in doing a search for where other articles on the templars are there is no specific one place..sigh.....so i picked this one....
maybe they should all go under one heading...but i don't have the power to do that so here is one more loose article..sorry
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20160510-the-hidden-world-of-the-knights-templar
By Amanda Ruggeri
13 May 2016
Tucked behind London's Fleet Street, a patchwork of gardens and graceful buildings tell the story of the most famous knights of the Crusades.
t was rush hour on a weekday and I was weaving my way down the Strand, one of central London's most famous thoroughfares. The street hummed with tourists, students and lawyers. Double-decker buses rattled. Cyclists sweated. Black cabs swerved.
(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/wm/live/1280_720/images/live/p0/3t/qh/p03tqhwc.jpg)
Behind a small stone archway on London's Fleet Street, a hidden world opens up (Credit: Amanda Ruggeri)
Just east of the where the Strand turns into Fleet Street, beyond the 19th-century legal bookshop of Wildy and Sons, stood a small stone archway. Compared to the imposing structure above it – a timber-framed, Jacobean townhouse – it was almost unnoticeable. I turned in.
Here, on tiny Inner Temple Lane, was a hidden world, one that was lovely, leafy and serene, overlooked by graceful Gothic and Victorian buildings and patchworked with gardens and miniature courtyards.
(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/wm/live/1280_720/images/live/p0/3t/qj/p03tqj0j.jpg)
The Temple district is patchworked with courtyards and gardens (Credit: Amanda Ruggeri)
The area, known as Temple, remains far less known to tourists than other nearby attractions like St Paul's Cathedral https://www.stpauls.co.uk/ or Trafalgar Square. http://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/place/283774-trafalgar-square#tKS3Ikz9wHO22d1Z.97
And most of those who do find their way here don't realise Temple's biggest secret: this whole area was once the stronghold of the Knights Templar.
The medieval order, known for their role in the Crusades and as one of the Middle Ages' most powerful and wealthy religious orders, lived, prayed and worked here from about 1185 up until their dissolution in 1312.
They built monastic dormitories, chambers and two dining halls – now known as Middle Temple Hall and Inner Temple Hall, though they've been rebuilt many times over the years – and, most famously, Temple Church.http://www.templechurch.com/
(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/wm/live/1280_720/images/live/p0/3t/qj/p03tqj7f.jpg)
Looking from the Temple Church courtyard toward its original entrance, now sunken beneath modern street level (Credit: Amanda Ruggeri)
"They lived right here," said Robin Griffith-Jones, the reverend of Temple Church and a historian of the Knights Templar. (In a sign of how historic and traditional this area is, his official title is Reverend and Valiant Master of the Temple). "The hall of the Templars was what is Inner Temple hall now – right over there. And the priest's house was where my house is."
(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/wm/live/1280_720/images/live/p0/3t/qj/p03tqjdh.jpg%5B/img%3Cbr%20/%3E%5DYou%20can%20peek%20through%20a%20gate%20to%20the%20private%20garden%20and%20house%20of%20the%20Master%20of%20the%20Temple,%20currently%20Robin%20Griffith-Jones%20(Credit:%20Amanda%20Ruggeri)%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3EIn%201120,%20Christian%20knights%20had%20just%20captured%20Jerusalem%20in%20the%20First%20Crusade.%20But%20even%20while%20the%20holy%20city%20was%20safe,%20the%20pilgrimage%20routes%20to%20get%20there%20were%20not.%20Travellers%20were%20routinely%20attacked,%20robbed%20and%20even%20killed.%3Cbr%20/%3EA%20handful%20of%20knights%20took%20monastic%20vows%20and%20devoted%20themselves%20to%20protecting%20the%20pilgrims%20and%20their%20routes.%20In%20return,%20the%20king%20of%20Jerusalem%20gave%20them%20headquarters%20on%20the%20Temple%20Mount.%20The%20Knights%20Templar%20was%20born%20and%20they%20were%20soon%20world-renowned%20for%20their%20courage.%3Cbr%20/%3E%22They%20were%20a%20very%20disciplined%20fighting%20force%20%E2%80%93%20and%20hugely%20self-sacrificial.%20If%20there%20was%20a%20disaster%20in%20battle,%20they%20were%20decimated.%20They%20didn't%20run%20away.%20They%20just%20got%20killed,%22%20said%20Griffith-Jones.%3Cbr%20/%3EThey%20also%20became%20extraordinarily%20rich.%20As%20well%20as%20owning%20land%20and%20other%20assets,%20they%20didn't%20have%20to%20pay%20tithes.%20They%20were%20also%20the%20first%20to%20issue%20what%20today%20we%20would%20call%20cheques.%20If%20a%20pilgrim%20was%20leaving%20home,%20they%20could%20give%20the%20Templars%20all%20the%20money%20they'd%20want%20in%20the%20Holy%20Land,%20get%20a%20promissory%20note%20in%20return%20and%20collect%20that%20amount%20when%20they%20arrived.%20By%201191,%20they%20were%20so%20wealthy%20they%20were%20able%20to%20buy%20the%20island%20of%20Cyprus.