Knight Life

http://www.cafepress.com/+templar-cross+boxers         

      I was talking to a man on a flight last week.  He has these neighbors from Romania who invited him and his wife over for a party.  One of the other guests was His Excellency, the local Romanian Consul.   (We both agreed that 'Your Excellency' is a pretty sweet title.)  

      The guy noticed His Excellency's distinctive lapel pin.   (A red cross with a silver sword over it.) 

      American:  "Is that a symbol of Romania?"

      Romanian:  "No.  I'm a Knight Templar."

      American:  "They still have those?"

          Romanian:  "Of course.  I was knighted in Portugal by the ________."  

   

         (Grand Poobah?  Mighty Water Buffalo?  Grand Master?  Great and Powerful Oz?...  Something like that...the passenger couldn't remember exactly what His Excellency had called the high-ranking Knight Templar who initiated him.)  

          American:  "What do Knights Templar do these days?"

          Romanian:  "Defend the church."

          American:  "How do you do that?"

          Romanian:  "I can not share that information.  It's a secret society."

     Huh.  You kind of have to wonder how secret it can be if he's going around to parties wearing the pin?  

     Still, the idea that these Knights Templar actually exist is pretty intriguing.  It sounds like such a quaint relic from the past - like meeting someone who says his hobby is alchemy or something.  

     I admit that the majority of my information about Knights Templar comes from reading Dan Brown's book The Da Vinci Code.  Since the book got into all sorts of whacky tales of secrets, conspiracies, grails, and lurid mating rituals, I figured the idea of a Knight Templar was mostly fiction too.

     I mentioned this story to my crew later that day and the captain knew a lot about The Knights Templar.  (He'd recently been stuck in a hotel room and spent his time with The History Channel.)  He said that, in addition to guarding pilgrims on the dangerous roads to Jerusalem back in the 12th century, the pope also put them in charge of the papal treasury, and gave them all sorts of other special privileges.    

     A couple of hundred years later they'd gained a lot of wealth and power, and had their eyes on claiming territory for their own state.   People began to turn on them.  The king of France especially wanted to get rid of them.  Mainly, it seems, because he owed them a lot of money.  He managed to get rid of the debt by decimating the Order.   The knights were soon being arrested and tortured, and eventually were denounced by the pope.  

     So, as the captain said, they aren't really official representatives of the church anymore.   But that doesn't stop these folks.  Apparently, you can hardly swing a Holy Grail around Europe without hitting a Knight.

     For one thing, The Holy writ from the pope that ended the official role of the Knights Templar never got to Scotland.  Those Knights just kept on doing their Knight thing.  (Kind of like how Japanese soldiers on islands in the Pacific didn't know the war was over.)

    

     And even more groups have started up in recent times.  Today's Masons are a latter-day version of the original Knights Templar.  They admit that they are not direct descendants of the original knights, but claim to try to follow the same ideals set down by the KT's. 

         

     The Masons, and their Knights Templar forerunners, seem mostly benevolent and focused on charity works.  Part of their original role was to care for pilgrims and they established hospitals in the holy land that survive today.  

     Personally, I suspect, a lot of the appeal of the whole thing is that it gives men an excuse to get out of the house and away from their wives.  But this historic function might change.  I saw some pictures of Knights Templar in full regalia about to go into a meeting...and there were women among them.      Some of the orders do accept women now.  Comically, there are websites with men grousing about the fact that women are now allowed in.  The threads sound a lot like little boys who've started a club in one of the boy's tree houses and are determined to keep their sisters out.  Many seem to want to tack up a cardboard sign reading "No girls allowed!"  

     A benefit that remains is that they still get to wear funny outfits.  Author Martin Palmer says about The Knights Templar:  "It's a sort of version of the Rotarians with long cloaks and swords."  - "clubby with a slight mystical element".

   

     And speaking of robes...  This brings me to the question I was dying to know  from the minute I heard they still exist.  Namely:   Where do they shop?

     Where does a modern day member of a secret society go to score one of those lapel pins, or some of those snappy ceremonial robes?  Maybe a couple of decades ago they were still forced to search for some backstreet shop, locate the secret entrance, deliver the secret handshake, and say the secret password.

     But now they have the Internet!

     Now you can easily go on-line and find everything you require to meet your secret society needs!  From koozies to coffee mugs, sweatshirts to swords...   Stationary, pens, caps, visors,  and coasters...  For the techno-savvy knight there are mousepads, iPad cases, and smart phone covers.  For the grandbaby?  a Knights Templar Teddy Bear...baby onesies, hats, and bibs.  For the home?:  Wall art, stationary, pens, magnets, coasters, and a Knights Templar laundry bag!  And what about a Knights Templar dog?  What's in it for them?  Well, he can eat from his Knights Templar dog food bowl (I saw no images of Templar kittie paraphernalia), wear his dog KT hoodie, and his KT tags.  

     And...to keep the ideals of the Knights Templar close at all times:  they've got boxers, briefs, and 'the classic thong'.  (Hopefully the underwear, at least, will remain secret.)