not be human. Jesus was human. In spite of all His radicalism, Jesus did not call for heroes, instead He proclaimed the year of grace and beatitudes. Nothing makes sense without that. l Was He Himself a hero? No, He simply arrived where the spirit led Him. And perhaps He called to others bidding that they follow Him there, but not as an obligation. It is a vocation of grace, and only the ones who live by grace will live humanely, only those who live humanely will be disciples of Jesus, the human, so human that in Him we recognize the divine, the mystery of God. There may be many types of righteous persons: righteous dreamers and righteous ones without great dreams or utopias, righteous heroes, and those lacking heroism, righteous with no incoherence or fault and those with. “One can become righteous even though only once in all their life, in but one day of their life, faced with but one outrage, faced with one who is persecuted, faced with a

lie, has the courage to break with conformity and carry out but one good deed, of love or justice”. (Nissim, Pg. 19). There can be imperfect righteous persons; what seems to be difficult, though, that there could be perfect ones. “Whosoever saves one person saves humanity”, the Talmud teaches us. According to this teaching, the Isreali law of Yad Vashem of 1953 changed the existing criteria until that time and granted the title of “righteous” to anyone that had saved the life of even one Jew during the Nazi persecution. Perfection is not coupled with neither charity nor justice. “one does not try to find excellence, absolute coherence and heroism” (Nissim, o.c. Pg. 18). The one,“who demands absolute justice and places themselves as unyielding arbiters of morality go against the nature of man.” (16). Perfection is not human. “If you want to be as God”. says Jesus. “If you want to be perfect”. Your vocation is not less than divine, but “if you want”. The problem in wanting goodness, in the internal transformation, or the desire or taste. “If one wants to be my disciple, let them renounce themselves, bear their cross and follow Me” (Matthew 16, 24). Renouncing oneself means to free yourself of the illusory “I”, superficial, selfish. I am only truly myself in the manner that I distance myself from my alter ego or from my selfishness and self importance. Only then do I realize my true longing. And to that deep longing is what Jesus appeals to. Jesus proposed all, but imposed nothing. He

trusted in the possibility of the ultimate goodness that abides within the human heart, but never reduced it to an imposed radical code. Jesus risked it all, but He does not propose any program of radical demands. He proposes the “revolution of mercy”, that Pope Francis reiterated and defended during his recent visit to Cuba, and directly to Raul Castro himself. éwhich is the decisive word here: revolution or mercy? they are separable. The following day, the editorial in El Pais called the words of Pope Francis as “an expression of probable importance in a theological context, but absolutely inane in a political one.” Very well. It probably does not belong in politics. But, Awould not senseless goodness also be the most reasonable in politics as well, as long as it is applied to great effect?uBut to apply it within the program, it must be in the heart. What is quite clear when Jesus speaks of this mercy, He does not speak of something theologically important and inane politically, instead He speaks of a political inversion, that will require much thought as to what measures are the adequate and necessary ones for this inversion to take place. It is the effective mercy of the samaritan, by which, “a man can come to become the messiah of another man” (Nissim o.c. Pg. 18). Aristotle said it another way: “When men are friends, there is no need of justice, but even though righteous, they have need of friendship.” (cited in Nissim, o.c. Pg. 2)

Josè Arregui Olaizola Doctor of theology. Professor at the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences University of Deusto. Bilbao .Spain. His latest book: Invitation to Hope (Herder).

The Reconquest of Seville Sebastian Carbajosa Cantabria A Causal Enconunter. In spite of being Sevillan by adoption and a native of Huelva, a neighboring city, our story begins far from Seville, with a journey (why not) and also with an anecdote: Still enuroute in search of Templar enclaves, that day the team of “Non nobis Domine”, my wife Soledad and I, were resting: it was Monday and the national monuments were closed, and since we had set our center of operations in Medina de Pomar, just north of Burgos, we decided to go to the beach; the closest one being in Laredo, in Cantabria, scarcely less than 100km. from where we were and knowing that we would enjoy some scenic sights we took our cameras. We spent a tranquil and unpreoccupied morning in the

She answered. -And what is its patronage? —Pardon me? —No, pardon me, to whom is it dedicated? — I clarified. -Ah! to St. Mary. She replied, whereupon I requested our check. —What’s wrong “Chiqui”, why are you in such a rush all of a sudden? Soledad inquired. -I think that there is a Templar church in town, let’s go! I showed her the pastry as we walked up to visit the church and we were even more surprised when she recognized nothing less that the famous Tower of Gold of Seville on the seal of the Cantabrian city! things looked promising.

Without a doubt from the XIII century, the Church of Saint Mary of the Assumption, turned out to be, albeit with some additions from the XVI and XVIII centuries, and we were in luck, after a service that was just winding up, the Sacristan addressed all our questions. when we queried him about its possible Templar beginnings he commented that although no documents existed to corroborate such a claim, it had always been assumed and suspected to be so: a lone depiction of a single knight on a pilaster as a mute witness to that supposed stunning Cantabrian village until just after lunch, while lineage, but a yet more obvious proof was the existence having our coffee, I noticed a design on my dessert... of a known Templar church a few miles from Laredo, the church of St. Marina of Udalla. —Oh Miss! — I called to the waitress. —Is something wrong with your coffee “Chiqui”? my wife asked. -No, wait, Miss, please! -Yes Sir, at last the surprised waitress addressed my sudden impatience.

Ramòn de Bonifaz (Admiral)

-Pardon me, is this the seal of the village of Laredo? -I We also asked the Sacristan about the seal of the village, think so, but let me ask the owner...just a moment. — of which we had previously documented ourselves She left and upon returning she responded affirmatively. while awaiting for the service to conclude, thanks to the different representations and explanations of same -And tell me, is there a XII or XIII century church in exposed on the exterior of the temple, afterwards I had town?,/ I asked. the occasion of delving deeper into the subject, this was That I do know, a XIII century one in the old part the result of our investigation: The seal or shield of the village of Laredo represents the Guadalquivir River and uptown.

the Sevillan Tower of Gold (Torre de Oro), flanked by three ships, of which the center one bears on its sail a red “pate” cross and beneath that ship the chain that joins one side to the other, which according to history, saidn chain was broken (in fact, a section of it is on display in the very church of St. Mary of the Assumption), before the » assault on the vessel bridge (this consisted of several barges tethered to each other, that allowed access from one side to the other without need for a fixed bridge). Said seal is bordered by the legend, “ARMS OF THE LOYAL AND NOBLE VILLA OF LAREDO” and surmounted by the Spanish crown. Apparently it substituted the previous one at the beginning of the XVI century, and this is not an exception, the_heraldic shields of the Cantabrian ports of Santander, Santoña, Comillas and San Vicente de la Barquera incorporate similar motifs, but why? The answer is, obviously, Ramon de Bonifaz.

south, towards our task, on May 3 in the year of our Lord, 1248, Ramon de Bonifaz, reinforced the bows of his two heaviest ships with ironibmore than likely with help from the Temple) and in command himself of the armored vessels, the Carcena, built in the Santander shipyards, after the massive chain of the Tower of Gold, he rammed the ferry bridge that joined the walls of the beseiged city of Isbiliya with the castle keep located in the outskirts of Triana, (no longer exists) and once conquered by the Christian’s it would be pledged to St. George. After being weakened by the first assault and broken by the second, the city was left completely isolated, causing its surrender by the capitulation of the Emir Axataf on the 23rd of November of that same year before the forces of the “Saint King”; said feat netted our brave captain to be appointed First Admiral of the Kingdom of Castille-Ledn in 1250. Ramdn de Bonifaz would pass away in 1256, in the city of Burgos. He is immortalized as well in Seville, the equestrian statue of Ferdinand III, firmly on its base and to the king’s right. But what does the detail of the cross mean? we confirmed that it only appears on Laredo’s shield, although, apparently it was precisely here, where Bonifaz set up his operational base, giving the idea that he was from that very city, could our Poor Gentlemen have had a hand in Bonifaz‘ armada? the scarcity, almost absence of any relevant documentation of the time relating to Bonifaz’ business (and of the Temple’s obvio) Urges us to surmise: likely yes, as the Templar’s were very involved with the “re taking“, understanding this as a struggle against the Muslims, they also possessed, as well, a great fleet, which they very well could have lent some ships to the Royal Armada.

