Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hour 11:The Assassins (aired March 1st, 1993) You're listening to the Hour of the Time and
I'm your host, William Cooper. (Intro music: In the Hall of the Mountain
King) 103
[Reading from A History of Secret Societies]: Two men in the year 1092 stood on the ramparts
of a medieval castle—the Eagle's Nest—perched high upon the crags of
the Persian mountains: the personal representative of the Emperor and the veiled figure who claimed
to be the incarnation of God on earth. Hasan, son of Sabah, Sheikh
of the Mountains and leader of the Assassins, spoke: "You see that devotee
standing guard on yonder turret-top?Watch!" He made a signal. Instantly the white-robed
figure threw up his hands in salutation, and cast himself two thousand feet
into the foaming torrent which surrounded the fortress.
"I have seventy thousand men—and women—throughout Asia, [and] each one of them ready to do my
bidding. Can your master, Malik Shah, say the same? And he asks
me to surrender to his sovereignty! This is your answer. Go!"
[Now] such a scene may be worthy of the most exaggerated of horror films. And yet it took
place in historical fact. The only quibble made by the chronicler of the
time was that Hasan's devotees numbered "only about forty thousand." How this
man Sabah came by his uncanny power, and how his devotees struck terror into the hearts
of men from the Caspian to Egypt, is one of the most extraordinary of all tales
of secret societies [the Mysteries]. Today, the sect of the Hashishin ([or] druggers)
still exists in the form of the Ismailis ([or] Ishmaelites), whose undisputed chief, endowed
by them with divine attributes, is the Aga Khan.
Like many another secret cult, the Assassin organization was based upon an earlier association.
[And] in order to understand how they worked and what their
objectives were, we must begin with these roots.
It must be remembered [dear listeners] that the followers of Islam in the seventh century
A.D. split into two divisions: the orthodox, who regard Mohammed as the bringer
of divine inspiration; and the Shiahs, who consider that Ali, his successor,
the Fourth Imam ([or] leader), was more important. It is with the Shiahs that we are concerned
here. From the beginning of the split in the early
days of Islam, the Shiahs relied for survival upon secrecy, organization and
initiation. Although the minority party in Islam, they believed that they could overcome
the majority (and eventually the whole world) by superior organization and
power. To this end they started a number of societies which practiced secret rites
in which the personality of Ali was worshipped, and whose rank and file were trained to struggle
above all for the accomplishment of world dominion.
One of the most successful secret societies which the Shiahs founded was centered around
the Abode of Learning in Cairo, which was the training-ground for fanatics
who were conditioned by the most cunning methods to believe in a special
divine mission. In order to do this, the original democratic Islamic ideas had to be overcome
by skilled teachers, acting under the orders of the Caliph of the Fatimites,
who ruled Egypt at that time. Members were enrolled, on the understanding
that they were to receive hidden power and timeless wisdom which would
enable them to become as important in life as some of the teachers.[And you find that
these same precepts in every branch, in every nationality, on every continent where
the Mysteries prevail.]The Caliph saw to it that the instructors were no
ordinary men. The supreme judge was one of them; another was the commander-in-chief of
the army; a third the minister of the Court. There was no lack of applicants.
In any country where the highest officials of the realm formed a body of teachers,
103 Composed by Edvard Grieg in 1876.97 one would find the same thing.
Classes were divided into study groups, some composed of men, others of women, collectively
termed Assemblies of Wisdom. All lessons were carefully prepared,
written down and submitted to the Caliph for his seal. At the end of the lecture
all present kissed the seal: for did the Caliph not claim direct descent from Mohammed, through
his son-in-law Ali and thence from Ismail, the seventh Imam? He was
the embodiment of divinity, far more than any Tibetan lama ever was.
The university, lavishly endowed and possessing the best manuscripts and scientific instruments
available, received a grant of a quarter of a million gold pieces
annually from the Caliph. Its external form was similar to the pattern of the ancient
Arab universities, not much different from Oxford. But its real purpose was the complete
transformation of the mind of the student.
Students had to pass through nine degrees of initiation [the same number that are claimed
in the York Rite of Freemasonry]. In the first, the teachers threw
their pupils into a state of doubt about all conventional ideas, religious and
political. They used false analogy and every other device of argument to make the aspirant
believe that what he had been taught by his previous mentors was prejudiced
and capable of being challenged. The effect of this according to the Arab
historian, Makrizi, was to cause him to lean upon the personality of the teachers, as the
only possible source of the proper interpretation of facts. At the same time,
the teachers hinted continually that formal knowledge was merely the cloak for
hidden, inner and powerful truth, whose secret would be imparted when the youth was ready
to receive it. [None ever questioned why no secret was ever put forth.]
This 'confusion technique' was carried out until the student reached the stage
where he was prepared to swear a vow of blind allegiance to one or other of his teachers.
This oath, together with certain secret signs, was administered in due course, and the candidate
awarded the first degree of initiation. The second degree took the
form of initiation into the fact that the Imams ([the] successors of Mohammed) were
the true and only sources of secret knowledge and power. Imams inspired the teachers. Therefore
the student was to acknowledge every saying and act of his appointed
guides as blessed and divinely inspired. In the third degree, the esoteric
names of the Seven Imams were revealed, and the secret words by which they could be conjured
and by which the powers inherent in the very repetition of their names
could be liberated and used for the individual especially in the service of the
sect. In the fourth degree, the succession of the
Seven Mystical Law-givers and magical personalities was given to the learner.
These were characterized as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed and Ismail. There were
seven mystical 'helpers': Seth, Shem, Ishmael, Aaron, Simon,
Ali, and Mohammed, the son of Ismail. This last was dead, but he had a
mysterious deputy, who was the Lord of the Time: authorized to give his instructions
to the People of Truth, as the Ismailis called themselves. This hidden figure gave
the Caliph the power to pretend that he was acting under even higher instructions.
The fifth degree named twelve apostles under the seven prophets, whose names and functions
and magical powers were described. In this degree the power to influence
others by means of personal concentration was supposed to be taught. One
writer claims that this was done merely by the repetition, for a period of three years
to train the mind, of the magical word AK-ZABT-I.
To obtain the sixth degree involved instruction in the methods of analytical and destructive
argument, in which the postulant had to pass a [very] stiff examination.
The seventh degree brought [revelations] of the Great Secret: that all
humanity and all creation were one and every single thing was part of the whole, which
included the creative and destructive power [the androgynous god]. But, as an Ismaili,
the individual could make use of the power which was ready to be awakened
within him, and overcome those who knew nothing of the immense potential of the rest of humanity.
This power came through the aid of the mysterious power called
the Lord of the Time. To qualify for the eighth degree, the aspirant
had to believe that all religion, philosophy and the like were fraudulent. All
that mattered was the individual, who could attain fulfillment only through servitude
to the greatest developed power—the Imam. The ninth and last degree brought the
revelation of the secret that there was no such thing as belief: all that mattered was
action. And the only possessor of the reasons for carrying out any action was the chief
of the sect. As a secret society, the organization of the
Ismailis as outlined above was undoubtedly powerful and seemed likely to
produce a large number of devotees who would blindly obey the orders of whomever was in
control of the edifice. But, as with [many] other bodies of this kind, there were
severe limitations from the point of view of effectiveness.
Perhaps the phase of revolt or subversion planned by the society did not in the end
get under way; perhaps it was not intended to work by any other means than training
the individual. Be that as it may, its real success extended abroad only to
Baghdad [in 1058], where a member gained temporary control of Baghdad and coined money in the
Egyptian Caliph's name. [Now] this sultan was slain by the Turks,
who now entered the picture, and theCairo headquarters was also threatened. By
1123, the society was closed down by the Vizier Afdal. The rise of Turkish power seemed to
have discouraged the expansionist Cairo sect so strongly that they
almost faded out, and [very] little is heard of them after that date.
It was left to Hasan, son of Sabah, the Old Man of the Mountains, to perfect the system
of the ailing secret society, and found an organization which has endured for
nearly another thousand years. Who was Hasan? [Well,] he was the son of a
Shiah (Ali-worshipper) in Khorasam, a most bigoted man, who claimed that
his ancestors were Arabs, from Kufa. [Now] this assumption was probably due to the fact
that such a lineage bolstered up claims to religious importance, then as now,
among Moslems. [You see,] the people of the neighborhood, many of them also
Shiahs, stated very decisively that this Ali was a Persian, and so were his forebears.
[So] it is generally thought that thisis the truer version. As the Governor of the Province
was an orthodox Moslem, Ali spared no efforts to assume the same guise.
[Now] this is considered to be completely permissible—the Doctrine of Intelligent
Dissimulation. As there was some doubt as to his reliability in the religious sense,
he retired into a monastic retreat, and sent his son Hasan to an orthodox school. This
school was no ordinary one. It was the circle of disciples presided over by the redoubtable
Imam Muwafiq, about whom it was said that every individual who enrolled under
him eventually rose to great power. It was here that Hasan met Omar Khayyám,
the tentmaker-poet and astronomer, later to be the poet laureate of Persia.
Another of hisschoolmates was Nizam-ul-Mulk, who rose from peasanthood to become prime
minister. These three made a pact, according to Nizam's autobiography,
whereby whichever rose to high office first would help the others. [And thattenet
has survived to this day. It is how their own infiltrate all levels of society, military,
and government, and then pull their brothers up into positions below them. It
is the method of infiltrating and controlling large masses, populations,
governments, military organizations, and society as a whole.]
Nizam, the courtier, became Vizier to Alp-Arslan the Turkish sultan of Persia, in a very relatively
short time. He helped Omar, in accordance with his vow, and secured
him a pension, which gave him a life of ease and indulgence in his beloved
Nishapur, where many of his Rubá'iyát poems were written. Meanwhile Hasan remained in
obscurity, wandering through the Middle East, waiting for his chance to attain
the power of which he had dreamed. Arslan the Lion died, and was succeeded by
Malik Shah. Suddenly, Hasan presented himself to Nizam, demanding to be given a place at
court. Delighted to fulfill his childhood vow, the vizier obtained for him
a favored place, and relates what transpired thus in his autobiography:
"I had him made a minister by my strong and extravagant recommendations. Like his father,
however, he proved to be a fraud, hypocrite and a self-seeking villain.
He was so clever at dissimulation that he appeared to be pious when he was not,
and before long he had somehow completely captured the mind of the Shah."
