| The Library of the Supreme Council, S.J.,
has received facsimile manuscripts relating to
the trials of the medieval Knights Templar. In
October 2007, the 700th anniversary of the
arrest of the Templars, the Vatican Secret
Archive announced that it would publish a
limited run of 800 copies of the previously
unavailable source material on the Templar
trials. Referred to by the Latin title,
Processus Contra Templarios, the publication
is a joint project of the Vatican Secret
Archives and Italy’s Scrinium cultural
foundation. The Supreme Council‚s acquisition is
through a generous gift by Ill. Hoyt O. Samples,
33°, SGIG in Tennessee, and his wife Mitzi.
Another Masonic library that has announced
acquisition of this scarce work is the
Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library
of the Grand Lodge of New York.
The most interesting document in the
collection is the Chinon Parchment. This long
lost parchment had been misplaced and
incorrectly catalogued at some point in history,
but was found in 2001 when a historian stumbled
across it. The Chinon Parchment was a key
document that historians had long sought, as it
contains Pope Clement V’s absolution of the
Templars from charges of heresy. This charge had
been the backbone of the French King Philip IV’s
attempts to eliminate the Order.
The announcement is of special interest to
Scottish Rite Freemasons as the Scottish Rite
includes several degrees based upon Templar
legend and symbolism.
The ancient parchments, and among them the
Chinon paper which includes the papal acquittal
upon the accusations against the Knights
Templar, the private agenda with notes likely
written by Pope Clemens V. The surviving acts of
the pontiff inquiry, kept at the Vatican Secret
Archive, show to what extent the pope himself
aimed to save and preserve the existence of the
Templar Order, assigning it a new role upon
restoration of its habits and rules. |