Let us assume that 18 vessels constituted a great fleet at that time and quite difficult to put together. The implicitness, besides of the portlof Castro Urdiales,’a location that authors such as Juan Garcia Atienza or Jesus Avila Granados, identify as Templar and which has ruins documented as such, thus is the case of Allendelagua This sailor of Cantabrian origin seems to be, as his last Castle (eye en daylog wah), which they both verified: in name gives us his provenance to be from Camargue, fact, the first ship that rammed the Bridge of Barges, the (region south of Arles, France), in spite of the fact that Rosa de Castro, was home ported there. the “General Chronicle” of Alfonso X “The Wise” tells Now then, the presence of the cross on the shield (let’s us that he was from Burgos. recall from the XVI), was quite possibly attempting to

explain this, that it could still be documented at that time, or just the normal practice of placing red crosses on the sails to commemorate the recent discovery of America, at the end of the XV century, and by having a clear relationship with the Temple, it follows a very different Once his fleet was assembled, it was reinforced with history that the one we relate today. more vessels in Galicia, a total of thirteen vessels, plus another five galleys built in the shipyards of the Be that as it may, and following the fashion of erasing aforementioned cities in the Santander region, heading Templar’s from history, in more modern versions of the shield, the red cross on the center ship was deleted. Early in 1247, he was tasked by Ferdinand III to form an armada and coordinate with the army for the taking of Seville, availing himself of the aforementioned Cantabrian port cities as well as the port of Castro Urdiales.

Santa Marina de Udalla To wrap up that intense tour that happened to be that Monday, we headed for the town of Udalla, in the Cantabrian municipality of Ampuero, to visit the church of Santa Marina, very clearly of Templar origin, we are seeing a unique XIII century church, gothic, although with some romanesgue details. Unique because of its layout of two parallel naves

surrounded by buttresses, with criss-crossed vaulted ceilings and a split apse; to find anything similar one must seek out the mozarabic church of St. Millan de la Cogolla (me yon de la coe goya) or some temple in the south of France. Its Templar origins are manifest by the crosses and fleur d’lis found on the corbels, between human and animal faces above all; we also observed pate crosses on a vault inscription that we were able to photograph in the leaf like carvings over the entry way of the temple. Unlike in Castro Udales, these origins are not documented, although the Templar hypothesis is perfectly accepted among historians, who look beyond custom.

These lands actually belonged to the current extensions of Andalucia, Murcia and part of the Spanish Levant, approximately. Already in 1225, taking advantage of disputes doms of Taifa, and upon the death of the Emir Yacub Yusuf, the king of Castile embarks upon Martos and Baeza and upon assuming the throne between said king of Seville Abu conquering Andujar, of Ledh, the take Cazorla in 1231, Cdrdoba in 1236 and Murcia surrenders, thus being peacefully occupied by his son Alfonso in 1243, the last pockets of resistance in Murcia, such as Cartagena, fall in 1244, present among the occupiers was the Chief Master of Santiago, Pelay Perez Correa, whom we will talk about later. Jaén (ha en), after years of attacks would not fall until 1246. But Seville, was another case entirely, there, the Almohad emirate of Abu Yacub Yusuf (who for certain had been the one behind the Bridge of Barges that connected Seville with Triana and the Aljarafe (al ha ra feh) in 1171), it was completed by his son Abu Yusuf AlMansur, who constructs the high fortress or tower castle called Azn Al-Xaraf, in a nearby enclave, on the western bank of the Oued Al-Aquevir River (now Guadalquivfr), between the years 1196 and 1197, this enclave had already been occupied by the Almoravids a century earlier, in the time of king Al-Mutammid who often took up residence there. Upon Al-Mansur’s death the decline of the Almohad emirs commences, nevertheless, the Almohad emirs retain power until the end; Abu Al-Ola, who was an ally of the Castilian king, paid his tributes to Seville without fail, which rendered its conquest not viable. It was upon his death in 1232, after an uprising, that the city expels the Almohads and it falls into the hands of the rebel Muhammad Yusuf Abu Und, thus entering into a great decadence, until at last it comes to be governed by Abu Al-Hassan, better known as Axataf:

Once explained what turned our outing’s attention towards Seville we returned to our city. we will relate the facts and introduce you to some additional personages.

Chosen By History Born in 1199, in either Peleas de Arriba (paylay ahs) (Zamora) or Bolaños de Calatrava (Ciudad Real), Ferdinand III is crowned King of Castile in 1217 and of Ledh in 1230, upon the abdication of his mother Berenguela, unifying, once and forever, both kingdoms. Since his coronation as Castilian king, Ferdinand inherits a frontier realm inhabited by a series of Muslim factions, albeit greatly diminished after the great battle of Navas de Tolosa (1212), where a combination of armies from Navarre, Aragdh and Castile, these last sent by his very own paternal grandfather Alphonse VIII, they defeated The king had the perfect excuse and once Cdrdoba and the forces of Emir Mohammed An-Nassir (Miramolfh). Jaéh are taken, he marches on Seville, but its conquest will not be a simple task.

Preludes of a long Siege Around the summer of 1247, the royal troops have taken Carmona,Setefilla, Lora, Cantillana...all the northern banks of the Guadalquivir, they have reached the broad shallows of reeds (can yas) and they have taken the fortress of Alcala del Rio, Hearing their objective; meanwhile, Bonifaz’ armada has defeated the Marinids at Sanlucar de Barrameda and has reached Qwaura, present day Coria del Rio. Within the ranks of the king of Castille-Leòns army, there can be found all the Military Order’s, national and international: Santiago, Calatrava and Alcantara (this last to a lesser degree), included are the Avis of Portugal, alongside the Hospitaller and, why not, the Temple. The Templar’s, al though not very numerous, as they were not military per se and besides they usually restricted their skills to the Holy Land.

headquarters of the Order and afterwards succeeding the Grand Mastership of Rodrigo Iñiguez (inyeegez) in 1242. On the Extremadura frontier, he took over large areas of land to the south of the actual provinces of Badajoz and in the northern part of Huelva, the settlements of “de Ledn, Segura, Fuentes, Calera and Arroyomolinos. Aloof and haughty of character, he bragged that he would conquer Seville by himself if the king failed, in fact when the monarch asked for his help in this matter, he stated that he would prefer to go fight in Constantinople, whereupon after much cajoling he agreed to the task; although, we must recall that he collaborated actively with the Prince Don Alfonso in the conquest of Murcia. Having arrived in proximity of Seville in the summer of 1247, he quickly takes the castle keep of Azn Al-Xaraf (today, only the ruined walls stand), supported from the river by Bonifaz’ fleet (following the conquest of Seville, in spite of it having been taken by the Order of Uclés, it was turned over to the Hospitaller’s, and it came to be called St. John of Aznalfarache) which eliminates all resistance from the western shore.

They were coming from the recently conquered Murcia, under the command of Crown Prince Don Alfonso. A curious aside, that having just come from the newly created Commandery It fai1s, however, of Caravaca de la alongside the Prince’s Cruz, they arrive in Sancho and Fadrique Seville displaying the patriarchal cross upon the left shoulder of their mantles, similar to the one of in the blockade of the moatedzcastle of Triana, in spite of the heavy machinery employed. The castle, of which Caravaca in place of the habitual pate cross. today there remains not a trace, since after being used by Fernando III finds himself before a well defended the Inquisition, was transformed into the actual market city: heavily walled, a castle with barbicans (narrow place of Triana, it would not fall until the destruction of openings for launching projectiles) impenetrable moats the Bridge of Barges, once »;viagain with the collaboration like the terrifying Tower of Gold and the fortress of of Bonifaz. Once the western frontier of the river was Gabir, that would later come to be known as the Castle conquered, the Order of Santiago sets up camp in the of St. George and backed up by the nearby Azn Al— Tamarguillo, displacing himself with part of his army, Xaraf, the high fortress, which above all else fad to taken by royal order, to the aforementioned settlements south and this would fall to the Order of Uclés (ooh cless) or of Badajoz with the aim of eliminating any remaining pockets of resistance and ensuring the flow of supplies Santiago and its Grand Master. to the Christian keepers of said settlements by way of Via de la Plata (route of La Plata is an ancient commersi cial Pelay Perez Correa and pilgrimage route, today the modern A-66 and AP-66 As controversial as fierce, Paio Peres Correia, thus was free-ways), it is in this context, that around September his name had been born in Monte de Fralaes, (Friar’s of 1248, the Battle of Tentudia takes place and the mount), in the Council of Barcelds in 1205 and therefore supposed miraculous occurence: during the siege of he was Portuguese. He made his career in the Order Montemolfh Castle, apparently a fierce battle between of Santiago and was at one time Knight Commander of the Santiago Knights and the Almohads who little by Alcaber do Sal, the greatest and largest commandery little were infiltrating themselves into the Christian in the Portuguese realm, many were his achievements lines but, upon the Master seeing that night was falling in far flung lands, conquering Ayamonte in the south upon them, making victory difficult, he fell to his knees and Merida in Extremadura, which netted him at first emulating biblical lore and cried out “Holy Mary stay his promotion to Commander of Uclés, the central your daylight”, whereupon the Lady appeared in the

heavens, granting Pelay Pèrez Correa his wish and yith it, victory. Be that as it will, with the fall of Montemolin the last northern Sevilian support collapsed, the city was at the mercy of the royal commanders, although by that time few remained. Correa ordered a sanctuary to be built on the highest point in the region, dedicated to St. Mary of Tudfa or of Tentudia, being cited besides in the “Canticles of Alfonso X, the Wise”, future king after the death of king Ferdinand. Pelay would return to Seville, after all, to raise the banner of Santiago once the city fell.