[Now] Malik Shah was young, and Hasan was trained in the Shiah art of winning people
over by apparent honesty [which means it has the appearance, or the look,
of honesty, but truly is not. Just as the notice of apparent violations sent by the
FCC (laughs)]. But Nizam was still the most important
man in the realm, with an impressive record of honest dealing and
achievements. Hasan decided to eliminate him. The king had asked in that year, 1078, for
a complete accounting of the revenue and expenditure of the empire, and
Nizam told him that this would take over a year. Hasan, on the other hand, claimed that
the whole work could be done in 99 forty days, and offered to prove it [and there's
that forty days again]. The task was assigned to him. And the accounts were
prepared in the specified time. Something went wrong at this point. The balance of historical
opinion holds that Nizam struck back at the last moment, saying, "By
Allah, this man will destroy us all unless he is rendered harmless, though I cannot
kill my playmate."[Now] whatever the truth may be, it seems that Nizam managed to have
such disparities introduced into the final calligraphic version of the accounts
that when Hasan started to read them they appeared so absurd that the Shah, in
fury, ordered him to be exiled. As he had claimed to have written the accounts in his
own hand, Hasan could not justify their incredible deficiencies [and could not sluff
the blame off upon his friend]. Hasan had friends in Isfahan, where he immediately
fled. There survives a record of what he said there, which sheds
interesting light upon what was in his mind. One of these friends, Abu-al-Fazal, notes
that Hasan, after reciting the bitter tale of his downfall, shouted these words, in a
state of uncontrollable rage: "If I had two, just two, devotees who would stand by
me, then I would cause the downfall of that Turk and that peasant."
Fazal concluded that Hasan had taken leave of his senses, and tried to get him out of
this ugly mood. Hasan took umbrage, and insisted that he was working
on a plan, and that he would have his revenge. He set off for Egypt, there to mature
his plans. Fazal was himself later to become a devotee
of the Assassin chief, and Hasan, two decades later, reminded him of that day
in Isfahan: "Here I am at Alamut, Master of all I survey: and more. The Sultan and the
peasant Vizier are dead. Have I not kept my vow? Was I the madman you thought
me to be? I found my two devotees, who were necessary to my plans."
Hasan himself takes up the story of how his fortunes fared after the flight from Persia.
He had been brought up in the secret doctrines of Ismailism [the Arab branch
of the Mysteries], and recognized the possibilities of power inherent in such a
system. He knew that in Cairo there was a powerful nucleus of the society. And, if we
are to believe the words of Fazal, he already had a plan whereby he could turn their
followers into disciplined, devoted fanatics, willing to die for a leader. What
was this plan? [Well,] he had decided that it was not enough to promise paradise, fulfillment,
eternal joy to people. He would actually showit to them; show it in the form
of an artificial paradise, where houris played and fountains gushed sweet-scented
waters, where every sensual wish was granted amid beautiful flowers and gilded pavilions.
And this [dear listeners] is what he eventually did.
Hasan chose a hidden valley for the site of his paradise, described by Marco Polo, who
passed this way in 1271: "In a beautiful valley, enclosed between two
lofty mountains, he had formed a luxurious garden stored with every
delicious fruit and every fragrant shrub that could be procured. Palaces of various sizes
and forms were erected in different parts of the grounds, ornamented with works
of gold, with paintings and with furniture of rich silks. By means of small
conduits contained in these buildings,streams of wine, milk, honey and some of pure water
were seen to flow in every direction. The inhabitants of these places
were elegant and beautiful damsels, accomplished in the arts of singing, playing
upon all sorts of musical instruments, dancing, and especially those of dalliance and amorous
allurement. Clothed in rich dresses, they were seen continually sporting
and amusing themselves in the garden and pavilions, their female guardians
being confined within doors and never allowed to appear. The object which the chief had
in view in forming a garden of this fascinating kind was[simply] this: that Mahomet
having promised to those who should obey his will the enjoyments of
Paradise, where every species of sensual gratification should be found, in the society of beautiful
nymphs, he was desirous of it being understood by his followers that
he also was a prophet and a compeer of Mahomet, and had the power of admitting
to Paradise such as he should choose to favor.In order that none without his license should
find their way into this delicious valley, he caused a strong and inexpugnable
castle to be erected at the opening to it, through which the entry was by a secret
passage." [And thus the legend of Shambala, or the paradise
in the mountains, a valley of lush greenery, unending fruits, fair,
beautiful maidens. Thus the legend began!] Hasan began to attract young men from the
surrounding countryside, between the ages of twelve and twenty: particularly those whom
he marked out as possible material for the production of killers. Every day he held court,
a reception at which he spoke of the delights of Paradise ... "and
at certain times he caused droughts of soporific nature to be administered to ten or a
dozen youths, and when half dead with sleep [drugged out of their minds] he had them conveyed
to the several palaces and apartments of the garden. Upon awakening from
this state of lethargy, their senses were struck by all the delightful objects,
and each perceiving himself surrounded by lovely damsels, singing, playing, and attracting
his regards by the most fascinating caresses, serving him also with delicious
viands and exquisite wines, until, intoxicated with excess and enjoyment, amidst
actual [actual,real] rivers of milk and wine, he believed himself assuredly in Paradise,
and felt an unwillingness to relinquish its delights. When four or five days had thus
been passed, they were thrown once more into a state of somnolency [drugged],
and carried out of the garden. Upon being carried to his presence, and questioned by
him as to where they had been, their answer was, 'in Paradise, through the favor
of your highness'; and then, before the whole court who listened to them with
eager astonishment and curiosity, they gave a circumstantial account of the scenes to
which they had been witnesses. The chief thereupon addressing them said: 'We
have the assurance of our Prophet that he who defends his Lord shall inherit
Paradise, and if you show yourselves[if you show yourselves]to be devoted to the obedience
of my orders, that happy lot awaits you'."
[Now] suicide was at first attempted by some [to be able to return to the Paradise that
they had just left, not knowing that it was an illusion]; but the survivors were
early told that only death in the obedience of Hasan's orders could give the Key to
Paradise.In the eleventh century it was not only credulous Persian peasants who would
have believed such things were true. Even among [the] more sophisticated people
the reality of the gardens and houris of paradise were completely accepted. True,
a good many Sufis preached that the garden was allegorical—but that still left more
than a few people who believed that they could trust the evidence of their senses.
The ancient Art of Imposture, by Abdel-Rahman of Damascus, gives away another trick of Hasan's.
[You see,] he had a deep, narrow pit sunk into the floor of his
audience-chamber. One of his disciples stood in this, in such a way that his head
and neck alone were visible above the floor. [And] around the neck was placed a circular
dish in two pieces which fitted together, with a hole in the middle. This
gave the impression that there was a severed head on a metal plate standing on the
floor. [Now] in order to make the scene more plausible (if that is the word) Hasan had
some fresh blood poured around the head, on the plate.
[Then the] recruits were brought in [the initiates]. "Tell them," commanded the chief, "what thou
hast seen."[Then] the disciple [appearing as a head on the plate]
described the delights of Paradise. "You have seen the head of a man who died,
whom you all knew. I have reanimated him to speak with his own tongue."[And then, he would
really sever, treacherously, the man's head] in real earnest, and stuck for
some time somewhere that the faithful would see it. The effect of this conjuring
trick plus *** increased the enthusiasm for martyrdom to the required degree [and
gave him unbelievable control over his flock].
There are many documented instances of the recklessness of the fidayeen (devotees) of
the Ismailis, one witness being a Westerner who was treated a century later
to a similar spectacle to that which had appalled the envoy of Malik Shah.
[But we've got to take a break first, folks. Don't go away, I'll be right back after this
very short pause.] (Interlude music: Theme from The Twilight
Zone) 104
Henry, Count of Champagne, reports that he was traveling in 1194 through Ismaili territory."The
chief sent some persons to salute him and beg that, on his
return he would stop at and partake of the hospitality of the castle. The Count
accepted the invitation. As he returned, the Dai-el-Kebir ([or] Great Missionary) advanced
to meet him, showed him every mark of honor, and let him view his castle
and fortresses. Having passed through several, they came at length to one of the
towers which rose to an exceeding height. On each tower stood two sentinels clad in
white. 'These,'said the Chief, pointing to 104 Composed by Marius Constant.101
them, 'obey me far better than the subjects of your Christians obey their lords;' and
at a given signal two of them flung themselves down, and were dashed to pieces.
'If you wish,'said he to the astonished Count, 'all my white ones shall do the
same.'The benevolent Count shrank from the proposal, and candidly avowed that no Christian
prince could presume to look for such obedience from his subjects. When
he was departing, with many valuable presents, the Chief said to him meaningly,
'By means of these trusty servants I get rid of the enemies of our society.'
[Now] further details of the mentality of Hasan are given in what is supposed to be
an autobiographical account of his early days: and it probably is in fact such,
because the method of his conversion does seem to follow the pattern which has
been observed in fanatics, of whatever religious or political persuasion.
He was, he says, reared in the belief of the divine right of the Imams, by his father.
He early met an Ismaili missionary (Emir Dhareb) with whom he argued strenuously
against the Emir's particular form of creed. Then, sometime later, he went
through a bout of severe illness, in which he feared to die, and began to think that
the Ismaili doctrine might really be the road to redemption and Paradise. If he died
unconverted, he might be damned. Thus it was that as soon as he recovered he
sought out another Ismaili propagandist, Abu Najam, and then others. Eventually he went
to Egypt, to study the creed at its headquarters.
He was received with honor by the Caliph, due to his former position at the Court of
Malik Shah. In order to increase their own importance, the high officials of
the Court made a good deal of public play of the significance of the new convert;
but this fact seemed in the end to help Hasan more than it did them. He entered into political
intrigue and was arrested, then confined in a fortress. No sooner had he entered
the prison than a minaret collapsed, and in some unexplained way this was
interpreted as an omen that Hasan was in reality a divinely protected person. The Caliph, hurriedly
making Hasan a number of valuable gifts, had him put aboard a ship
sailing for north-west Africa. This gave him the funds which he was to use for
setting up his 'paradise'—and also, through some quirk of fate, the disciples whom he
sought. A tremendous storm blew up, terrifying the
captain, crew and passengers alike. Prayers were held, and Hasan was asked
to join. He refused. "The storm is my doing; how can I pray that it abate?" he asked. [And
then says this:] "I have indicated the displeasure of the Almighty. If we sink, I
shall not die, for I am immortal. If you want to be saved, believe in me, and I shall
subdue the winds." [Well] at first the offer was not accepted.
Presently, however, when the ship seemed on the point of capsizing, the
desperate passengers came to him and swore eternal allegiance. Hasan was still [very]
calm; and continued so until the storm abated. The ship was then driven on to the
sea-coast of Syria, where Hasan disembarked, together with two of the merchant
passengers, who became his first real disciples. Hasan was not yet ready for the fulfillment
of his destiny as he saw it. For the time being, he was traveling under the guise
of a missionary of the Caliph in Cairo. From Aleppo he went to Baghdad, seeking a headquarters
where he should be safe from interference and where he yet could become
powerful enough to expand. Into Persia the road led him, traveling through
the country, making converts to his ideas, which were still apparently strongly based
upon the secret doctrines of the Egyptian Ismailis. Everywhere he created a
really devoted disciple ([or] fidayi) he bade him stay and try to enlarge the circle of
his followers. These circles became hatching-grounds for the production of 'self-sacrificers',
the initiates who were drawn from the ranks of the most promising ordinary
converts. Thus it was that miniature training centers, modeled upon the
Abode of Learning, were in being within a very few months of his return to his homeland.