%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%5Bimg%5Dhttp://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/wm/live/1280_720/images/live/p0/3t/qj/p03tqjkv.jpg%5B/img%3Cbr%20/%3E%5DThe%20circular%20western%20nave%20of%20Temple%20Church%20makes%20it%20one%20of%20four%20round%20churches%20remaining%20in%20Britain%20today%20(Credit:%20Amanda%20Ruggeri)%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3ELittle%20surprise%20then%20that%20by%20the%20mid-12th%20Century%20they%20needed%20a%20grander%20headquarters%20for%20their%20London%20chapter.%20By%201185,%20they%20had%20built%20Temple%20Church.%3Cbr%20/%3EToday%20Temple%20Church%20doesn't%20seem%20that%20grand,%20particularly%20when%20compared%20to%20nearby%20St%20Paul's%20or%20Westminster%20Abbey.%20The%20surrounding%20buildings%20dwarf%20it,%20making%20its%20dome%20invisible%20from%20just%20a%20short%20distance.%20The%20circular%20nave%20in%20the%20west,%20which%20was%20built%20first,%20is%20just%2017m%20in%20diameter.%20There%20is%20no%20elaborate%20gold%20gilding,%20no%20side%20chapels,%20no%20mosaic%20or%20paintings.%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%5Bimg%20width=640%20height=360%5Dhttp://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/wm/live/1280_720/images/live/p0/3t/qj/p03tqjsj.jpg)
(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/wm/live/1280_720/images/live/p0/3t/qj/p03tqjsj.jpg)
Peering through the original stone entrance of Temple Church (Credit: Amanda Ruggeri)
But as a round church modelled after the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem http://churchoftheholysepulchre.net/
(there are only three others in Britain), Temple Church had one of the grandest claims of them all: to those in the Middle Ages, walking through it was the closest you could get to Jerusalem without actually undertaking the dangerous pilgrimage to get there.
(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/wm/live/1280_720/images/live/p0/3t/qk/p03tqk43.jpg)
Round spaces, like the church's 12th-century nave, naturally draw your eye upwards (Credit: Amanda Ruggeri)
Inside, the round nave has the fortress-like walls, small windows and heavy, pointed arches of the early Gothic. Effigies of some of the knights – including William Marshal of Pembroke, without whom England's Magna Carta may not exist – lie grasping their swords in the stone.
The 'new' chancel, built 65 years later, extended the church east, this time with all the hallmarks of the fully-flowered Gothic style: thin, graceful columns, wide-span arches and huge windows that flooded the interior with light.
In the time of the Knights Templar, the painted walls and metal-plated ceiling would have shimmered in the candlelight. The floor was tiled. There were probably banners down the columns. And the windows, now mostly plain, may have been made of stained glass.
(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/wm/live/1280_720/images/live/p0/3t/qk/p03tqk8g.jpg)
Built 65 years after the round nave, the 'new' chancel has all the hallmarks of the fully-flowered Gothic style, including lots of light (Credit: Amanda Ruggeri)
It was in that lovely, light-filled environment that the English order of the Knights Templar would meet and worship. It was also here that they would be initiated into the order. According to charges levied against them in 1307, when King Philip IV ordered the arrest of the Templars in France, the initiation rites included spitting on the cross, denying Christ, and kissing each other on the mouth, belly button and base of the spine.
By that point, the knights were no longer needed as crusaders. Their military stronghold of Acre, in present-day Syria, had fallen in 1291. The knights were still engaging in smaller-scale raids, but the Crusades had effectively ended – and, for the Church, had not ended well.
As well as no longer having any military purpose, the Knights Templars' wealth had made them potential enemies of some powerful people – including King Philip IV, who owed them a vast sum of money.
The charges of devil-worship in their initiation rites quickly followed. Scores of knights were arrested on Friday 13 October 1307, and those who wouldn't confess were burned at the stake. The rest scattered. In 1312, the order was dissolved.
(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/wm/live/1280_720/images/live/p0/3t/qk/p03tqkqc.jpg)
he Templars' land ultimately went to Middle Temple, shown here, and to Inner Temple (Credit: Amanda Ruggeri)
The land at Temple went to the Knights Hospitaller, another military religious order. That order leased the land to lawyers in 1346, and today the Temple area is well known to England's barristers, all of whom must belong to one of London's four Inns of Court – medieval legal associations – in order to practice. Two of these Inns of Court, the Inner Temple http://www.innertemple.org.uk/
and Middle Temple, http://www.middletemple.org.uk/ are based here.
The Inner Temple still has a section of its medieval hall, complete with 15th-century fireplace. And with its hammer-beam ceiling and rich oil paintings, Middle Temple's hall is largely what it would have looked like when it was built under Queen Elizabeth in 1562.