The siege against the city is relatively quiet: in contrast with the moated castle, no heavy war machinery was deployed, as the monarch was well aware of the value, as much architectural and cultural, that the edifices of the city held; in fact, tradition states that the Muslims were prepared to topple the minaret of the chief mosque prior to surrendering, the legendary Giralda, (now the spire of the cathedral of Seville) the king threatening to cut as many moorish heads as bricks were missing from the same. Nevertheless the efforts of the besieged to eliminate the attackers were numerous and the skirmishes must have been fierce. The encampment of the Buhaira was one of the most attacked and in one of the ambushes foot soldiers, several knights fall as well as a great number of support troops. Death claims Prince Alfonso de Molina, attached to the Leonese court and a friend of our Order, apparently much later, in the heat of battle, Templar Master Martim Martins, Portuguese and 14th Grand Master as well as eigth of the three kingdoms, Portugal, Castille and Ledh (we will explain later, he being the youngest that had ever risen to the post at only 27 years old, he was succeeded by Gomés Ramirez who would enter the city with the king of Castille-Leòn.

In the actual Convent of Tentudia, (Tentudia is Spanish for deten tu dia [stay your daylight] ) and since 1510, the mortal remains of Pelay Pérez de Correa repose, after being moved from Talavera de la Reina by Ferdinand the Catholic, along with the remains of other Masters of Ucles, in spite of other versions that tell us that they were moved to Tavira, perhaps because of that absurd competition with the neighboring country, as we witnessed in previous transfers of “Non nobis, Domine”, such was the case with the headstones of Vasco da Gama and Olivenza.

It is quite possibly for this (again we venture into the milieu of conjecture) given that it was the king’s son, once he assumed the throne with the name of Alfonso X, who shares and names the different precincts of the city, that the place where the Templar’s were encamped receives the name of suburb of St. Bernard, the canonized founder of the Order, and we can almost surmise that they would have raised a hermitage or small chapel in the proximity of the present day church, dedicated to the saint and dating to the XVIII century.

The Siege Preparations are readied for a long siege that will last from August of 1247 through November 23, 1248, Feast of St. Clement. Ferdinand III boasts seven encampments surrounding the city of Seville, the main ones being centered on the pastures of Tablada, where a temporary port is built for the fleet, and in the gardens of the Buhaira; this last, in front of the entrance to the Puerta la Carne (Meat Gate) where the synagogue was located, which de a today is the Parish of St. Mary the White, where both the Templar and St. John encampments. They had to ensure, as well, that the city would not receive reinforcements from bordering kingdoms, whereby the various military orders, as was explained in the case of Santiago, they take different settlements of the northern range, the Templar’s dealing with the Huelvan settlements near the kingdom of Niebla (knee ebla).

To this very day, be that as it may, we hear the echoes of these gestures in the very street signs of the area: “Encampment”, “Saintly King”, “Tentudia”, “Valme (ln honor of the monarch’s veneration of Our Lady), “Cofla for a certain legend associated with the Master of the Jerusalem Hospital.

Garci Pèrez de Vargas. We know very little of this Master of St. John in spite of his appearance in ancient chronicles and even being included by Cervantes in his writings, this is why all We practically know about this knight from Toledo and favorite of the king, is by way of legends and tradition. The best know among these is the one about the “Cofia”, the name of a street in the aforementioned precinct of St. Bernard: Apparently our hero, accompanied by another knight, in defense a of the pasture of Tablada, when they were surrounded by seven Muslim knights; the knight who accompanied panicked and abandoned him, but Garci demanded his squires arms, bore them and advanced against the ring. The Muslims, upon recognizing him did not engage, he then realized that when he donned the helmet he had lost the “cofia” (a padded cap worn on the head as a cushion for the helmet) which because of his baldness, was even more important, so he retrieved it and faced them off anew. It is said that the king, looking upon this scene from the hill of Azn-Al-Xaraf asked the Master afterwards who was the knight that had abandoned him, but Garci’never gave him up.

to vacate the same, until the 22 of December when Don Fernando rode victorious into the prized city. Little would our king live alas, to savor the joy obtained, he died of dropsy (a condition where fluid accumulates in the body, causing edemas throughout) on the 30th of May 1252 in the high castle; impossible today to determine of it was caused by liver, renal or cardiac failure. He was succeeded to the throne by his son Prince Alfonso, who would reign as Alfonso X and came to be called, for his appetite of science and letters and for being the founder of the School of Translator’s of Toledo, as “The Wise”, he will be the one charged with the distribution of lands among the different participants in the conquest of the city. His father’s incorrupt corpse is kept in the Royal Chapel of the Holy Cathedral, at the feet of the Virgin of the Kings, and contained within a silver reliquary. Many are the legends surrounding Ferdinand III, so many that he ended up being canonized in the XVII century by Pope Clement X, due to a miracle precisely legendary, that we will proceed to relate.

Holy Mary, Diverse Dedications.

It was the year 1248 and the king along with his troops found himself on the Hill of Cuartos, in the vicinity of the Pasture of Tablada, and conscious of the difficulty of his task and the discouragement of his troops, invoked the Virgin with these words, as recalled by the XVII century historian from Santiago, Ortfé de Zùñiga: “Enable me, Milady, and if you deem to do so, in this place I will build you a chapel, and at your feet, I will offer, the pennants of the enemies of Castille and Ledh and of Today this warrior knight is immortalized on the left our Holy Faith that we vanquishl”, the legend adds that side of the Saint King’s equestrian statue’s base in the he then sent Pelay Correa (precisely) to introduce the new square of the city, although its image, is a highly romanticized recreation. His connection to the Hospitaller Order seems in line with another legend: finding himself with his host of knights before the gate of Guadalguivir Street, demolished in the XIX century, and under a shower of arrows, he banged the gate with the pommel of his sword ahouting “you are to be called the gate of St. John”, a name that the gate bore until its demise.

The Finale We had already told you earlier that the siege was not entirely effective until the destruction of the Bridge of Barges that connected Seville with Triana, by Bonifaz and therefore with the Aljarafe, as that was the direct supply route only of food, but also of reinforcements. The heavily manned but fell on May 3, 1248, as we to the city, not bridge had been have related, after Don Ramon had previously defeated the small fleet that defended the city, including a fireship armed with Greek Fire, and rupturing the chains of the Tower of Gold, defeating its defenses subsequently the Castle of Gabir would fall, we must add that, after the taking of the city, the bridge was rebuilt, remaining in use until the XIX century, when it was replaced by the actual Isabella II Bridge that connects Seville with Triana at the same location where the previous one always was. The city would submit, as we know, on November 23 of that year, giving the inhabitant’s of same a term of one month

point of his sword into the ground to mark the spot, from this point a spring flowed forth, the King’s Fountain, that served to slake the thirst of his men. Once the city fell, the king kept his promise and built a hermitage dedicated to Holy Mary of Valme in honor of his request and with a statue depicting the Lady, which remained there until the XIX century, during which an epidemic forced the

people to move it to the Parish of St. Mary Magdalene, in nearby Dos Hermanas (two sister’s), where it remains to this day, and where she is the patron saint of the region as well. The kings first two words in his request to Our Lady... “Enable me” is “Valeme” in Spanish (va lay may), hence the shortened usage of Valme. In the canonization process of Don Fernando, they also discussed the possibility of including the miracle of the appearance of Our Lady of Tentudia of which we spoke.

the settlement of San Juan de Aznalfarache (oz nal fa rah chay), outside the walls and the high castle, these last two having already been granted by Ferdinand III in 1248.m.The Temple Receives the village of Fregenal de la Sierra, outside the walls (which would later be incorporated into the municipality of Jeréz de los Caballeros), farm lands in Campo de Tejada and the Alqueria de Rastinana in what is today Escacena (Alqueria is a Iarge grange), province of Huelva.