During his travels, a trusted lieutenant—one Hussein Kahini—reported that the Iraki district
where the fortress of Alamut was situated seemed to be an ideal
place for proselytism. Most of the ordinary people of that place, in fact, had been
persuaded into the Ismaili way of thinking. The only obstacle was the Governor, Ali Mahdi,
who looked upon the Caliph of Baghdad as his spiritual and temporal lord.
The first converts were expelled from the country. [But] before many months,
however, there were so many Ismailis among the populace that the Governor was compelled
to allow them to return. Hasan, though, he would not brook [would not allow
him]. The prospective owner of Alamut decided to try a trick. He offered the
Governor three thousand pieces of gold for "the amount of land which could be encompassed
by the hide of an ox". When 102 Mahdi agreed to such a sale, Hasan produced
a skin, cut it into the thinnest possible thongs, and joined them together to form
a string which encompassed the castle of Alamut. Although the Governor refused to honor any
such bargain, Hasan produced an order from a very highly placed official
of the Seljuk rulers, ordering that the fortress be handed over to Hasan for three
thousand gold pieces. [Well] it turned out that this official was himself a secret follower
of the Sheikh of the Mountain. The year was A.D. 1090. Hasan was now ready
for the next part of his plan. He attacked and routed the troops of the Emir
who had been placed in the governorship of the Province, and welded the people of the
surrounding districts into a firm band of diligent and trustworthy workers and soldiers,
answerable to him [and him] alone. Within two years the Vizier Nizam-ulMulk had been
stabbed to the heart by an assassin sent by Hasan, and the Emperor Malik Shah, who dared
to send troops against him, died in grave suspicion of poison.
Hasan's revenge upon his class-fellow was to make him the very first target of
his reign of terror. [You see,] with the king's death, the whole realm was split up into warring
factions. For long the Assassins alone retained their cohesion. In under a
decade they had made themselves masters of all Persian Irak, and of many forts
throughout the empire. This they did by forays, direct attack, the poisoned dagger, and in
any other manner which seemed expedient [indeed, the ends always justified
the means]. The orthodox religious leaders pronounced one interdict after
another against their doctrines; all to no effect.
By now the entire loyalty of the Ismailis under him had been transferred from the Caliph
to the personality of the Sheikh of the Mountain, who became the terror of
every prince in that part of Asia, the Crusader chiefs included. "Despite and
despising fatigues, dangers and tortures, the Assassins joyfully gave their lives whenever
it pleased the great master, who required them either to protect himself or
to carry out his mandates of death. The victim having been pointed out, the
faithful, clothed in a white tunic with a red sash, the colors of innocence and blood,
went on their mission without being deterred by distance or danger. Having found
the person they sought, they awaited the favorable moment for slaying him, and
their daggers seldom missed their aim." Richard the Lionheart was at one time accused
of having asked the 'Lord of the Mountain' to have Conrad of Montferrat
killed; a plot which was carried out thus: "Two assassins allowed themselves to be baptized
and placing themselves beside him, seemed intent only on praying. But the
favorable opportunity presented itself; they stabbed him and one took refuge in
the church. But hearing that the prince had been carried off still alive, he again forced
himself into Montferrat's presence, and stabbed him a second time; and then expired,
without a complaint, amidst refined tortures."[You see, the method of
controlling men's minds that Hasan had perfected was extremely effective and powerful. And
not one, not even one, incidence of one of his followers failing
to carry out his orders exactly can be found.]The Order of the Assassins had
perfected their method of securing the loyalty of human beings to an extent and on a scale
which has seldom been paralleled. The Assassins carried on the battle on two
fronts. [You see,] they fought whichever side in the Crusades served their
purposes [they fought with the Knights Templar and fought againstthe Knights Templars]. At
the same time they continued the struggle against the Persians. The son
and successor of Nizam-ul-Mulk was laid low by an Assassin dagger. The Sultan,
who had succeeded his father Malik Shah and gained power over most of his territories
was marching against them. One morning, however, he awoke with an Assassin
weapon stuck neatly into the ground near his head. Within it was a note,
warning him to call off the proposed siege of Alamut. [Well,] he came to terms with the
Assassins [after that], powerful ruler though he undoubtedly was. [You see, the Assassins
eventually] had what amounted to a free hand, in exchange for a pact by
which they promised to reduce their military power.[It was during their pacts, their treaties,
their battles with the Knights Templars that many, some say most, some few
even say all, of the Knights Templars were initiated into the Mysteries.]
Hasan lived for thirty-four years after his acquisition of Alamut. On only two occasions
since then had he even left his room; yet he ruled an invisible empire as
great and as fearsome as any man before—or since.[They say, but his empire may
still exist today, changed and melded with other sects of the Mysteries.][Hasan] seemed
to realize that death was almost upon him, and calmly began to make plans for the
perpetual continuance [folks] of the Order of the Assassins.
[And we now begin the latter days of the Assassins which we will not finish in this hour but
will finish in the next.]The ruler of one the most terrifying organizations
the world has ever known was without a lineal successor. [In fact,] he had had
both of his sons killed: one for carrying out an unauthorized ***, [and] the other
for drinking wine; certainly a case of "do as I say, not as I do". He called his two
most trusted lieutenants from the strongholds which they maintained on his behalf: Kia
Buzurg-Umid (Kia of Great Promise) and Abu-Ali of Qaswin. Kia was to inherit the spiritual
and mystical aspect, while AbuAli attended to the military and administrative affairs
of the Order. It is said that Hasan bin Sabah died almost immediately
afterwards, in 1124, at ninety years of age; having given the world a new word; assassin.
'Assasseen' in Arabic signifies 'guardians', and some commentators have considered
this to be the true origin of the word: "guardians of the secrets"[which
the Knight Templar took to Europe]. The Organization of the Order, under Hasan,
called for Missionaries, Friends who were disciples, and Fidavis, devotees.
The last group had been added by Hasan to the Ismaili original, and these were the trained
killers. Fidavis wore white, with a girdle, cap or boots of red. In addition to
careful coaching in where and when to place the dagger in the victim's ***, they
were trained in such things as languages, the dress and manners of monks, merchants
and soldiers, any of whom they were ready to impersonate in carrying out their
missions. The chief was known as Sayedna ([which means] Our Prince, [or]
Leader), and popularly (because of the mountain stronghold of Alamut), as the Sheikh of the
Mountain.[Now, Alamut, or the stronghold of the mountain, was also known
as "The Eagle's Nest," and this is what Hitler named his mountain retreat, and
there's also an Eagle's Nest near Santa Barbara, California, which very few people know anything
about. . . yet.][Now, the Sheikh of the Mountain] is the figure referred
to in Crusaders' writings as 'Sydney', or 'Senex de Monte', the first word being a
literal translation of the word 'Pir': Persian for Ancient, or Sage. There were three Great
Missionaries, who ruled three territories. After the Friends and Fidavis
came the Laziks, aspirants who were being trained for membership of the society,
but were as yet uninitiated. Hasan reduced the original number of degrees
of initiation from nine to the mystical number of seven. A similar number
of regulations formed the rules of the Order. This, in fact, comprised the working plan
of the spreading of the Faith. The First Rule was that the Missionary must know human
psychology in such a way as to be able to select suitable people for admission
to the cult; and was summed up in the mnemonic: 'Cast no seeds upon rocks'.The second rule
of procedure was the application of flattery and gaining the confidence
of the prospective member.105 Third came the casting of doubt into the
mind, by superior knowledge. Fourthly, the teacher must apply an oath to the student
never to betray any of the 'truths' which were to be revealed to him. Now he was told,
as the fifth stage, that Ismailism was a powerful secret organization, supported
by some of the most important figures of the time. After this, the aspirant was questioned
and studied, to discover whether he had absorbed the opinions of the teacher and
attached himself sufficiently into a position of dependence upon his ideas.
[And] at this stage he was asked to meditate upon the meaning of the reported saying of
the prophet that "Paradise lies in the shadow of swords."In the final degree, many
difficult passages of the Koran were explained in terms of allegory.
How is it that the rules of this extraordinarily successful Order are known in such detail?
[Well,] it so happened that when the Mongols eventually overthrew Alamut by
force of arms, their chief Halaku ([meaning] 'Destruction') Khan, asked his chief
minister to examine their library. This most learned man, 'Father of Kings' Jawani, later
wrote a careful book in which he detailed the organization of the Assassins,
whose name he attributed to the use of the drug Hashish, which they were said to
use in stupefying candidates for the ephemeral visit to 'paradise'.
It is possible that recruits were made in another way than by selecting gullible, fully
grown youths. Legend has it that Hasan, once master of Alamut, used to buy
unwanted children from their parents, and train them in implicit obedience and
with the sole desire to die in his service. Buzurg-Umid ([meaning] 'Great Promise'), the
second Grand Master ['Grand Master' is still used today, folks],
maintained the power of the Assassins on much the same pattern: building new forts, gaining
fresh converts, terrorizing those whom he did not want to have killed and using
them to further his design of world conquest. Sultan Sanjar of Persia, in spite
105 Flattery: This is the first secret of mass mind control and can be observed as the
foundation stone of virtually every false religion, party, cult, philosophy, system
and training. How can modern man free himself when . . . arrogant hypnopatsies have
been told by their masters they are "Demi-gods" and demi-gods are never deceived or distracted.
They are too smart! ~Michael A. Hoffman II, Secret Societies and
Psychological Warfare, 1995
Hour 12: The Templars and the Assassins (aired March 2nd, 1993)
No matter what country you're in, or what language you speak: welcome, around the world,
to the Hour of the Time. I'm your host, William Cooper.
(Intro music: Long As I Can See The Light) 107
Tonight folks, I come to you with a heavy heart. For another one, actually two, of my
predictions...one has come true, one is about to come true. The one that has come
true involve the loss of life and the injury of over five hundred people. And of
course, I'm talking about the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City. As far
back as 1989, and ever since, I've been predicting major terrorist attacks upon
the United States. The primary number one target: New York City. I have said it
so many times, and so many people attending my lectures, listening to my broadcasts, and
who have read my book, are familiar with it. I never, never enjoy being
right when it involves the loss of life and human injury.
Nevertheless, it is another chalk mark on the board, and I remain the most accurate
predictor of future world events in the history of the world. But the one that
is about to come true, and has not yet, is the prediction that I made that the United
States would send troops to Yugoslavia, and it appears that that is going to happen in
the very near future. Anyway, we will see, won't we, as we move into the New World
Order, and all of these events are planned to take us directly into one-world
totalitarian socialist government. To all those people in New York who lost relatives,
or who had friends or relatives that were injured, I offer you my deepest compassion,
sympathy, and I wish that I could tell you that that was the end of it, but I can tell
you that it is only the beginning. Unless people wake up, it will escalate and there
will be more. Don't forget, folks, Monday, March 15th, 8pm,
LaFayette Hotel, 2223 El Cajon Boulevard in San Diego. I'll be there, I'll be
giving a three-hour presentation, entitled The Sacrificed King: On the Assassination
of John F. Kennedy. In it, I will directly connect to the occult worship of Mystery Babylon,
the secret societies, and specifically to the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry,
which really is just the outward form of the old KnightsTemplar. And I also believe, have
reason to believe, that the sovereign and military order of the Knights of Malta
was involved, which is just another branch of the old Templar order. So make sure
that you're there. Forty dollars is the admission fee unless you're a CAJI member, then the
admission fee if thirty dollars. I managed to negotiate a 25% discount with the
people who are putting this on and who have invited me to speak. If you're not
a CAJI member, you can purchase advance tickets at the Controversial Bookstore in San Diego.
