The struggle against the Templar Order may truly be regarded, more so than the one waged against the Cathars, as a crusade against the Grail. In Wolfram, the analogy between the Grail knights and the Templars is revealed by the name Templeisen, namely, Templars…

The struggle against the Templar Order may truly be regarded, more so than the one waged against the Cathars, as a crusade against the Grail. In Wolfram, the analogy between the Grail knights and the Templars is revealed by the name Templeisen, namely, Templars, which is given to the custodians of the Grail, even though no temple is mentioned. In Perlesvax, the guardians of the Grail in the "Island" are both ascetic and warrior-like and, like the Knights Templar, wear a red cross on a white garment. Joseph of Arimathea gives to Evelach (Galahad's ancestor, who was a hero of the Grail and of King Arthur) a white shield with a vermillion cross, which is the same emblem exclusively given by Pope Eugene III to the Templars, in 1147. A ship with this same Templar emblem, a red cross on a white sail, comes to take Percival to the unknown seat where the Grail had been taken to, and whence Percival will never return. The same themes are found in the romance Sam de Nansai, since here too the Grail ends up being guarded by warrior monks who live on an island, whence from time to time those who are destined to become kings in other lands depart.

Templar chivalry was characteristically an order in which fighting and especially "holy war" were regarded as a path of asceticism and liberation. Externally, it embraced Christianity, but in its highest mystery, which was restricted to an inner circle, it went beyond the Christian religion, rejecting the worship of Christ and the main limitations of a devotional type. This chivalry also tended to shift the principle of supreme spiritual authority to a center other than Rome, a center more properly designated with the nobler and more universal term "Temple" rather than "Church."

This is clear enough in the acts and proceedings of the trial against the Knights Templar. Even though the evidence was distorted or painted with blasphemous tinges, either intentionally or because of a misunderstanding, the expert eye will easily recognize its true scope.

Of course one should not idealize the entire Templar Order in its historical concreteness, especially when the latter grew out of proportion (at one point it had nine thousand centers) and acquired a mighty temporal power and wealth. Among their members there certainly were men who did not live up to the ideal and who lacked all necessary skills, even in the case of Great Master Gerard of Ridfort (1184-1189). What I am going to say now does not apply to the great majority of the Templars in the last years of the order's life, but rather to a hierarchy that, as often happens in these cases, did not necessarily coincide with the visible and official hierarchy.

First of all, it has consistently been shown, not only through confessions extorted with torture but also through spontaneous declarations, that the Templars had a secret ritual of an authentically initiatory character. As a condition to be admitted to this rite, or as an introductory phase to it, one had to abjure the worship of Christ. The knight who aspired to the various levels of the order's inner hierarchy had to step over the crucifIx and insult it. He was ordered "not to believe in the CrucifIed One, but in the Lord who is in heaven"; he was taught that Jesus had been a false prophet-not a divine fIgure who died to atone for men's sins, but a very ordinary man who died because of his own mistakes. The text of the indictment was formulated in this manner: Et post crux portaretur et ibi dicetur sibi quod crucifixus non est Christus, sed quidam falsus propheta, depetatus per Iudaeos ad mortem propter delicta sua. This should be regarded not as a true abjuration, much less as a blasphemy, but rather as a sort of test: the initiate had to demonstrate his capability to go beyond an exoteric cult of a merely religious-devotional type. The rite in question was apparently celebrated on Good Friday; however, Good Friday also happens to be the day that often corresponds to the celebration of the mystery of the Grail or to the arrival of the hero in the inaccessible castle of the Grail.