The Virgen de los Reyes (Virgin of the Kings) is a life sized gothic carving donated to the Holy King by his cousin Louis IX of France, as a tribute to the taking of Seville as well as to the role that Our Lady played in same. The statue, although totally articulated, is kept seated and guarding the remains of our Castilian-Leonese monarch in the Royal Chapel of the Holy Cathedral. Above her sanctuary one can read the Latin inscription “PER ME REGES REGNANT”, which translates to: “through me kings rule” or “kings rule thanks to me”, in clear reference to the taking of Seville. Finally, of the many shrines dedicated to Mary in the fabled city we would not like to bid farewell without speaking of the missing Virgin of Atocha, this black madonna, “which was located in a small arch within known Templar territory, as She (territory which we will soon discuss) did not disappear after being relocated to a storage facility, for reasons of new construction which involved demolition of the small arch, a move that certainly provoked some controversy and she was never seen again; beyond conjecture this time, still with insufficient data, the image nowadays is most likely in private hands, the result most likely, of the looting and sale of religious art, that our patrimony has been subjected to.

Within the awalls, they are granted a district in the so called Collacidn (district) de Santa Maria and would extend from Garcia de Vinuesa and Tetuan streets, and from Arenal to San Francisco Square, fixing their principal convent and headquarters therefore on Pajeria

Temple House Pajerias road

Street, today Zaragosa, (Pajeria means straw house) the corresponding extension to the actual Plaza Nueva and the Guild Hall would be utilized as an orchard. The Division. Before anything we must clarify that in Spain a district Was carried out as we previously said, by Alfonso X, or precinct, called compas, is a zone of self jurisdiction, among all participants in the taking of Seville, including within the town, and therefore free of certain imposed each and every one of the military orders and this was charges and tariffs, one must recall that some Orders, such as the Templar‘s, were solely under their own self concluded by rule and answered only to the Holy See. At any rate, in 1253. It would the XIII century, disregarding the centric vision of what be too much to go we perceive a zone to be, we would be referring to a into, in our already Cistercian abbey, located in a scarcely populated area of lengthy work, so the city, albeit near the Alcazar (high castle) and the chief we will refer only mosgue and bordered by the wall and the Arenal gate. to the principal There also existed within the walls a lagoon located in aforementioned what is now Molviedro Square and Castelar Street that Orders: Santiago limited said “compas” to the area bordering the river. - Receives lands located around Even today, in our time, part of the convent of the Poor the actual“convent Knights remains, thanks to an exceptional tenant, no less of the Sisters of than Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada,(St. Teresa of Avila, Mercy. San Juan born 1515) who purchased the land, that produced as -Receives a territory a result, the bad press that the saint gave the city, due between Torneo to the fact that the lands close to the water front area and Guadalquivir proper, were filled with brothels and gambling houses, streets, in the area as well as the streets being filthy and unpaved. From of the demolished that time we hear voices that echo the ancient Cistercian San Juan gate,

abbey: “Encomienda (embroidered cross worn by knights on their mantles),“Mesdn de los Caballeros” (Inn of the Knights), “Atocha” (tough feather grass), “Compas de la Laguna” (district of the lagoon)... Today the streets where the Templar district ran along are: Gamazo, Zaragoza, Padre Marchena, Quirós, Doña Guiomar, García demVinuesa, Carlos Cañal, Plaza de Molviedro, Castelar, Mesón de los Caballeros, José de Velilla, Alvareda, Plaza Nueva, Tetuán, Harinas at Joaquín Guichot.

Templars in Seville

Triana, on’ the other side of the river, therefore beyond the walls. There observed or wished to observe the only trace in stone of our brother’s through Seville, let me explain: Apparently, while in Seville the king became gravely ill with an eye ailment, it may have been acute glaucoma, the terrible “pain of an eye spot” once again according to Diego Ortiz de Zùñiga: “He suffered great pain and on the verge of losing the one eye”, doctors could find no remedy, so he commended himself to St. Anne and it is said that he healed miraculously. To give thanks for his recovery, Alfonso built this temple in 1276, in Triana, between the streets of Pureza (purity), Bernardo Guerra and Pelay Correa.

Strangers in Castille. As already expressed by my friend and colleague Juan Antonio Romero Gdmez in his opus “The Templar’s in the Kingdom of Seville”, Alfonso X was quite possibly the most pro Templar of all Castilian-Leonese monarchs. Even from his days as crown prince the help provided by the Order during the conquest of Murcia was positively indispensable and after the taking of Seville his relationship with the Templar’s even included close and personal friendships with many of them, perhaps there was more hidden behind the haziness of History, that confounded History that quite often makes it so difficult to follow its trace. It is thus, that there exist certain documents, gathered in the cited opus, where the brother’s sign as the king’s witnesses in different concessions and privileges. The Templar’s were also present in the court at Toledo, where they had a seat in the Castle of St. Servando and a residence on Soledad Street and theywere in the court The first feature that catches the eye is its castle-like of Seville, where they often accompanied the king in ramparts that make one think that he conceived it as a the High Castle (Alcahar), as can be seen in the book “Capella Militia” or fortified structure in the style that of Alfonso X, “Book of Chess, Dice and Backgammon” the Templar’s built many of their c h u r c h e s . Its interior construction, as well as also has Mozarabic elements that are clearly observed generous use of brickwork. Within the interior decor, ing it brief, alongside a splendid altar where we see where in one of the illustrations we see him playing with Grandmother another Templar, none other than the XVI Portuguese with the Virgin Grand Master and tenth of the three kingdoms, Paio and Child, also Gomes, who had succeeded Gomes Ramires upon his venerated gothic, death in 1251. in the and keepthe Holy are the patronesses of the city and reference is Proof of this devotion to the Order on the the king’s part, made to Our Lady of Rocio (morning dew but can also beyond the sources consulted, I personally obtained in mean divine inspiration or holy thoughts), a cult began the Church of St. Anne, in the Sevilian neighborhood of by our “Wise King”, the surprise however, is found on

either side of the main lobby entrance, which is formed by seven pair of small columns, with decorated capitals depicting vegetable motifs and their corresponding connective arches, over which we see the shield of Castille and Leon; thus as with the interior and all throughout the temple.

brotherhood of the post of Calatrava that motivated the foundation of that order was a difficult occurrence for the Castilians to forgiveAlso the the Templars were always short of funds and fundamentally concentrated in Palestine as well as the greater support given to the neighboring kingdom of Portugal, did little to view the Templars with kindness in these lands, especially when fifth Portuguese Master, Lope Fernandes, going against the norm of the Order that forbids engagements between Christians, takes part in the blockade of Ciudad Rodrigo against the King of Leòn Alfonso IX,. That brought about the suppression of Castilian and Leonese masters until in 1210, on the eve of the Battle of Navas de Tolosa the charge over the three kingdoms: Portugal, Castile and Ledh, is bestowed upon the seventh Portuguese Master (first of all three) Gomes Ramires. Such precedents, coupled with the orders secrecy and despite the professed admiration for same by Alfonso X, motivated him to plant a spy, from among his most loyal vassals, who, came to tell the king that he preferred death before confessing to what he had witnessed during his

The church is replete with patriarchal crosses! Finally, an ancient plaque, between the portico and the cross situated on its left, commemorates the miraculous cure of the king that motivated the construction of the temple. In spite of the professed devotion to our Order by the Wise King which can be said was an extension of his father Don Fernando ( proof of this is that he offered them concessions after taking Cordoba, in spite of not actually participating in said assault) the Templar’s did not enjoy much kindness in either of the king doms of Castille or Ledn for many reasons, among these is the greater support for the local orders like Santiago, Alcantara or Calatrava, and the fact that the abandonment on the part of the

Templar sojourn, such was the fear that was generated to report on the Temple’s movements. The reason, once again, perhaps, the friction with the kingdom of Portugal; at that time for reason of the Algarve, in Castilian hands. On that occasion, no doubt because of the friendship that existed between the king with Master Paio Gomes, perhaps because of the strict adherence to the Templar norm on his part or both, the Master preferred to back off rather than facing off with his friend, the situation being resolved with his successor, the 17th Portuguese Master Martim Nuñes, in a peaceful manner: the Algarve would be for Portugal in exchange for Templar support to Don Alfonso in his Andalucian campaigns. Alfonso X “The Wise”, much appreciated in our city for being, alongside Ferdinand III and Pedro I, one of the three most Sevilian kings, he is recognized today for having bestowed the legend “NO8DO” to the place,

from the minor arms of his Royal Coat of Arms (in gold Bibliography: upon a field of crimson). There are various interpretations of its meaning, although, once again, we tread upon the field of fiction: According to the classic interpretation, it should be read as “NOMADEJA-DO”, the monarch, referring to the fidelity that the city maintained in the struggle of succession that his son, Prince Don Sancho faced: SEVILLA NO ME HA DEJADO” (Seville has not left me). More recent studies, as the ones carried out by the local author Emilio Carrillo Benito in his book “The NO8D0 of Seville”: Meaning and Origin, they want to compare it, just the same as in cities such as London, with the initials of “NOMINE DOMINE”, the skein of thread, the emblem of the esoteric “gordian knot”. Modestly and to conclude, I ask myself after seeing the “8” symbol of infinity (and of reiteration, as such) in more than one Templar enclave (let’s recall for example the Church of Sao Joao Baptista in Tomar), if the monarch was not trying to communicate to us his ties to the Temple concealing behind the emblem the first three words of Psalm 115: “non nobis, Domine”