If you are a CAJI member, you must buy your tickets at the event. That's
the only way, uh, that we can get you the discount. If you would like information on
this whole conference that lasts the whole weekend, there's a whole lot of Looney Tunes
stuff going on there. There are some good speakers. Uh, my workshop is, uh, Monday
night, the last one of the whole conference, and it's not a workshop ticket, so
it's a separate event altogether. But you can call and find out about the whole thing
in case you want to spend the whole weekend. Call (619)492-8588, that's (619)492-8588,
and we still donations to pay for this airtime, folks. C'mon, get out your
checkbooks and money orders and help us out here. Send your donation to Stan and make
your checks and money orders to WWCR, not to me, I don't want your money.
It goes to pay for airtime, that's it, period. Send them to Stan, P.O. Box 889,
Camp Verde, Arizona, 86322. That's Stan, P.O. Box 889, Camp Verde, Arizona, 86322. Tell
him Bill sent you (laughs), and while you're at it, and even if you don't
send a donation, write to Stan or call him and tell him you'd like to receive a packet
of information. He'd be glad to send it to you.
If you'd like to call him, his number is (602)567-6109. That's (602)567-6109. Please
call him during normal waking hours. Stan's getting up there and he likes his sleep, and
I don't blame him, so please don't call him, uh, late in the evening or late at night.
Let him have some, some of his own time. Call him during the day, during waking
hours or early evening, please. Thank you very much for those of you who are doing that.
Those of you who are not, please start.
Well, let's continue where we left off and, uh, this is about the society in the Middle
East known as the Assassins, and 107 Creedence Clearwater Revival, Cosmo's
Factory (album), 1970107 we've covered quite a bit of their history
already: [Reading from A History of Secret Societies]:
But this secret society, [the] most successful of secret societies showed that its strength
ultimately depended upon a powerful leader. [Well,] Kia Mohammed was
no such [leader].[And]little by little it became obvious that his son, Hasan the
Hated, was the stronger personality.[Now remember, Kia Mohammed was the Old Man of the Mountain,
and the mountain lair was called: The Eagle's Nest.] Now Hasan,
through some magnetic power, was able to capture the imagination of the
Assassins, soon having it believed that he himself was none other than the Power of All
Powers, the Hidden Imam, who had been mentioned by the first Grand Master;
an incarnation of all greatness. So important was [Hasan] that he was the fountain
of power, and others only held a [very small] measure of authority because he allowed them
to have it [and for no other reason].
This final absurdity was lapped up by members who had been conditioned to believe in things
which were not, shall we say, exactly self-evident to the ordinary
man. The doctrine of the all-powerful Invisible Imam was a part of Ismailism; and
Hasan was ready even during his early manhood to assume the role. But, since his father
was able to assert himself by having some two hundred and fifty of Hasan' followers
murdered, he thought it wiser to hold his hand. In 1163 his chance came.
Mohammed died, and Hasan II issued an order to all Ismailis to collect below the castle
of Alamut. Never before had such an assembly of killers,
fanatics and dedicated perverters of the truth been seen. Hasan, probably in
a state of megalomania, assured them that he had received a message from the Almighty
that as from now, all the bond of religion were loosed: everyone might do as
he liked.[Later, in the modern age, we would hear that again as:"The whole of the
Law shall be: do as thou wilt."] It was not necessary [he said] to keep up pretences.
And, furthermore, he, Hasan, was none other than the Hidden Imam. His word was law;
and he was a form of the divinity, not merely relaying instructions from
above [but the divinity]. [Now] there was one further obstacle [folks].
According to Ismaili doctrine, the Hidden Imam was to be of the Family of
Hashim, the blood of Mohammed the Prophet. Such descendants were known and revered: and
it was common knowledge that Hasan II was not one of them. He overcame
this difficulty by stating that he was not in fact the true son of Kia
Mohammed the Persian, but an adopted child of the Caliphial family of Egypt. This pretence
was carried on for four years, during which the crazed Hasan showed that
he was not as mad as he might have been, by consolidating quite efficiently the
power of the cult. Eventually, he was assassinated by his brother-in-law, Namwar ('The Famous').
Now the father-to-son succession seemed to be established. Mohammed
II, son of Hasan II, began the cultivation of letters and sciences which was
to distinguish successive Grand Masters of the Order. It was a conceit of his, in the
time of the greatest flowering of Persian literature, that he [he] was supreme among
poets and philosophers. He used his assassins [also] to drive this point well home.
The Imam Razi, one of the greatest thinkers of the time, refused to acknowledge the Assassins
as the most advanced theologians: so Mohammed II sent an envoy
to him, promising either a swift death by dagger or a pension of several thousand
gold pieces a year. Suddenly [oh yes, suddenly!] the learned Imam's discourses seemed to lose
their bite. One day, soon afterwards, he was asked why he did not attack
the Assassins as of old. "Because,"said the old man, with a nervous glance
around the assembly where a murderer might lurk, "their arguments are so sharp, and pointed
[and indeed, they were]." For thirty-five years Mohammed II ruled the
Ismailis with a rod of iron; the only law was that of obedience to the
Assassin will. The observances of ritual Islam were abolished. A new star had arisen [Remember
that star?]: a power to stiffen resistance to Crusader penetration; Saladin,
who was to become an implacable foe of the Assassins.
The Syrian branch of the cult grew in power, while the activities of the Eastern Assassins
were carried out much more quietly, with missionaries being sent to India,
Afghanistan, even the remote Pamir Mountains which straddle China and
Russia, where even today adherents of the sect are to be found. Saladin had overcome
the other Ismaili branch and original home of Assassinism—Egypt—and restored
the true faith to the people of the Nile. He now had enough *** for ten years'
war against the Crusaders in Palestine, and troops to spare. His first task was to unify
the forces of Islam; and this he determined to do by force if necessary. Sinan,
Ancient of the Assassin cult in Syria, decided to oppose this terrible enemy of 108
the Fatimites. Three assassins fell upon Saladin and nearly killed him. This made the sect
a priority target for the Saracen chief. The Old Man of the Mountain, for his
part [who was now Mohammed II], now unleashed a succession of fanatics, in
every kind of disguise, upon Saladin. By 1176, Saladin decided that an end must be put to
the cult. He invaded their territory and started to lay it waste, when the Assassin
chief offered him freedom of action to fight the Crusaders, and no [no]further
attempt upon his life, if the cult were spared. [Now] these terms were agreed to, and henceforth
no Assassin ever again attempted to *** Sultan Saladin.
This period introduces Sinan as yet another strange and terrible Assassin leader. [For]
he had decided that he was the incarnation of all power and deity, and that
he would live the part. Sinan was never seen to eat or drink, sleep, or even to spit.
[Now can you imagine this? A living, human being never seen to eat or drink, sleep, or
even to spit.] Between sunrise and sunset he stood on a pinnacle of rock, dressed
in a hair-shirt, and preached his own power and glory to delighted Assassins.
[Have you ever worn a hair shirt? Have you ever stood on a pinnacle of rock between sunrise
and sunset? I mean, every sunrise and sunset, and wearing a hair shirt
every sunrise and sunset? Well, folks, this is historic fact. This is not something
that someone made up.]Thus, at one and the same time, there were two chiefs of the Order,
each busily telling his own followers that he, and he alone, was God [was
God!]. Hasan in Persia, Sinan in Syria, each commanded legions of devoted
killers, all committed by oath to follow his path.
When Mohammed II died, he was succeeded by his son Jalaludin, who completely reversed
the orders that the Assassins were to have no outward religious observances.
[You see] he felt that he could do a great deal by adopting the cloak of
orthodox piety, and sent ambassadors far and wide to announce his maintenance of the true
faith. He went so far as to curse his predecessors publicly, in order to convince
the incredulous that such a people as the Assassins could turn over a new leaf.
As a result of what would today be called a long-term and comprehensive propaganda plan,
he was acknowledged as a religious leader by half the orthodox monarchs
of Islam, and (the first Assassin to be so styled) came to be termed Prince
Jalaludin. Jalaludin died in 1203, after twelve years
of leadership of the cult, handing over to Alaeddin ([or] Aladdin) [And you guys
thought that it was just a storybook tale, didn't you? Aladdin], a child of nine years
of age. Weak, inefficient, stupid, Alaeddin made little mark upon history. [Except in
the classic tales of Arabia, the 1001 Arabbian Nights, for Aladdin in the 1001
Arabbian Nightsis Aladdin, the leader of the Assassins.] It is said that his main activity
was tending sheep, to which he was passionately attached, and he even had a small
hut built in a sheepfold, where he spent most of his time. [Aladdin] was
extraordinarily cruel, in spite of the contact with the sheep, and continued to terrorize
in time-honored fashion any person, great or small, who did not pay tribute or
otherwise co-operate with the organization. [And even today, those in power who are in
contact with sheep most of the time (laughs) ultimately turn out to be same.
And we all know who the sheeple are, don't we?]
The Assassins' hands, ears and eyes were everywhere. Once fully initiated, a man might be sent
to a place a thousand miles away, to take up residence and live:
waiting for the moment when orders came to him from Alamut to fulfill his fatal
destiny [and all the while in-between, furnishing intelligence to the central headquarters of
the Assassins]. A story is told of the court of the Shah of Khwarism, thus: "The
Ismaili ambassador spent some time with the Vizier. One day, after a splendid
banquet when the wine which they had been drinking in violation of the law had mounted
into their heads, the ambassador told the Vizier by way of confidence that
there were several Ismailis among the pages, grooms, guards and other persons who
were immediately about the Sultan. The Vizier, dismayed and at the same time curious to know
who these dangerous attendants were, besought the ambassador to
point them out to him, giving him his napkin as a pledge that nothing evil
should happen to them. Instantly, at a sign from the envoy, five of the persons who were
attendants in the chamber stepped forth, avowing themselves to be concealed
Assassins, 'On such a day and at such an hour,'said one of them, an Indian, to the
Vizier, 'I might have slain thee without being seen or punished; and if I did not do so it
was only because I had no orders from my superiors.'"
The Vizier [of course] begged for his life. But word got the Sultan, who ordered the Assassins
to be apprehended and burned alive, and "the five chamberlains were
cast on the flaming pyre, where they died exulting at being found worthy to 109
suffer in the service of the great Sheikh of the Mountain [so powerful was their devotion
to the cult]."The Assassins had the last laugh, for an order arrived immediately
afterwards from Alamut, that the Shah must pay ten thousand pieces of gold as
compensation for each man killed—which he did [or be killed himself].