(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/wm/live/1280_720/images/live/p0/3t/qk/p03tqkv7.jpg)
Middle Temple's hall looks much like it would have when it was built in the 16th Century (Credit: Amanda Ruggeri)
Today, though, you'll see London's barristers walking through the courtyards with small, rolling suitcases – the preferred method for transporting the stiff horsehair wigs they have to don at court. And visitors can usually peek in over lunch hours, or – better – advance book a tour of the Inner Temple. https://www.innertemple.org.uk/index/guided-tours
Until 13 years ago, hardly any tourists came to this area at all. "It was the classic hidden gem," said Griffith-Jones. "Part of its joy is that it is really tucked away: it's as if you go into a secret garden as soon as you come in from Fleet Street. It is absolutely, ravishingly beautiful. And it was a disappointment to us that London's residents, the people who work here, the people who visit it, so few knew about it."
(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/wm/live/1280_720/images/live/p0/3t/qk/p03tqkxl.jpg)
Until 13 years ago, few visitors had ever heard of London's Temple area (Credit: Amanda Ruggeri)
But then a certain novel was published.
"One Monday morning [in 2003], there was a queue of young Americans standing outside the door," Griffith-Jones said. "The verger opens up and they ask him, 'Have you read the book?' And of course the verger thinks they're talking about the Bible."
Instead, they were talking about Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. It would turn out to be one of the most popular novels of the 21st Century – and one of its main scenes was set at Temple Church.
(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/wm/live/1280_720/images/live/p0/3t/ql/p03tql4l.jpg)
After its popularity peaked shortly after the Da Vinci Code, Temple Church today is peaceful once more (Credit: Amanda Ruggeri)
In those boom years, the church saw around 500 visitors every day.
However, those days seem to be over. When I was there, there were just two families and a couple wandering through the space.
Today, Temple Church – and Temple – are back to feeling like a hidden world in the heart of London, one that's serene and rich with secrets.
And that, in many ways, feels how it should be.
This story is a part of BBC Britain – a series focused on exploring this extraordinary island, one story at a time. Readers outside of the UK can see every BBC Britain story by heading to the Britain homepage; you also can see our latest stories by following us on Facebook and Twitter.
..............................
and just in case you were wondering about the master
Master of the Temple, currently Robin Griffith-Jones
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Griffith-Jones
...................
http://www.templechurch.com/whos-who/the-revd-robin-griffith-jones/
(http://www.templechurch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/whos_rgj_001.jpg)
Master of The Temple
Robin Griffith-Jones worked at the auctioneers Christies on leaving Oxford in 1978. After working, 1984-6, with Mother Theresa's Sisters in India and with the long-term homeless in London, Robin studied theology in Cambridge. He served as Curate (assistant minister) in outer Liverpool, 1989-92 and as Chaplain at Lincoln College, Oxford University, 1992-9; at Oxford he was also College Lecturer in Theology for Exeter College. He is now a Visiting Lecturer in New Testament Studies at King's College, London.
Robin was appointed Master of the Temple in 1999. Apart from the Temple Church itself, his chief interest is in the New Testament. He has written four books: The Four Witnesses (about the gospels,2000); The Gospel according to Paul (2004);The Da Vinci Code and the Secrets of the Temple(2006); and, most recently, Mary Magdalene (2008, with the title Beloved Disciple in the USA). All are available through amazon.com.
Robin has worked extensively on law and religion. The Temple Church is the collegiate church of the two legal colleges or Inns of Court, Inner and Middle Temple; it is famous as 'the mother-church of the Common Law'. He arranged and curated an exhibit in the Church on German-Jewish lawyers persecuted under the Third Reich. He ran the public discussions on Islam and English Law which began with the then Archbishop of Canterbury's famous lecture on sharia law in the UK, and edited the consequent book.
The Temple played a central role in the gestation of Magna Carta, and in the spread of the Charter's principles to America and throughout the world. In the Temple Church itself, in use by 1162, are the effigies of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke and hero of Runnymede, and of his son the 2nd Earl, one of the Charter's Surety Barons. Robin is active in the UK's preparations for the celebration of Magna Carta; his booklet,Magna Carta, 1215-2015: London's Temple and the Road to the Rule of Law has been widely read. He ran the international conference on Magna Carta, Religion and the Rule of Law at the Temple in June 2014, and is co-editing the book. In November 2014 he took the Temple Church Choir to Washington DC for the opening and the gala of the Library of Congress Magna Carta Exhibit.
.........................
http://www.wittenburgdoor.com/master-temple-describes-fragile-paul.html
...................................
http://www.robingriffithjones.co.uk/
Quote from: space otter on May 13, 2016, 06:20:44 PM
Scores of knights were arrested on Friday 13 October 1307, and those who wouldn't confess were burned at the stake. The rest scattered. In 1312, the order was dissolved.
In Portugal, they only changed their name to Knights of Christ, and were finally extinguished in 1910, when Portugal became a republic.
The order today exists only as a honorific order.