“Bos Templarios en el Reino de Sevilla”, Juan Antonio Romero Gomez, 2nd edition, corrected and expanded, Vitela Editorial,2011 “El Legado TemplarioV , Juan G. Atienza, Swing Editorial, 2007 “Calero de Ledn y su Monasterio de Tentudia”, Manuel Blanco Mejias auto edited and printed by Castro Press, Zafra, Badajoz, 1992 Notices relative to the History of Seville, not found in theirrecorded annals, gathered from diverse writings and manuscripts) Justino de Matute y Gaviria, 1828, Renacimiento Editorial, 1982

“The NO8DO of Seville: Meaning and Origin, Emilio Carrillo Benito R.D. Editorial, 2005 “Historia de Sevilla, Vol. 4, Del Rey Santo al Rey Justiciero”, Diario ABC, Depto. Legal SE 4747-06, 2006 Web: www.wikipedia.org www.degelo.com/sevilla/sev16.htm

Sebastian Carbajosa Castilla Diplomate in Nursing. Anthropology studies. Editor of “Mysteries and unusual phenomena” History researcher Temple.

The Influence of Woman on Jesus Juan Antonio Cabezos Good day ladies and gentlemen. To begin with I extend my appreciation to all present because without you the Temple is not possible, and I also wish to appreciate the presence of the Priors of the different Templar Orders that exist on practically the five continents, and lastly, my appreciation to the International Templar Assembly Andalucia Fuensanta Santos de la Rubia, Antonio Josè Gòmez Morillo y Sebastian Carbajosa, (AIT Andalucia ), for inviting me to deliver this conference and my sincere congratulations to the rest of Speakers who have made possible the holding of this conference History Temple in Andalucia. And of course the audience.and his ladies and knights on the grand organization of this congress. For several years now in theologicicontemplation, there has appeared a new form of theology and that is feminist theology. Theologians of both genders have brought out a new way of understanding God, not from the patriarchal perspective of God theFather but rather from the feminine perspective of understanding God as God Father/Mother. How has this revolution been possible? We have the answer in social revolution because the great revolution of the twentieth century was not the Marxist one (which brought the concept of economic planning), nor was it fascism (which brought minimum wage, collective agreement and paid vacation) nor was it democracy (which has allowed peaceful transfer of power on the part of the ruling elite), but the feminist revolution.

century, Spain has over one and a half million such women. In historic terms it is a revolution that translates to the recognition of women’s participation in the past and equally in the present. Thus, we should not surprised by the contributions of female theologians, nor the advances in the knowledge of the relationship between Jesus and his female disciples. Now then, how do we approach as investigator’s, as seekers of truth, to said relationship? We could address it from the traditional model and speak of Jesus has done for them but we are not interested in that paradigm, employing this scientific contribution by Khune in his opus on scientific revolutions, but instead from the opposite paradigm, or what Jesus learned from women, what women contributed, what did women teach Jesus?. To comprehend this paradigm we must touch briefly on the state of scientific investigation concerning Jesus. The wise ones, who were the intellectuals of the 18th century, discovered a paradigm, a method of analyzing reality and it was the use of reason and from reason in other fields, they studied Jesus and Christianity applying the new investigative method which was reason.

They reached the conclusion that Christianity was a synthesis of pagan myths, thus was the resurrection already present in the egyptian religion, that Mary’s I will use as an example, Spain on January 1, 1900, virginity had occurred in other religions etc. Deep down in other words the first day of the 20th century, there what these sages were seeking was the true face of Jesus was only one female college graduate, a woman who and not the one that the church proposed. crossed the threshold of a university, shared desks with men, who passed and obtained her licentiate or what In addition, these investigators even doubted the existence today is called, according to the University of Bologna’s of Jesus. The ecclesiastical response was rejection and plan, a degree. We should erect a national monument to condemnation of these investigations that had no serious that father, that mother who being of free and progressive repercussions because society was transforming due minds encouraged their daughter to cross that threshold. to the Industrial Revolution. Rudulf Bultmann (18841976), a prominent Protestant theologian, arrived at the Thirty two years later, Spain had 34,000 female graduates conclusion that has revolutionized, as a paradigm the and on January 1, 2000, that is the first day of the 21st field of historic investigation,when he wrote that one

must distinguish the historic Jesus, a man that existed, success lay in the fact that he could do this with water from the Christ of faith that was an elaborate fabrication and for free, and because of this the masses viewed by His followers. him as a new prophet. Jesus came near, listened to Him and was baptized, and when He was baptized, Beginning with this paradigm the search for the historic in other words when ?e felt at peace within Himself, Jesus commenced and today, investigators affirm that He experienced something mystical which the Gospel’s three such searcheg have existed. literally express as thus: “At the moment he arose from the waters he saw the heavens part and the Holy Spirit The first stage is called the liberal school in the form of a Paracleet that descended upon Him, a Part of the opus of Herman Samueal Reimarus (18th voice was heard from heaven--” You are my beloved son cent. philosopher, deist and intellectual), compares the in whom i am pleased”-Christ of faith to Jesus of Nazareth and is the basis for Jesus had a mystical experience at that moment and we the liberal school of thought, with the opus of Ernest can say that His personal exodus had begun. We have Renan, The Life of Jesus, as its axis, rejecting all the employed the word exodus but what do we understand supernatural and explaining them as beliefs of His the exodus of a man to mean? It is the casting aside the followers but not based on reality. natural prejudices that as human’s, we have. These The second quest began in 1953 which discarded Renan’s prejudices originate in our families, our friends, society, work. The third quest for the historic Jesus began in the in the workplace, in religion and within our nation. early 80s of the last century whose characteristics we One of the things that make the figure of Jesus exceptional would wisely showcase for the good of this conference is that he initiated his exodus by slowly abandoning the are on one side to study Jesus‘ Judaism and on the other above mentioned prejudices. Thus via the personal side, present a human and believable Jesus, building this exodus we journey towards the fullness of a free man vision of Jesus outside of the church. and embodied in all and with all. The first step was His So then, starting with Jesus‘ Judaism we will approach mystical experience of which Mark wrote expressively this conference knowing that Jesus was born in the He adds: “The Spirit guides Him to the desert and there bosom of a Jewish family, of Jewish parents, He He remained forty days...” received a Jewish education, was a Pharisee Rabbi, lived as a Jew, practiced Judaism, and taught a new He speaks metaphorically of forty days because it form of Judaism and was assassinated by the king of the represents symbolically, the years of life, the hope of life Jews but most importantly, the most important thing is as we would say today, that a Jew or a gentile could that reach under the Roman Empire. He died as a Jewish man. when did the transformation of Jesus the Jew turn into that of Jesus the free man? It began when Jesus became a disciple of John the Baptist, who enjoyed great success, amazing success, because he allowed sins to be cleansed for free as opposed to the priestly elite who cleansed people of their sins for pay, not with money but with livestock, through sacrificial means. John the Baptist s success was possible because the masses wished to live a full life and they could not due to the weight of sin and the great deal of expenditure required to be forgiven, means that in the majority of cases they lacked, thus John the Baptist’s

And starting with His first mystical experience He began to heal and proclaim the good news. If the first leap towards personal exodus was baptism, what was the second? This is where the women come in because they were the second leap towards humanization, humanization that must be our first objective and which consists of living life to the fullest.

The first prejudice that he must overcome as a Jewish Man, is The Touching of a woman which Mark describes Thus: “Immediately upon leaving the synagogue, He went to the home of Simon and Andrew, accompanied by James and John. Simon’s mother in law lay in bed with fever. They quickly spoke of her. He approached, took her hand and raised her up: the fever abated and she began to serve them.” Because of the laws of orthodoxy a Jew may not touch a woman other than his wife, because women were considered unclean (tumaal) and to touch one rendered a man defiled, whereupon after a paid ritual in

a temple, he would regain his purity. Even to engage in sexual intercourse with her husband rendered a woman unclean for one day, giving birth also made her unclean for a time, as told in Leviticus.