Another subsidiary activity which the Assassins delighted in was holding captive in Alamut
of useful, rare and distinguished personages who could be of value
to them in educational, military or other spheres. [And] one was a physician,
another a famous astronomer, a third the greatest painter in Persia, who worked to the order
of the chief alone. The end of a chapter was near, for the Mongol
hordes under Halaku, lieutenant of Chinghiz, were steadily destroying all
the civilization of Islam which lay in their inexorable path westwards. Rukneddin, son
of Alaeddin, succeeded him and tried at first to turn the Mongol tide. After a series
of encounters, pitched battles, intrigues and counter-intrigues, Rukneddin was
taken. He played for time as long as he could, but was eventually murdered in his own turn
by the victorious Mongol chief's men. Assassin power in Persia was broken,
and what remained of the members were ordered—none knows by whom—to
conceal their faith and await a signal that the cult was in full operation again. Alamut
was silenced, and the Syrian headquarters alone remained.
[And if it had not been for the refusal of the Christian kings in Europe to send ambassadors
to make a treaty, or a new Crusade, with the Mongol horde, then all of
Islam would have been decimated. But it was not, for the Christian kings, even
though they would have liked to regain their foothold in the Middle East, had problems
of their own and ignored the Mongol emissaries.]
It was a long time until the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt was able to overcome the Mongol thrust.
In 1260, however, he carried the banners of Islam victoriously
against them, and restored the fortress of Alamut and other properties to the
Assassins, who were strongly surviving underground. They soon found that they had exchanged one
master for another, for the Egyptians were now employing them for
their own purposes [and required them to undergo a new initiation, that of the
ancient Egyptian Mysteries of Babylon]. Ibn Batuta, the great traveler of the fourteenth
century, found them well entrenched in their former strong places, being used
as the "arrows of the Sultan of Egypt with which he reaches his enemies."
The supposed suppression of the creed which followed the Mongol destruction did not in
fact take place. Copying each other, historians (laughs) have asserted that
Assassinism died six hundred years ago [nothing could be further from the truth].
Now and again, however, fresh facts of their continued existence still come to light. In
the eighteenth century an Englishman, the British Consul at Aleppo in Syria, was
at pains to make this better known: "Some authors assert," he writes, "that these
people were entirely extirpated in the thirteenth century by the Tartars. . . but I, who have
lived so long in this infernal place, will venture to affirm that some of their
spawn still exists in the mountains that surround us; for nothing is so cruel, barbarous
and execrable that is not acted, and even gloried in, by these cursed [Assassins]."
The Assassins were widely dispersed throughout Asia. The rise of the Thugs, the secret society
of assassination of India, followed the Mongol invasion of Persia. Indeed,
at least one of the Thug recognition-signals (Ali bhai Salam!) indicates
salutations to Ali, the descendant of the Prophet most greatly revered by the Assassins.
Ismailis, not all of them recognizing the one chief, reside in places as far apart
as Malaya, East Africa and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). They would not necessarily feel that
they are Assassins in the same sense as the extremists who followed the old Sheikhs of
the Mountains; but at least some of them revere the descendants of the Lords of
Alamut to the extent of deification. The modern phase of Ismailism dates from 1810,
when the French consul at Aleppo found that the Assassins in Persia
recognized as their divinely-inspired chief a reputed descendant of the Fourth Grand Master
of Alamut, who then lived at Kehk, a small village between Isfahan and
Tehran. This Shah Khalilullah "was revered almost like a god and credited with the
power of working miracles. . . the followers of Khalilullah would, when he pared his nails,
fight for the clippings; the water in which he washed became holy water."
The sect next appear to the public gaze through an odd happening. In 1866, a law case was
decided in Bombay. There is in that city a large community of commercial
men known as Khojas: "A Persian,"the record tells us, "Aga Khan Mehalati (i.e., a native
of Mehelat, a place situated near Khek) had sent an agent to Bombay to claim from the
Khojas the annual tribute due from them to him, and amounting to about £ 10,000.
The claim was resisted, and the British court was appealed to by Aga
Khan. Sir Joseph Arnold investigated his claim. The Aga proves his pedigree, showing that
he descended in a direct line from the fourth Grand Master of Alamut, and Sir
Joseph declared it proved; and it was further demonstrated by the trial that the
Khojas were members of the ancient sect of the Assassins, to which sect they had been
converted four hundred years before by an Ishmaelite missionary, who composed
a work which has remained the sacred book of the Khojas."
In the First Afghan War, the then Aga Khan contributed a force of light cavalry to the
British forces. For this he was awarded a pension. Hitti, in his History of
the Arabs, notes (p. 448, 1951 edition) that the Assassin sect, known as Khojas and
Malwas, gave over a tenth of their revenues to the Aga Khan, who "spends most of his time
as a sportsman between Paris and London."
The influence of the new form of organization and training, as well as initiatory techniques,
of the Assassins upon later societies has been remarked by a number of
students [and I have found in my research that it's absolutely true]. That the
Crusaders knew a good deal about the Ismailis is shown from the detailed descriptions of
them which survive. S. Ameer Ali, an Orientalist of considerable repute, goes
further in his assessment: "From the Ismailis the Crusaders borrowed the
conception which led to the formation of all the secret societies, religious and secular,
of Europe. The institutions of Templars and Hospitallers; the Society of Jesus, founded
by Ignatius Loyola, composed by a body of men whose devotion to their cause
can hardly be surpassed in our time; the ferocious Dominicans, the milder Franciscans—may all
be traced either to Cairo or to Alamut. The Knights Templar especially,
with their system of grand masters, grand priors and religious devotees, and their
degrees of initiation, bear the strongest analogy to the Eastern Ismailis."
[We've got to take a break, folks. I'll be right back, right after thisshort pause.]
(Interlude music: Moonglow) 108
[In the year 1110, a mysterious order called the Prieuré de Sion appeared upon the Temple
Mount in Jerusalem. This mysterious secret order, the Prieuré de Sion,
was eventually to crown the first king, the first Christian king of Jerusalem.
When they appeared in the Temple Mount in 1110, they recruited nine knights to comb,
to scour the Temple Mount, the passages and caverns and tunnels beneath for
the ancient remains of the relics of their religion.]
Later in A.D. 1118, nine knights, [supposedly] concerned for the welfare of pilgrims to the
Holy Land, bound themselves together in the creation of a knightly Order.[This
order, again existing of nine knights, just like the original nine knights, were
commissioned by the Prieuré de Sion.] In under two hundred years [folks] this organization
had become one of the most powerful single entities—if not the greatest—[power
ever to exist] in Europe. [They were the first international bankers. The
first that ever existed in the world.] A few years later it was utterly destroyed.[They
say, however, as you're going to find out, they were not destroyed at all, but merely
driven underground.] The zeal of religion, the conditioning which made men
support a dedicated cause with all of their might, was likewise the instrument of their
destruction. Nothing less than religious fervor could have smashed the Order: as nothing
less could have created it. [And folks, you're going to find it difficult
to believe, but the rise of this order and destruction, at least publically, ofthis
order has such a great bearing on events today that you could say that everything that has
happened since has been brought about by this one series of acts.]
Were the Knights Templar devil-worshippers, secret Saracens indulging in obscene ***?
Did they adore a head, spit on the Cross, use the word, 'Yallah' [which means
literally in Arabic,](O Allah!)in their rituals? Did they learn their ways from
the terrible sect of the Assassins? 108 Composed by Will Hudson and Irving Mills,
words by Eddie De Lange, made famous by Benny Goodman, 1934111
[Well, yes folks, they did. And they are the link—at least, in that day, would have been
considered the modern link— between the ancient Mystery Religion of Babylon
and Europe. For the religion had come to Europe long, long before the
Templars ever emerged, and made their appearance in the ancient worship of the sun by the Druids
and the Celts, and the tribes, the Germanic tribes who had made their
way thousands of years ago from the Middle East up through Asia, and across
Russia and into Europe. They brought Mystery Babylon with them, and practiced it as what
we now know of today asthe pagan religion. And Stonehenge is actually
an ancient Babylonian temple of the sun. And you will find how all this connects
later.] [But the origin of this was lost, and the
ability to control large numbers of people, by the use of the hidden knowledge of
the ages, was lost. It wasn't until the Knights Templar bought[sic] and brought the Mystery
Religion of Babylon to Europe, that the ancient, ancient worship of the sun
again took hold. Amongst the Christian countries, in the guise of Christianity,
which was itself at that time—I'm not talking about the teachings of Christ now, I'm talking
about the perversion of the teachings of Christ—the melding of the teachings
of Christ with the ancient worship of the sun, the Mystery Religion of
Babylon which became the Catholic church was indeed another branch of the ancient Mystery
Religion of Babylon. And some of you out there may be confused from all
of this.] [If you've been listening from the beginning
of this series, then you're right on target; you're not confused, you know
exactly what I'm talking about. If you picked up this series somewhere in the middle, then
you need to call Stan and order the studio quality tapes. They're in stereo, they're
on TDK tapes, first-quality tapes and crystal clear. You need to order this series
from the first tape, the very first, and that was broadcast on February the 12th, I believe,
a Friday. But anyway, Stan will know. Give him a call at (602) 567-6109. That's
(602) 567-6109 or write to Stan and ask him for an information packet at P.O. Box
889, Camp Verde, Arizona, 86322. That's P.O. Box 889, Camp Verde, Arizona, 86322.]
[Now, folks,] the original objective of the Order [of the Temple—Knights Templar], which
immediately because the subject of applause throughout Christendom,
was to combine the two functions of monk and knight, to live chastely and fight
the Saracents with the sword and spirit. The Sweet Mother of God [at least outwardly they
say] was chosen as their patroness; and they bound themselves to live in accordance
with the rules of St. Augustine, electing as the their first leader Hugh de
Payens.[Now]King Baldwin II granted him a part of his palace to live in and gave them
a grant toward its upkeep.[Now the part of the palace they lived in was an ancient
mosque, which was built upon the actual location of the old Temple of
Solomon, on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.] [The Knights Templar] vowed to consecrate
their swords, arms, strength and lives to the defense of the mysteries of the
Christian faith; to pay complete and utter obedience to the orders of the Grand Master;
to fight whenever commanded, regardless of perils, for the faith of Christ
as they understood it. Among the vows taken which were forbade their yielding
even a foot of land to the enemy [whoever the enemy was] and not to retreat, even if
attacked in the proportion of three to one. They choose the name militia temple—Soldiers
of the Temple—after the temple supposedly built by Solomon in
Jerusalem, near which they had been assigned quarters by the King.[But in reality had nothing
to do with the Temple of Solomon.]
Some say that the Templars derived their idea of their Order from that of the Hospitallars,
who looked after Catholic pilgrims to Palestine; for there was little
hospitality to be had from the native Orthodox Christians of those parts. Others hold
that there was an even older Order from which they received their inspiration. No reliable
evidence is, at this point however, available. [According to the "establishment"
historians, although for those who really, really research the true history of the
secret orders, and specifically the Knights Templars, there's a direct connection to the
Assassins and the Roshaniya.] Although the Templars were so poor than two
men had to share a horse [they say, but that is not true at all] (and their
Seal commemorated this decades after they became one of the richest communities of their
time), they soon attracted favorable notice and support.[Now, the two
knights riding a horse was a symbol of sacrifice. It denoted their vows of poverty.
