In 1307, Philip IV of France was deeply in debt to the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon (a military order more commonly known as the Knights Templar). The Templars had originated during the first crusade as a monastic order dedicated to helping pilgrims reach Jerusalem. They soon became a powerful military presence in Outremer (the Christian-held lands within the Middle East) and because of an extra-national network of knights, they amassed immense power and wealth around Europe. Since they had a financial infrastructure which stretched through many different countries, the Templars began acting as bankers (imagine if you deposited gold in England, and then withdrew it in Jerusalem without having to carry it through all the bandit-infested areas between). They took over and managed the estates of noblemen who took up the cross and went to fight in the crusades, and, as Philip could attest, they leant money. Some historians regard them as the first multinational corporation of Europe.
Philip IV really liked money and he hated repaying debts. In 1306 he had exiled France’s Jews so that he could take over the loans which had been made by them. When rumors started cropping up about the profane nature of the Templar’s initiation rituals, the French king made sure the rumors spread widely and gained credence. He used his influence over Pope Clement V (a weak pope who was almost entirely under Philip’s control) to squelch the order. On October 13th 1307, hundreds of French Templars were rounded up and arrested. They were then subjected to intense torture in order to find out the truth of their heresies. Unsurprisingly, under torture, the imprisoned Templars confessed to all sorts of heresies (and other sins). One of the things which Templars confessed to was worshipping the dark god Baphomet. Baphomet had originated as a mispronunciation of Mohammed among untutored French soldiers during the First Crusade, however he was about to transcend his roots and become a deity in his own right.

Philip IV contemplates a group of Templars who have been tied to stakes and surrounded with flammable materials for some reason
With inspiration supplied by torturers the Templars came up with all sorts of examples of how they worshipped Baphomet idols and committed enormities in his name. Philip’s purpose was to destroy the Templars not to find out truth and the Baphomet story worked very well. Other imprisoned Templars were questioned about the entity, and when the rack and iron and pinchers were applied, they suddenly confirmed their fellow prisoners’ stories about the dark demon-god.
Baphomet, a hitherto nonexistent deity was literally born from the pain and fear and misinformation of the torture chamber. During the 19th century, there was a burst of historical interest in the destruction of the Templars (I have left the ghastly details out of this post, but Philip IV was entirely effective in crushing the order for personal gain: the grandmaster of the Templars was burned at the stake in the middle of Paris in 1314). Various authorities of the occult (which is to say fabulists) became interested in Baphomet and started providing further information about him. Baphomet came to be pictured as a “Sabbatic Goat” a winged androgynous being with a pair of breasts, a goat’s head, and various evil supernatural accessories and emblems.
This image of Baphomet was seized on by Aleister Crowley, the influential English occultist, whose works had such an influence on modern neopaganism. As a result, Baphomet has become popular. You can buy devotional books and resin statues of him more easily than you can for almost any deity from my “deities of the underworld” category. The fact that this deity has always been entirely a fraud, a bowdlerization of the medieval devil, and a complete invention (created under torture) seemingly has little bearing on the deitiy’s popularity. Indeed it is a good origin story for a dark god and possibly has helped Baphomet to prominence.
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July 17, 2013 at 9:42 PM
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July 18, 2013 at 12:03 PM
Jane Richards
Historically, the Pope, Clement, did, more or less, admit that the KT were not guilty of all the ridiculous charges brought against them…and the Church in modern times have also admitted this….
One has to take into consideration, also, that the KT were ‘outliving’ their prime duty…protection of the ‘Holy Land’….they were in the midst of losing all of it…..But, pure greed was the largest reason for France’s Louis to continue the persecution…..
Also, many of the KT who survived did leave France and were taken in, so to speak, by Scotland and Portugal…[many of them became administrators to the King of Portugal]…..So, not all monarchs in that era believed the erroneous charges…..
(As an aside)…the mythos of ‘Friday the 13th’ becoming a ‘bad luck day’ is believed to have had it’s origins due to the day the persecution began (or the day that the Grand Master, Jacques DeMolay, was burned at the stake)…
July 19, 2013 at 11:16 PM
Wayne
Thanks for the additional information. The Templars were losing their popularity (and their original raison d’etre) as the Crusades went wrong, but they were starting to benefit from some of the advantages of being a cross national banking entity. They soon discovered that the governments of the day were not as tolerant of I-bankers as is the case now!
July 17, 2013 at 10:34 PM
Jane Richards
I am very happy that you wrote the true history of the KT. There are many who don’t realize that as a member of the Masonic Order, if you reach a certain level the member is also considered automatically a Knights Templar. Many of the survivors, (some my ancestors, and members of my family (I was a Jobs Daughter; father a Mason and Mother a member of the Order of the Eastern Star), I just shake my head when reading some of the ridiculous claims made against them, especially the versions of Baphomet!