But Jesus said unto her, let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. And she answered and said unto Him, yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs. And He said unto her,For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter. And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter lay upon the bed.” She is a woman thrice marginalized, first for being a woman, secondly because she was of Greek nationality and for being Syrpphenician, in other words, because of her race it classified her as a Canaanite and Jesus’ reply is one of compassion because at first he behaved as a Jew shunning the ‘curs”, afterwards as a result of dialogue, his reply was one of compassion which caused a change of mind and , therefore, of view in Jesus.

He is anointed as by King After physical contact with Simon’s mother in law, Jesus by a Woman. again lays His hand on a woman, and it is Luke who reflects upon this in his Gospel’s. The ceremony of anointing took place when princes were elevated to the category of kings, through this “He was teaching on the Sabbath in one of the ceremony the king was considered a son of God and synagogues. There present was a woman who had been therefore entered into another category, that of royalty afflicted by a spirit for eighteen years and because of this which set him apart from nobility and commoners; Jesus she was permanently hunchbacked and unable to walk is recognized as a king when he was anointed by a upright. Upon seeing her Jesus called to her and said: woman in Bethany, Mark 14, 3 — 9 describes it:

Woman, thou art free of your illness. He lay his hands “And being in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper upon her, and immediately she straightened up and as he sat at meat t r havin an alabaster box of ointmen began praising God.” precious: and she broke the box, and poured it on his We see that Jesus cures on the Sabbath, the first scandal head...” to the Pharisee mentality, as the Sabbath is the day of On another note we see another unction in Luke 7, 36 rest, and an even greater scandal for the Pharisees, He - 50, when Jesus was invited to supper by a Pharisee: “ broke said law with a woman who upon becoming free to walk upright, is occupying a place reserved for men.

The Second Prejudice is of Social Character: It is the shedding of despise that jews harbor towards gentiles. As Jews considered themselves God’s chosen people, they considered the rest of society as inferior to them and this fact is reflected in the use of the word “dogs” when referring to gentiles. In Mark 7, 24-30 he tells us of the encounter with a Syrophenician woman : “And from thence He arose, and went into the land of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into a house and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid. For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought Him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.

And behold, a woman in the city which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, this man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him; for she is a sinner.”

If in the case of Simon’s mother in law, Jesus viewed as customary the act of being served, it can be explained due to His at the beginning of His personal exodus, in the encounter with Mary and Martha, he chides the one who would serve Him and therefore creates an exception to‘a woman’s status and sets aside convention and custom.

The Prejudice That Men Must Support Women.

A new motive for scandal as he is anointed by a woman who according to St. Like was a prostitute. Jesus maintained a special esteem for prostitutes (the most unclean of women) because he broke bread with them and when the Pharisees unleashed their attack on Jesus, they criticized him for being a glutton who consorted with prostitutes. Again the most impure woman, elevated.

The Next Prejudice he Overcomes is that of a Womans Place in Society. This prejudice meant that a woman’s function was to bear children and serve the male, we saw this at the beginning of Jesus’ public activity whereupon after healing Simon’s mother in law, she arose and began serving them. However, in Luke 10, 38-42 we see an alternate situation when he writes: “Now it came to pass, as they went, that He entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus‘ feet and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to Him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful; and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

Until the Industrial Revolution made it possible for women to become self sufficient, the norm was for the father, husband or a brother to support them, but Jesus, through Luke 8, 2-3 shows us that: And the twelve were with Him, and certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities Mary called Magdalene out of whom went seven devils. I And Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna and many others which ministered unto Him ofltheir substance.“ From Luke’s text we conclude that it was women who managed their assets, that they were proprietors and therefore Wealthy, who also supported Jesus. Another scandal for the Pharisees, a man supported by women.

The Final Toboo that Jesus Overcame the value of Female Testimony. The most glaring example was of Mary Magdalene that He set aside. If the wedding at Canaan was that of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, He left out if they were companions or did they live as a couple, he set aside the persecution of Mary Magdalene on the part of the papacy and of patriarchal segments that proposed that Mary Magdalene be portrayed as a patroness of Roman prostitutes, but what truly interests us is the account of complicity between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. First she supports Him, afterwards she is the protagonist in the resurrection and also the disciple that announces the resurrection.

the coin. 3 — He is evangelized by a Pagan woman, Greek and of the Canaan race and through this evangelization Jesus‘ message became universal. 4 — He took a qualitative leap concerning relationships with women by having them no longer viewed simply as reproductive bodies, but as person’s entitled to sincere friendship. A man can be a friend to a woman without the man’s mind having an image of sexuality or dominance.

He did not seek out the men, who were hidden in fear, He did not go to Peter, who had denied Him thrice, but to Mary Magdalene and in this manner He overcomes the Jewish taboo establishing that the testimony of women was not valid, but to Jesus, said testimony was indeed valid and thus the complicity between Jesus and Mary Magdalene was possible. Complicity because she accompanied Him from the onset, helped Him and was a receiver of His teachings, thus we understand that she was a disciple and as such Jesus viewed her as an Apostle, that is to say that in its original meaning, as an envoy thus completing the third zequirement for admission into the apostolic group. All in all she was considered “Apostle of the Apostles”. In summary we have: 1 - Embodiment. Women donate their bodies and Jesus experienced the closeness of a human being through them_-they touched Him, anointed Him, they kissed Him. Whereas no man ever washed His feet, gave Him the kiss of welcome, nor anointed His head with oil. 2 - Jesus began to bestow because He gave His affection, His healing presence, words of comfort, compassion. when He speaks of the kingdom he does so through the woman who adds yeast to the dough, the one who seeks

And to conclude this conference, an American author, Rodney Stark in his great book, “The Rise of Christianity” clearly tells us that the key to Christian success was the support of women who saw in the new communities and equality with men and uses St. Augustine as an example, who had a Pagan father and a Christian mother. He states that in the Roman Empire and at a given time, women were mostly Christian and men Pagan which made mixed marriages necessary. And women, for the most part. became Christian and little by little they abandoned Paganism as they improved their standing when they were considered equal to men and with the same obligations and thus all became possible because of the tender gaze, the compassionate action of.a Pharisee Rabbi who opened His heart to women. My sincere thanks for your kind attention

Juan Antonio Cabezos Martinez •• High School Teacher; thirty five years of experience. •• Degree in Geography and History from the University of La Laguna •• Law Degree from the University of Murcia •• President of the Association of geographers and historians of the middle teachings of the Murcia region. •• Academy honorary of The Municipalistica Brazilian Academy of Letters.

The Templar Seal Dome of the Rock Fuensanta Santos de la Rubia When the mind explores the symbol, it is drawn to ideas that are beyond the reach of reason. Carl Gustav Jung

The Seven Laws Book III Title 20

1st Law: Seal is the mark that the king or any other man commissions to be made of metal or stone with which letters are signed by him; and it has been used throughout time, placed on the letter as bearing witness to the things written thereupon. Alfonso X The Wise

To speak in depth about impressions or seals one have to delve into their origins, take a historic review on its evolution and use throughout the ages, seals in their diverse forms have accompanied humanity in its history for millennia almost since the appearance of writing, it was used to validate documents, laws, orders, letters, as a sign of recognition of the person and the position or rank that they held as well as the authority they represented. King Alfonso X, The Wise in the massive opus that he personally directed assisted by Castilian jurists and originally titled “The Book of Laws”, dedicates Part III of his Book II which refers to justice, in it its Title XX “De los Seellos et de los Seella¬dores de la Chancilleria.” (Of the Seals and of the Sealers of the Chancellery) But this study centers on the symbolism of Templar seals, and in this section specifically the one inscribed with the Dome of the Rock, this and the place where it’s located contain symbolism and expressed meaning that allow us to perceive what the brothers meant to manifest in a veiled form and only for he who had and have eyes to see...beyond the apparent and obvious.

Rock, belongs to the class called “monumental seals”, meaning that they depict the image of a monument: this one is located on the esplanade where it is sur¬mised stood Solomon’s temple, which was totally destroyed twice and of which only the so called “Wailing Wall” is visible and, beneath which the Templar’s had their first home. During the life of the Order the seal changed the styling of the architectural image of the seal, we will detail the symbology of the seal of the Masters of the Temple, the inscription that bor¬ders that image can have minor variations, i.e. Christi de Templo or perhaps S. Tube Templi Christi.