In truth, each knight now only had a horse, but he had what they called a yeoman. He had
a spare horse, he had a pack horse, and he had several horses in reserve, and
a whole train of servants. But the Knights Templar were the firsttrue—as we know
it in modern times, in modern times there were others before, but they were the first
true in modern times—and by modern, 112 I'd say, from the time that Europe escaped
from the old tribal of paganism. In other wordsin 1110, I consider that to be
beginning of the modern age. Although historians may disagree with me, it's the beginning of
everything that has happened since, and everything that's happening today
can be traced right to the door of the Knights Templar, and that's why I say that.
They were the first modern order to practice what we now know as true Communism. They were
the ones who brought international Socialism into Europe, which
has always been the tenet and the creed of the Mystery Religion of Babylon.] Only
one year aftertheir establishment, Fulk, Count of Anjou, who had come to Jerusalem on a pilgrimage,
joined as a married member and gave them an annual grant of thirty
pounds of silver. This example was soon followed by other devout Western
princes. For the first nine years of their existence,
the knights continued to live a life of chastity and poverty in accordance with
their vows. They adopted a striped black and white banner, called the Beauséant, after
their original piebald horse; and this word also became their battle-cry. Special
raiment they had none, and they wore whatever clothes were given to them by the
pious. But little by little, as one writer puts it, they were to become "haughty and
insolent". [And the black and white banner, the translation
of the meaning of which was for the, again, exoteric, for the real
meaning of the black and white banner was the meaning of the androgynous god, the positive
and the negative, the black and the white, the yin and the yang, the male
and the female combined into one, and that was the real meaning of the black and
white banner. And it's carried forth today on the floor of many of the temples of Freemasonry
where the black and white checkered pattern exists, and in one famous
cathedral in Europe built by the Knights Templar. They disguised their esoteric
religion in an exoteric manner that would be accepted by Christianity.]
Baldwin of Jerusalem, who had been a prisoner in the hands of the Saracens and knew of their
disunity, realized at about this time that Islam must eventually unite
against the Christian invasion, and the decided that the Templars who prove ideal
allies in the battles which were to come. In 1127, therefore, he sent two Templars with
his strong recommendation to the Pope, applying for official recognition of
the Order by the Holy See. [And this is the first time that the Templars
even were considered to be close to the center of religion, the Christian
religion in that day, the Catholic church, the Pope. For they were not commissioned as
a Christian order; they were not commissioned by the Pope or by the church,
and this is a big myth that the Knights Templar started out to protect the church
and to protect the pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem. They were established first, primarily,
and foremost as a branch of the ancient order of the Religion of Mystery Babylon.
And it's indicative of the strategies that they've used since to endear
themselves to whatever the established power, or the beliefs of the majority of the people
might be.] [When they went to see the Pope,]they had
an introduction to St. Bernard himself, the Abbot of Clairvaux, who was
known to be admirer of theirs, and who was a nephew of one of their envoys. Then the
Grand Master himself arrived in Europe, and received the eulogistic opinion
of the Abbot: "They go not headlong into battle, but with care and foresight,
peacefully, as true children of Israel. But as soon as the fight had begun, they rush
without delay upon the foe . . . and know no
fear. . . one has often put to flight a thousand; two, ten thousand . . . gentler than lambs
and grimmer than lions; theirs is the mildness of monks and the valor of the knight."[Now
folks, this was a strong recommendation, and this testimonial was part
of the campaign of the Templars in their efforts atrecognition of the Pope. All of you who
have thought that they began as a religious order in the first place are so
way off base thatit's pathetic. And neither were the Jesuits a religious order in the
first place, but we'll get that together in another
broadcast.][But] on the 31st [of] January [in the year] 1128, the Master appeared
before the Council of Troyes. This formidable body consisted of the Archbishops of Rheims
and Sens, ten bishops and a number of abbots—including St. Bernard himself
- presided over by the Cardinal of Albano, the Papal legate. They were
approved; and Pope Honorius chose for them a white mantle, completely plain. The red
cross was added by order of Pope Eugenius III in 1146.[And see, you thought
the Templars thought of this. Nope not at all. This was mandated by two Popes:
first, the white mantle, completely plain; and then later the red cross was added by
Pope Eugenius III in 1146.] Hugh de Payens now took his delegation through
France and England, and collected a number of recruits. Gifts and
grants were showered upon the Order; lands, rents and arms were forthcoming from all quarters.
Richard I of England was enthusiastic about them. By 1133, King Alfonso
of Aragon and Naverre, who had fought the Spanish Moors in twenty-nine battles, had
willed his country to them; although when the Moors finally laid him low his nobles
prevented the Templars from claiming their rights.[Nevertheless, this
was of great honor. In fact, to my knowledge and to our research into history, it never
had before been done.] In 1129 the Master, accompanied by three hundred
knights, recruited from the noblest houses of Europe, led a huge train
of pilgrims to the Holy Land. It was at this time that the Templars formed part of the
Christian contingent which, allied with the Assassins, tried to take Damascus.[And
it wasn't the first time nor the last that the Christian Knights Templar, or
supposedly Christian Knights Templar (they really weren't Christian at all) were allied
with the Assassins.]Were they (as the Orientalist von Hammer alleges)109 connected
in some secret way with the Assassins? [Yes, our research shows that it is a
historical fact. And it is also a historical fact that the Assassins were prepared to adopt
Christianity if they could gain greater power thereby (Christianity, that is, on the
surface, just as the Knights Templar had done)]. Hammer points to the similarities
of the two organizations. The followers of Hasan Ibn Sabah were in contact with the Templars,
and had a similar method of organization. They were in existence before
the Templars were formed: "The Ismailians ([or] Assassins) was the original, and
[folks] the Order of the Templars, [was] the copy."
The balance of Western opinion is against this contention; more particularly because,
one feels from wide reading of historians, great sympathy is felt for the
cruelly treated and a arbitrarily dispossessed Templars. Thus Keightley, who made a
close study of the Order those who would claim that the Templars were an Assassin branch
[but, when you do research into the (laughs) associations and memberships
of Keightley, you'll find that Keightley was himself a Knight Templar. And he said:]
"When, nearly thirty years after their institution, the Pope gave them permission to wear a cross
on their mantle, like the rival Hospitaller Order, no color could present
itself to well suited to those who daily and hourly exposed themselves to
martyrdom as that of blood, in which there was so much of what was symbolical. With respect
to internal organization it will, we apprehend, be always found that this is
for the most part of the growth of time and the product of circumstances; and it
always nearly the same where these last are similar."
110 [And you find this kind of rhetoric, semantics,
all throughout the writings of those who wish to cover the true origin and
the true meaning of Mystery Babylon.] The famous question of the three thousand
gold pieces paid by the Syrian branch of the Assassins to the Templars is
another matter which has [of course] never been settled. One opinion holds that this
money was given as a tribute to the Christians; the other, that it was a secret
allowance from the larger to the small organization. [Which it really was as the
Assassins wished to expand their control and remembertheir original goal was to take over
the entire world by the systematic infiltration and control of each individual
country.]Those who think that the Assassins were fanatical Moslems, and therefore
would not form any alliance with those who to them were infidels, should be reminded
that to the followers of the Old Man of the Mountains only he was right, and the Saracens
who were fighting the Holy War for Allah against the Crusaders were as
bad as anyone else who did not accept the Assassin doctrine.
[And it is true today: "If you are not one of us, you are nothing.""The ends justify
the means.""The strength of our Order exists in the fact that we manifest ourselves
under many different names and many different occupations, and sometimes even
seem to oppose ourselves. But at the highest level, we are of one mind." And I could go
on, and on (laughs), and on, and you all know that I could go on and on and on. For
I have studied this for so many years that I eat, drink and sleep it. Oh yes.]
[Well, eventually] grave charges against the Templars during the Crusades included the
allegation that they were fighting for themselves alone. More than one historical
incident bears this out. The Christians had besieged the town of Ascalon in
1153, and were engaged upon burning down the walls with large piles of inflammable materials.
Part of the wall fell after a whole night of this burning. The Christian
army was about to enter, when the Master of the Temple (Bernard de Tremelai)
109 Chevalier Joseph von Hammer, The History of the Assassins: Derived from Oriental sources,
the Middle Ages, 1837114 claimed the right to take the town himself.
This was because the first contingent into a conquered town had the whole spoils.
As it happened, the garrison rallied and killed the Templars, closing the breach. There seem
good grounds for believing that the power which they had gained caused the
Templars to devote their efforts as much to their own Order's welfare as to the
cause of the Cross, in spite of their tremendous sacrifices for that cause. Having no loyalty
to any territorial chief, they obeyed their Master alone, and hence no softening
political pressure could be put upon them. [Well,] this might well have led to an
idea that they were an invisible super-state [and that is exactly the fact]; and this does
show some similarity with the invisible empire of the Assassins. If none can deny
their bravery, their high-handedness and exclusivity, in less than a hundred and fifty
years after their founding gave them the reputation of considering themselves almost a law unto
themselves. [No longer reading]
And now, dear listeners, we get into the meat, the direct connection between the historical
events and the events that are happening today. Don't miss even one episode
of this series. Good night, and may God bless each and every
one of you. (Outro music: Stardust)
111
Hour 13:The End of the Templars (aired March 3rd, 1993)
I'm William Cooper, and you're listening to the Hour or the Time.
Well, folks, we've been getting calls from all over the nation, and even in some foreign
countries. They have been worried. They've called Stan; his phone has been ringing
off the hook. It seems some rather spurious and ambitious individuals have
been spreading a rumor by word-of-mouth, by the written word, and even on talk radio all
across this country that I am dead. Well, folks, here's my answer to that:
(Intro music: Still Crusin') 112
To all of my regular listeners and all the ships at sea around the world: it's me, William
Cooper, speaking to you from the dead where I have, indeed, seen the light
and I turned it off. [Reading from A History of Secret Societies]:
"One of the most disgraceful acts which stain the annals of the Templars,"says even one
of their ardent admirers, "occurred in the year 1155, when Bertrand
de Blancford (whom William of Tyre calls a 'pious and God-fearing man') was
Master ofthe Order. In a contest for the supreme power in Egypt, which the viziers, bearing
the proud title of Sultan, exercised under the phantom-caliphs, Sultan
Abbas who had put to death the Caliph his master found himself obliged to fly
from before the vengeance of the incensed people. With his harem and his own and a great
part of the royal treasures, he took his way through the desert. [Well,] a body
of Christians, chiefly Templars, lay in wait for the fugitives near Ascalon. The
resistance offered by the Moslems was slight and very ineffectual; Abbas himself was either
slain or he fled, and his son Nasiredin professed his desire to become a
Christian. The far larger part of the *** of course fell to the Templars; but this
did not satisfy their avarice. They sold Nasiredin to his father's enemies for 60,000 pieces
of gold. [Now, if you think that's a lot of money in this day and age, it was a
veritable king's ransom in that.] And [they] stood by to see him bound hand and
foot, and placed in a sort of cage or iron-latticed sedan, on a camel to be conducted to Egypt,
where a death by protracted torture awaited him."