The Sacred Place

Mount Moriah, which in Hebrew means “Yahweh sees” or “Vision”, is located facing Mt. Zion and together conform to the esplanade whereupon the first temple was built, it is a sacred place for the three monotheistic faiths, allegorical to these as the center of the universe, and the place where tradition holds that the “Rock of the Upon seeing the amount of images that we. have Foundation” is protected, upon which, it is said, the Ark reviewed, the image of the seal with the Dome of the of the Covenant once rested there, the Holy of Holies or

“Sanctum Santorum” the space in which the “Shekinah” or Divine Presence was manifested; there, Abraham or Ibrahim, father of Muslims, Jews and Christians was sent by God to sacrifice his son Isaac, (Genesis 22, 2) called Ishmael by Islam, the very spot where according to Muslim tradition the prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven upon his white mare Burak, specified in Sura (chapter) XVII of the Koran, called the Night Journey.

“In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful, Glory to God who during the night transported your servant the Apostle from the Holy Mosque of Mecca to the distant one in Jerusalem, whose circumference we blessed to show Him some of our miracles; because He is all hearing and all seeing)’ (1) (The Koran new Castilian version translated from the original Arabic by Rafael Castellanos and Ahmed Abboud Pg. 229)

A sacred place that Yahweh pointed out to Abraham, that he would sacrifice his only son Isaac. (Genesis 22,2), the Patriarch called the spot “Jehovah will provide” (Gen 22, 14) the Eternal Mount whose prevalence Isaiah marked as House of the Eternal (Isa. 2-2) “The word that Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow into it.”

Abd-al-Malik, fifth Omeyan Caliph commissioned the Dome of the Rock (al-Sakhra) in the year 691 AD, on the esplanade where the Temple of Jerusalem was situated, over the sacrificial rock and the alleged location of Mohammed’s night journey, of octagonal shape and of clear Byzantine influence, imitating the first octagonal churches with great domes, such as the one of St. Vitale of Ravenna (536) and the one of St. Serge and St. Bacchus in Constantinople, now a mosque but once was an orthodox church which was called “the little St. Sophia”, also from the VI century, preceding St. Vitale Gad, the angel of God, appeared unto him and commanded King David to build an altar for the Lord and commissioned by Emperor Justinian. in a solid place, on the Threshing Floor of Araunah the Jebusite, Araunah is called Oman in the book of Chronicles. (3) this inspired David to buy all of Mt. Moriah, as told in the book of Chronicles, Oman wished to give the threshing floor to the king, but David insisted on paying for it as he did not wish to offer God that which he did not pay for, thus he paid 6.84 kilos of gold for the land, (4). There he built an altar where he offered sacrifices to reconcile himself with God and it was the place that he would send his son Solomon to build theJDivine Temple as he had been forbidden to do so by Jehovah on account of his crimes of blood. In the time of Jesus this place was occupied by the Temple that had been rebuilt by Herod the Great to ingratiate himself to the Jews, following the blueprints of the first Temple but making it of greater height and magnificence, of this temple, all that exists today is what is called the “Wailing Wall” which is actually the “Western Wall”.

The Dome of the Rock, was built at a time of transition and blend’s ing of both cultures, as the first Muslim coins depicted a standing figure, it was this caliph who concluded the reformation/ affirming Islamic identity, (2) For the Jewish people, and upon Mt. Moriah the Temple of Solomon was built.

This is where all worship by the Jewish people was centered. Jesus, after being circumcised accord.’ ing to the law of Moses upon the eighth day and giving Him the name of Jeshua by Joseph and Mary and after 40 days He was presented for the purification of mother and child; whereupon Simeon, upon holding the infant in his arms had a revelation, and later on when He was twelve, where He was found by His parents after going missing for three days; but it is now in His public life when

Jesus acts out His most revolutionary action standing up to the Jewish priests and casting out the money changers from the very Temple, this fact is shown in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John;

districts to the Templars when he relocated his court to the Tower of David, it is at that moment when the Poor Knights of Christ take the name of “Pauperes Commilitones Christi Templique Salomonici” and choose the image of the Templum Domini,.for their seal, “The Jewish feast of Passover was nigh, and Jesus went symbol of the supreme authority of the Master before all to Jerusalem, He found the Temple filled with people institutions. selling oxen, sheep and doves, and also money changers seated behind their tables. He the fashioned a whip with The first seal that we are aware of is one of Grand rope and cast them all from the Temple, and with their Master Everard de Barres, a small wax seal from 1147 sheep and oxen. He also cast the changers coins upon with the inscription “TUBE: TEMPLI: XPI, as we the ground and upended their tables. And to the sellers mentioned earlier, seals were used to validate letters, of doves he said: take that hence. Make not a market edicts and documents, with these seals, the authenticity of my Father’s house. Upon seeing Him, his disciples recalled those words from the Scripture: The devotion for your house shall consume me. The Jews, on their part rebuked Him saying:_what proof give you to us that you can do this? Jesus responded thus: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it yet again. The Jews replied: forty and six years it took to build this temple, and you deem to rebuild it in three days? But the temple that He referred to was His own body. Thus, when He arose from the dead, His disciples remembered this that He had said, and believed in the Scripture and in the words that Jesus had pronounced.”(5)

The Seal Master. In the first Crusade (1099) after conquering Jerusalem, Tancred defeated the Muslims in this place where they had retreated believing they would become stronger, sacking the Dome of the Rock, as it is referred to in the annals:, “It was also discussed if Tancred would be allowed to keep all the treasure, amongst which was included eight enormous silver lanterns that he had seized from the Dome of the Rock” (6) Runciman, History of the Crusades, Pg. 275.

of the communique was validated, since at the time, the fabrication of a seal was quite labor intensive and difficult and a majority of the population were illiterate; the religious orders had their own seals and each one of them had its particular characteristics. There was a Templar seal with both inscriptions, on the obverse the two knights astride one horse and the reverse the Dome of the Rock, and, another one smaller in size with only the image of the Dome of the Boulder as it was referred to at that time. As time went on, special measures were taken to regulate its use and it was kept in a special chest that required three keys to open, one was in the Master’s possession and the other two were held by Templar officials of the utmost confidence.

This edifice along with others such as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, were ceded to the regular Canons of St.Augustine who transformed it into a church called “Templum Domini”. The Al-Aqsa Mosque, was utilized by Baldwin I as his royal palace and, he ceded both

As to the question of the Templar seal’s image having a connection to the Holy Sepulcher, one must only recall that, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem, was entrusted to the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher, founded by the very same Godfrey de Bouillon during

which were usually built out from the churches, were octagonal in shape and topped by a dome, thus the octagon is a truly Christian and Byzantine structure, and, they were artists, builders and Byzantine artisans that worked for the Caliphs, the Templars spread this style of construction through out Europe, in the image of the Dome of the Rock, but this construction is not Muslim, but Christian, like the dome of Saint Sophia (Hagia Sophia), the crowning example of orthodox Byzantine architecture, dedicated to the wisdom, of the Old Testament, and we owe it to the geometrician and architect Anthemius of Tralles and the architect Isidore of Miletus. The Temple selected this image as the Masters signature, and , later as well in some of the commandery’s and training precepts, altering the style but maintaining the image, the Templars employed many other seals in their dominions, but that will be the subject of another study.

NOTES: 1 (1) “One of the extraordinary miracles granted to Mohammed

the First Crusade, finally in the year 1098; this military order participated in all of the battles of the Holy Land after 1123 and it is no folly to think that the Poor Knights of Christ and of Solomon’s Temple, would honor their very name and the place where their central command was located, through connection and for all the symbolic meaning of the place.

Abstract : For all three faiths, the center, the alpha and the Omega is Jerusalem, and, in the Holy City the center is, without a doubt, Solomon’s Temple, although not being physically there it still emanates that special magnetism, greater than any other Sacred Space and even in our day is the cause of dissension and struggles between religions, as stated earlier, all that remains is the Wailing or Western Wall, but its center is located precisely on the rock sheltered by the Dome, this reminds us in a subtle way that all radiates from that center and all returns to it, it is the way of the initiate and, of the Templars or, a certain part of them, were knowing and guardians of that symbolic world that reminds us of that forgotten path, the way to our own cen¬ter, this is the symbology of the seal of the Dome of the Rock, a reminder of what direction a Knight Templar must look, towards the center of his own heart. The first churches and basilicas, with an octagonal footprint and round ones capped by a dome symbolizing the celestial vault, appear in the time of Justinian, also many bathyspheres, spaces set aside for baptisms and

was when God transported him through the night from the sacred Mosque of Mecca to the Mosque (A) of Jerusalem, where he joined the other. Prophets and led the prayer. Later he ascended to the highest heavens where he saw some of his Lord’s most splendid signs. He saw the angel Gabriel in his true form, just as God had created him. He the ascended to the “Azufaifo” (B) (jujube tree, sacred to Islamic tradition) that marks out the limit of the heavens, he went beyond the seven heavens, he saw Paradise and Hell, and the most Merciful spoke directly to him.” (A) The word “mosque” (masjid) from the linguistic point of view of the Arabic language refers to a place of kneeling or reclining of no religious distinction. From the lawful Islamic point of view, the word “mosque” constitutes all places on earth that are apt for kneeling and worshipping God, be it a structure or not. This verse makes reference of two holy places in Jerusalem and Mecca, as they are blessed independently of the presence or absence of a