It was not the Templars alone [folks] who were guilty of arrogance and worse. The Hospitallers
had deteriorated from their first fine beginnings; and the annals
of both Orders are not innocent of unpleasantness, though they are indeed well
filled with tales of glory. The Hospitallers, for instance, refused to pay tithes to the
Patriarch of Jerusalem, even going so far as
to erect immense buildings in front of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, as a practical
demonstration of their own importance. [Now] when the Patriarch entered
his church, they rang their bellsso loudly that he cannot make himself heard.
There is an occasion recorded when "the congregation was assembled in church, the Hospitallers
rushed into it in arms, and shot arrows among them as if they were robbers
or infidels. These arrows were collected and hung up on Mount Calvary,
where Christ had been crucified, to the scandal of these recreant knights. On applying to
Pope Adrian IV for redress, the Syrian clergy found him and his cardinals
so prepossessed in favor of his enemies—(laughs) bribed by them in fact, [it] was
said— that they had no chance of relief." This, then, [folks] was the background of
the rise of the Templars, and the flavor of their environment. [Now] if one adds
to these elements the fact that various very heterodox sects—gnostic, Manichae and the
rest—still lurked in the Holy Land, together with a great deal of magic and superstition
of every kind, [then] there is a possibility, to say the least, that the
Templars were infected by it.[The facts, indeed, show that they were not only infected, but
taken by it, and were initiated into not only by the branch known as the Assassins,
but veritably arose from the secret sects in Syria.]The contention which has
been made, that such heresies and archaic religions and practices do not survive until
the Templar period, is demonstrably false, although much play has been made of
it by those who defend the Order; for do such sects not endure there until this
[very] day? [Hmm? Well,] this is not to say that the Templars were guilty of the practices
which formed the substance of the 112 The Beach Boys, Still Cruisin' (album),
1989116 confessions later to be wrung from them by
barbaric torture, which we will examine in due course. But a secret tradition and
magical rites may well have played a part in their hidden lore and practices. It should
also be remembered [folks] that towards the end there were Templars who were of actual
Palestinian birth, who would have every opportunity of absorbing the
unorthodox beliefs of the many schools of a magico-religious nature which existed in
the area.The Grand Master Philip of Nablus([in] 1167), for instance, was a Syrian,
and many Crusaders were Levantine lords, whatever their original blood,
speaking Arabic with perfection. It was 1162 that the Magna Carta of the Order
was obtained by the Templars: the Bull Omne Datum Optimum, often
described as the keystone of their power. [And] through this instrument they were able
to consolidate their authority and preserve their secrets against intrusion.
They were to find, too, that it did much to excite the envy of their opponents.
Pope Adrian IV had died;[the] two rival popes were elected: Alexander III by the Sicilian
group, and Victor III by the imperial party. At first the Templars acknowledged
Victor; but in 1161 they switch their allegiance to Alexander. There was
probably some sort of secret arrangement behind this, for by January 7th of the following
year the famous Bull was issued. By the terms of this document, the Templars were
released from all spiritual ties except to the Holy See [itself]; they were
permitted to have special burial-grounds in their own houses; they could have chaplains
of their own; they had no tithes to pay; [which in that day and age was miraculous]
and were allowed to receive tithes [which was absolutely incredible]. Nobody
who had once entered the Order could leave it, except to join one with a stricter discipline.
The stage [dear listeners] was set for clerical hatred of the Templars and Hospitallers
(who had similar privileges) [and in fact were one and the same and still
are today], although the advantages to the Pope from the combined support of these two
Orders could hardly be overestimated.
In 1184 an incident occurred which inspired a great deal of distrust of the Order, although
the rarity of its occurrence should have underlined the fact that it was
nothing of much consequence. [You see,] the English knight, Robert of St. Albans
left the Templars, became a Moslem, and led an army for Saladin against Jerusalem, then
in the hands of the Franks. The charge against the Templars that they were
secret Mussulmans or allies with the Saracens does not seem borne out by the fact
that Saladin accused them of treacherous truce-breaking and other crimes and—unlike his usual chivalrous
self—took a solemn oath that he would execute such Templar
captives as he could obtain, as "beyond the limits of Islam and infidelity
alike." Nor did they make any [attempts] to invoke any religious bond with Saladin when
they were captured, as we know from the Arabic Life of Saladin written contemporaneously
by his secretary, Qadi Yusuf. Strong evidence of this is given in the
events which followed the terrible Battle of Hittin. Two years before, Saladin had made
a pact with the Assassins that they would give him a free hand to continue his
Holy War against the Franks [which we discussed on an earlier program]. On July
1st, 1187, he captured Tiberias. He attacked nearby Hittin at dawn on Friday, July 3rd.
Thirty thousand [Christians; 30,000 Christians!] were captured, including the
King of Jerusalem. No Templar[not one] is mentioned in the detailed Arab account
as asking for mercy on religious or other grounds, although all knew that Saladin had
issued a war-cry: "Come to death, Templars!"The Grand Master, Gerard of Ridefort,
and several other knights were among those taken. Saladin offered them
their lives if they would see the light of the True Faith. [Well, according to history,]
none accepted, and all these knights were beheaded except, admittedly, the Templar Grand
Master.[Could it be that he did accept the true faith, or the "light of the true
faith," as Saladin had put it?] A non-Templar, Reginald of Chatillon, tried to invoke the
sacred code of Arab hospitality, and other Crusaders claimed that they were Moslems,
and were spared: none of them were Templars or Hospitallers. Reginald
and the Templars collectively were sentenced to death for breaking the truce and the "war
crime" of killing unarmed pilgrims to Mecca. Arab accounts include only a few
references which could be construed as indicating any collusion with the
Christian army. One says that on the Friday at midday ([and] the battle lasted for two
days), Sultan Saladin issued the attack cry to be passed along the Sarasin host, "On
for Islam!", at which the striped banner of the Templars was raised, "and the Emir
Lion-of-the-Faith said, 'Are those Sultan (Saladin) Yusef's allies, of whom I have heard
from the Reconnaisance men?'"[Well,] this cannot be regarded as anything at all
conclusive. The only other reference is to a body of Templars who went over to the
Saracen side, and whose supposed descendants survive to this day as the Salibiyya ([which
means] Crusader) tribe in north Arabia.
This engagement[folks] spelt the end of real Western power in Palestine for over seven
hundred years, although it did stimulate the unsuccessful Third Crusade.
Although the Templars—and some other Crusaders—were still in the Holy Land, 117
they had lost almost all oftheir possessions there. But in the West lay the real seat of
their power. At this time their European possessions numbered over seven thousand estates
and foundations. Although principally concentrated in France and
England, they had extensive properties in Portugal, Castile, Leon, Scotland and Ireland,
Germany, Italy, and Sicily. When Jerusalem was lost, their headquarters were
transferred to Paris. This building, like all their branch churches, was known as
the Temple. It was here that the French King Philip the Fair took refuge in 1306, to escape
a civil commotion.113 It is said that this visit gave him his first insight into
the real wealth of the order:[Now, remember, the wealth was not for the members, for
they practiced the first true Socialism—international Socialism, or Communism.]the fabulous treasures
which his host showed him giving the bankrupt monarch the
idea to plunder the knights on the pretext that they were dominated by
heresies. Phillip the Fair was not entirely without
some grounds for attacking the Templars. [For] in 1208 we find Pope Innocent
III, a great friend of the Order, censuring them publicly for "Causing their churches
to be thrown open for Mass to be said every day with loud ringing of bells, bearing
the cross of Christ on their *** but not caring to follow his doctrines which
forbid to giving offense to any of the little ones who believe in him. Following the doctrines
of demons, they affix their cross of their Order upon the breast of every kind
of scoundrel, asserting that whoever by paying two or three pence a year became
one of their fraternity could not, even if interdicted, be deprived of Christian burial
. . . and thus they themselves, being captive to the devil, cease not to make captive
the souls of the faithful, seeking to make alive those whom they knew to be
dead . . ." The first sign of an attempt to bring some
sort of physical restraint upon the Templars came from Henry III of England.
[For] in 1252 he hinted that he might try to seize some of the property of the Order:
"You prelates and religious," he said, "especially you Templars and Hospitallers,
have so many liberties and charters that your enormous possessions make you rave
with pride and haughtiness. What was imprudently given must therefore be prudently revoked;
and what was inconsiderately bestowed must be considerately recalled."[Those
were the words of the King.] The Master of the Templars immediately replied:
"What sayest thou, O King? Far be it that thy mouth should utter so
disagreeable and silly a word. So long as thou dost exercise justice thou wilt reign;
but if thou infringe it, thou wilt cease to be
King!" [Now remember that the Knights Templar at
that time were the very first international bankers. They were the wealthiest
Order, wealthiest group, then known in the world—even surpassing the kings of the different
countries that existed. And even though the Hospitallers were created before
the Knights Templar, eventually the two became the same Order, though to the
public and to the rulers of Europe, they were different orders with different names.]
The haughty Templars of the fourteenth century owned land and revenues, gained steadily in
honor and importance. They might have thrones had they wanted them;
for such was their power towards the end that, banded together (as one
historian points out), they could have overcome more than one of the smaller countries of
Europe. Perhaps,though, they aimed even higher than that. If their eventual
aim was world hegemony, they could not have organized themselves better, or
planned their aristocratic hierarchy more thoroughly. [And you will see that that's
been carried over even onto the modernday.] The pride, arrogance, and complete confidence
and self-sufficiency of the Order is something which shows through even
the least inspired pages of the chroniclers. Their power was legendary:
"Everywhere they had churches, chapels, tithes, farms, villages, mills, rights of pasturage,
of fishing, of venery, of wood. They had also in many places the right of
holding annual fairs which were managed and the tolls received by some of the
brethren of the nearest houses or by their donates orservants. The number of their preceptoriesis,
by the most moderate computation, rated at nine thousand; the annual
income of the Order put at about six million [pounds] sterling: an
[unbelievable, unimaginable] sum forthose times! Masters of such a revenue, descended
from the noblest houses in 113 Just the year before, Philip had fled
from a bloodthirsty mob, angry at the king for debasing the national currency.
Dungeon, Fire and Sword, p.430 Christendom, uniting in their purses the most esteemed
secular and religious characters, regarded as the chosen champions
of Christ and the flower of Christian knights, it was not possible for the Templars, in such
lax times as the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, to escape falling into
the vices of extravagantluxury and overweening pride."
The Order, [folks] when fully developed, was composed of several classes: chiefly knights,
chaplains and serving-brothers. Affiliated were those who were attached to
the Order in worked for and received its protection, without taking its vows.
[And] this affiliation was said to be derived from the Arab 'clientship' association, analogous
to blood-brotherhood in tribal associations.
A candidate for knighthood should prove that he was of a knightly family and entitled [yes,
entitled] to the distinction. His father must have been a knight or eligible
to become one. He had to prove beyond any doubt that he was born in wedlock.