structure at the time of the Prophet Mohammed’s night journey, David said to Ornan, grant me the place of this threshing floor, that may the peace and the blessing’s of God be with him, from Mecca I may build an altar therein unto the Lord: thou shalt grant it to me to Jerusalem, and on his ascent into heaven. for the full price: that the plague be stayed from the people. And Ornan said unto David, take it to thee, and let my lord the king do (B) Thorny tree but looks like a cherry tree. that which is good in his eyes: lo, I give thee the oxen also for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat Notes from the Koran translated by Prof. M. Isa Garcia, Bogota, for the meat offering; I give it all. And King David said to Ornan, April 2013 - http://d1.islamhouse.com/data/es/ihbooks/single/es_ Nay; but I will verily buy it for the full price: for I will not take that El_Coran Pgs 270-271 which is thine for the Lord nor offer burnt offerings without cost. So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold (2) Christian artists and artisans worked for the Caliphs, the Dome by weight.” of the Rock, in Jerusalem, built for Caliph Abdul-Malik, in 691, is the supreme example of the rotunda style in Byzantine architecture. Bibliography: Its mosaics and the even more dazzling ones of the courtyard of the Grand Mosque of Damascus, completed for his son Walid I, are The Koran, New Spanish version translated from the original Arabic by among the most refines achievements of Byzantine art. Up to what Rafael Castellanos and Ahmed Abboud, Pg. 2229 point they were the product of native artisans and up to what point did they receive the assistance of experts and materials imported by Runciman, History of the Crusades, Spanish version by Herman Bleiberg, Walid, without a doubt from Byzantium, is a subject of discussion. Alianza Universidsd, 2002 Pgs. 270-271 (6) Pg. 275 These mosaics carefully respected the Prophet’s prohibition of depicting living beings. But in their country palaces, discreetly Reina-Valera Bible (RVR 1960), Gen. 22-2„ 22-14 (Mi. 4. 1-3) Isaiah 2-2John 2: 13-25 removed from the inflexible eyes of the Mullahs for example, the hunting lodge of Kasr al-Amra, on the steppes beyond Jordan, the The Word (Mt 21, 12-13; Mic. 11, 1 5-1 7; Luke 19, 45-46 Umayyads freely permitted painted frescoes representing the human form, including nude ones. Their government, in effect, did not Doctoral Thesis - Crusader Art in Palestine Concepcidn Maya Valdes, Pg. constitute and interruption in the Middle East of the development 269 of Hellenistic culture; if anything, it reached its most splendid, albeit last, flourishment. The Christians did not, therefore, have any motive to lament the rise of Islam.(Runciman, History of the Crusades, Spanish version of Herman Bleiberg, Alianza Universidad, 2002, Websites: pg. 39 http://www.qantara-med.org/qantara4/public/show_document.php?do_ id=587&lang=es

3/ Book 2 Chronicles 3 3 “Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah, where the http://www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Knights-Templar-seals Lord appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshing floor of Ornam the Jebusite.” www.icar.beniculturali.it/.../26_v2_251_308bas_XX 4/ Book 1 Chronicles 21-22-23-24-25 “And as David came to Archives Départementales de l’Aube www.aube-templiers-2012.fr/.../ Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David and went out of his threshing viewFile.php?... floor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.’Then

Fuensanta Santos de la Rubia

•• Templar Master of Ceremonies. HSDCT.OSMTJ. SPAIN. •• Researcher about The Temple, its history and symbolism. •• Edited works about: The book of Chivalry; The magic square of The Temple; The Templars in the first reconquest of Almeria; The Domus Eclessiae; The first Christian basilicas. •• Academy honorary of The Municipalistica Brazilian Academy of Letters •• Director and editor the Grial Magazine.

Miguel Mercurio Special Envoy of Grail Report on the International Chapter of the OSMTJ Eternal City Rome is not a fantasy but rather a reality; Roman patricians knew it and they all were interested to convert to Rome into an eternal city. Now they are just a page of the history, but the eternal city is a reality. Strolling across Rome is to stroll through our history and for that reason Europe can be called Europe and be recognized by the Roman legacy. The air, the environment, the atmosphere is eternal in Roma. In this imperial city without empire, there has been an international chapter of priories where priors exchanged views, ideas. They have been disclosed projects; and also the difficulties with the wishes of overcoming of obstacles for the temple becomes a daily reality. The aim is that the Temple go to be present in the life and history of people as the football games. Between the Grand Commander and the prior of brotherhood there were direct and frank conversations. Topics such as the launch of the first university of issues templers, the contribution of the magazine The Grail to the dissemination of knowledge Templar and the significance that the temple has for the present world, were discussed. The talks began on Saturday morning, and after a short break to eat, they continued to by afternoon; The Prior in the US., Timothy Bryant, participated as a listener. there was talk about the formation; explaining the prior of the brotherhood the model applied in Spain and offering the experience that the brotherhood has accumulated in this field; the agreement reached is that in the future there will be a unique training system, also rituals, but adapted to each situation. the talks, the exchange of ideas, were held at Villa Troloni hotel, which it is located two subway stops from the railway station Termini, which is one of the meeting points that exist in the eternal city. As Rome is not female spectator city of history but that is historical subject the name of the Grand Commander is Romulo; legend says that Romulus and Remus were abandoned in the woods and suckled by a she-wolf; and when they were teenagers founded Rome on seven hills. Incredible, our great commander called Romulo as one of the founders of Rome, and this modern Roman represents the virtues of the Roman patrician such as clarity of ideas, diplomacy, good academic background and experience. It is a gift that makes us the story. Timothy. Grand Prior of USA, accompanied by Connie Lee, took part at the talks. Cony is an excellent person and templer of heart. She explained us her work to combat drugs; she represents the intelligent Templar for solving problems . Timothy is the ideal USA prior because he has youth, courage, full of ideals and hope; honest person and for all that, he has something hard to get such as the moral authority. I just have for to indicate two features of the actual Romans; such as their knowledge to be, their elegance in dress, hence Italy shares with England, be a reference of the fashion of gentlemen; while at international level, is Italy alongside France, models and references for female fashion. Miguel Mercurio, Special Envoy of magazine The Grail

Investiture of Knighst Templar

OSMTJ.USA

Tampa, Florida 2016 This is is the investiture and instalation of the Knights Templar of Tampa and the Priory San Martin de Porres, under the command of Prior Augusto Leon-Braga and Seneschal Commander Danny Torres on May first at 12 noon in the Year of the Lord 2016

Translators Team Luis Antonio Colòn Arce • • • • ••

New Jersey USA

University of Santiago BA History University of Naples Studied local art history and architecture. Member of the Scientific Committee of the Grail

Maria de los Angeles Leòn Santiago

Valencia SPAIN

•• PhD in chemistry from the University of South , Argentina •• Professor of chemistry and physics in middle education •• Templar lady, Sovereign Brotherhood ladies and Gentlemen of the Temple. OSMTJ. SPAIN.

Posting Rules

The

Grail

The Grail is an electronic magazine that offers all historians and scholars of Temple; a place to share information and disseminate their work It is a result of everyone as an effort to spread the history of the Order in all areas of the culture in which it was engaged and formed an active partThe content, of the Grail magazine, will be about the history of the Templars knights in the Middle Age, even to this day; as well as architecture, art, symbolism, theology and economics.

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The author must submit to the direction of the magazine THE GRAIL your text or original material (which, in turn, it will be sent to the scientific committee ), in word document. The work will be owned and published in its original format. B) The works will have a length of five or six pages, in Times New Roman 12, spacing 1.5; the images will be free of copyright, and the right to privacity will be respected if you include photos of people outside; in which case there will be proper authorization. C) The pictures will be numbered in jpg and in separate files. The texts sent, are entirely the responsibility of the authors. In each collaboration shall contain the name of the author or authors; the institution or the workplace and address electronica. Sending of originals for evaluation and publication implies acceptance of these conditions and its possible subsequent diffusion in different media, provided the evidence of the authorship of each article is maintained. The text should include footnotes page and the corresponding bibliography at the end of work. Upon receipt of the material, the editorial team checks that all formal characteristics required are met. If not met, the authors are communicated. Then articles are evaluated by the Scientific Committee. Once received both tests, if they are positive, the articles are accepted for publication.

Fuensanta Santos. Director.