The reason for this last requirement was said to be not only religious: there was the possibility
that a political head such as a king or prince might influence the Order by
managing to have one of his *** sons enter it, later perhaps to rise to high
rank therein, and finally attaching it to the service of his dominion.
The candidate [for initiation] had to be unmarried and free from all obligations. He should have
made no vow, nor entered any other Order; and he was not to
be in debt. Eventually the competition for admission was so great from eligible
people that a very high fee was exacted from those who were to be monk-warriors of the
Temple. All candidates were to be knighted before
entry into the Order. But the period of probation which was originally
demanded was before very long entirely abolished. No young man could be admitted until he was
twenty-one years of age, because he was to be a soldier as well as
a monk, and this was the minimum age at which he could bear arms.
When a new knight was admitted to the Order, the ceremony was held in secret. This fact,
and persistent rumors, caused the belief that certain ceremonies and tenets
were put into practice which deviated more than a little from the rituals of the
Church. The ceremony was held in one of the Order's chapels, in the presence of the assembled
chapter alone. The Master (or the Prior, who took his place
in chapels other than those at which he was present) opened the
proceedings: "Beloved brethren, ye see that the majority are agreed to receive this man
as a brother. If there be any among you who knows anything of him, on account of which
he cannot lawfully become a brother, let him say it; for it is better that this
should be signified beforehand than after he is brought before us."
[And] if no objection was lodged, the aspirant was sent to a small room with two or three
experienced knights, to coach him in what he had to know: "Brother, are
you desirous of being associated with the Order?"If he agreed, they would dwell
upon the trials and rigors of being a Templar. [They would prepare him for initiation.] He
had to reply that for the sake of God he was willing to undergo anything in remain
in the Order for life; they asked him if he had a wife or was betrothed; had he
made vows to any other Order; did he owe money more than he could pay; was he of sound mind
and body; was he the servant of any person?
[Well,] after satisfactory answers, the result was passed to the Master. The assembled company
was then asked again if they knew anything that might disqualify him.
[And] if none objected, they were asked: "Are you willing that he should be
broughtin, in God's name?" The knights answered, "Let him be brought in, in God's name."
He was now again asked by his sponsors if he still desired to enter the Order. Receiving
an affirmative reply they led him to the chapter, where he folded his hands
and flung himself upon his knees: "Sir, I am come before God and before you for the
sake of God and our dear Lady, to admit me into your Society, and the good deeds of the
Order, as one who will be all his life long servant and slave of the Order."
"Beloved brother," answered the receptor, "you are desirous of a great matter, for you
see nothing but the outward shell of our Order."[Now let me repeat that again in
case you weren't listening, folks.] "Beloved brother," answered the receptor, "you
are desirous of a great matter for you see nothing but the outward shell of our Order.
It is only the outward shell when you see 119
that we have fine horses and rich caparisons, that we eat and drink well and are splendidly
clothed. From this you conclude that you will be well off with us. But you
know not rigorous maxims which are in our interior. For it is a hard matter for you,
who are your own master, to become the servant of another. You will hardly be able to perform,
in future, what you wish yourself. For when you may wish to be on this
side of the sea, you will be sent to the other side; when you will wish to be in
Acre, you will be sent to the district of Antioch, to Tripolis, or to Armenia; or you
will be sent to Apulia, to Sicily, or to Lombardy, or to Burgundy, France, England,
or any other country where we have houses and possessions. [Where we wish
you to do our will.] [Further he says:] "When you will wish to
sleep, you will be ordered to watch; when you will wish to watch, then you will
be ordered to go to bed; when you will wish to eat, then you will be ordered to do something
else. And as both we and you might suffer great inconvenience from what
you have mayhap concealed from us, look here on the holy evangelists and the
word of God and answer the truth to the questions which we shall put to you; for if you lie
you will be perjured, and may be expelled the Order, from which God keep you!"
Now all the former questions were asked on Holy Writ. If the answers proved acceptable,
the receptor continued: "Beloved brother, take good care that you
have spoken the truth to us: for should you have spoken false in any one point,
you might be put out of the Order—from which God keep you! Now, beloved brother, attend
strictly to what we shall say unto you. Do you promise to God, and our dear Lady
Mary to be, all your life long, obedient to the Master of the Temple, and to
the Prior who shall be set over you?" [And initiate answers with:] "Yea, Sir, with
the help of God!" [Again, he is asked,] "Do you promise to God,
and our dear Lady Mary, to live chaste of your body all your life long?"
[And he answers,] "Yea, Sir, with the help of God!"
[And he's again asked,] "Do you promise to God, and our dear Lady Mary, to observe all
your life long, the laudable manners and customs of our Order, both those
which are already in use and those which the Master and Knights may add?"
[And he answers,] "Yea, Sir, with the help of God!"
[And then he's asked,] "Do you promise to God, and our dear Lady Mary, that you will,
with the strength and powers which God has bestowed on you, help as long
as you live to conquer the Holy Land of Jerusalem; and that you will, with all
your strength, aid to keep and guard that which the Christians possess?"
[And he answers,] "Yea, Sir, with the help of God!"
[And he's asked,] "Do you promise to God, and our dear Lady Mary, never to hold (leave)
this Order for stronger or weaker, for better or worse, than with permission
of the Master, or of the chapter which has the authority?"
[And he answers,] "Yea, Sir, with the help of God!"
[And then he's asked,] "Do you finally promise to God, and our dear Lady Mary, never to be
present when a Christian is unjustly and unlawfully despoiled of his heritage,
and that you will never, by counsel or by act, take part therein?"
[And he answers,] "Yea, Sir, with the help of God!"
[And then:] "In the name, then, of God, and our dear Lady Mary, and in the name of St.
Peter of Rome, and of our father the Pope, and in the name of all the brethren
of the Temple, we receive to all the good works of the Order which have been
performed from the beginning, and shall be performed to the end, you, your father, your
mother, and all of your family whom 120 you will let have share therein. In like manner
do you receive us to all the good work which you have performed and shall
perform. We assure you of bread and water and the poor clothing of the order, and labor
and toil enow." Then the candidate was admitted.
[Don't go away, folks. I'll be right back after this very short pause.]
(Interlude music: unknown orchestral music) 114
(Speaking over music) [You're listening to the Hour of the Time.
I'm William Cooper—I am still alive, I am still kicking and I'm going to be
around for a long, long time, much to the dismay of the Mystery Schools and international
Socialism. Don't go away, folks. We'll begin again in just a few moments.]
(Interlude music continues) [With a joyous celebration]the candidate was
admitted.The white mantle with its red cross was placed by the Master
over the neck of the candidate, and clasped firmly by him. The Chaplain recited the 132nd
psalm and the prayer of the Holy Ghost, and each brother repeated a paternoster.
Then the Master and the Chaplain kissed the new entrant on the mouth. As he sat down before
the Master, the latter delivered him a sermon on his duties.
Knights were equipped more lightly than other Crusaders, and were issued with shields, sword,
lance and mace. They were allocated three horses each, [not one
with two knights riding, but three horses each] plus an esquire, who was either a
serving-brother or a layman, perhaps a youth from a noble family anxious to become a knight
in his own turn. Retired knights were looked after by the Order,
became counselors at meetings, and were eventually buried in coffins in
their Templar habit, with the legs crossed. Many Templar gravestones show the Knight with
his feet up on a dog.[But most show the crossed thighbones and the skull
known as the Skull and Bones—the same Skull and Bones as the Russell trust, the
Brotherhood of Death at Yale, and the same Skull and Bones displayed upon the flag of
the Pirates.] It was Philip the Fair of France, bankrupt
and fearful of the growing power of the warriors of the Temple, who laid the
conspiracy for the suppression of the Order for all time. It has been hinted that Philip
had some forewarning that a plot against the throne was afoot; that the Templars,
frustrated in their attempts to win back the Holy Land, were about to turn
upon Pope and King alike and try to overcome all Christendom.[And, believe it or not, that's
closer to the truth than anything that you ever heard about the Templars.]In
1305, Pope Clement had been crowned through the assistance of the French King
[and was actually under the control of the French King]; and Philip was ready to bring
all the power of Church and State against the Knights of the Temple.
There had been continued rivalry between the Templars and the Hospitallers [on the surface,
underneath, they were one and the same]; and Clement, six months after
his enthronement, wrote asking them to visit him for a conference, ostensibly
for the purpose of making plans for aiding the kings of Armenia and Cyprus. The Pope
was, however, hoping that he could effect a reconciliation between the two Orders,
which would in turn strengthen his own position as their only ultimate head.
William de Villaret, Master of the Hospital, was fully engaged in an attack upon the Saracens
of Rhodes when the invitation arrived, and could not obey it; but Jacques
de Molay, Grand Master of the Temple, decided to accept. He handed over the
defense of Limassol in Cyprus to the Order's Marshall, collected sixty knights, packed
150,000 gold florins plus much other treasure, and set sail for France.
114121 At Paris, de Molay was received with honors
by the King who was plotting his downfall. In Poitiers, he met Clement, and
discussed the possibilities of a fresh Crusade. De Molay opined that only a complete alliance
of all Christendom could be of any avail against the Moslems, and that the
amalgamation of the two Orders was not a good idea. The Grand Master returned
to Paris; and almost at once rumors began to circulate about certain serious charges
to be preferred against the Order. Troubled at this campaign, the Master (together
with Rimbaud de Caron, Preceptor of Outremer; Jeffrey de Goneville,
Preceptor of Aquitane, and Hugh de Peraudo, Preceptor of France) returned to Poitiers
to justify the Order before the Pope. An audience took place, about April of 1307,
in which the Pope mentioned the charges which have been made. The
commission understood that their answers satisfied Clement, and returned to the capital in good
heart. But this[dear listeners] was only the beginning.
The method by which the charges were originally said to have been made was through a former
Templar who had been expelled from the Order for heresy and other
offenses. This Squin de Flexian found himself in prison, together with another
man (a Florentine named Noffo Dei), and they thought (or were told) that they could obtain
their release and a pardon for the crime of which they were currently accused
if only they would testify against the Order. One account has it that de Flexian
called for the governor of the prison, saying that he had a disclosure to make which he
could tell the King personally; and which would be more to him than the conquest
of [an entire] kingdom. Another chronicle has it that both men were degraded
Templars, and had been actively engaged in the revolt against the King during which Philip
had been forced to take refuge with the Templars. It is further stated that
Cardinal Cantilupo, the Chamberlain to the Pope, who had been in an association
with the Templars since he was eleven years old, had confessed some of their doings to
his master. Ten main charges were made by de Flexian against
the Order: 1. Each Templar on his admission swore never
to quit the Order, and to further its interests by right or wrong.
2. The heads of the Order are in secret alliance with the Saracens, and they have more of Mohammedan
infidelity than Christian faith. [And] proof of the latter
includes that they make every novice spit upon the cross and trample upon it, and
blaspheme the faith of Christ in various ways. 3. The heads of the Order are heretical, cruel
and sacrilegious men. Whenever any novice, on discovering the iniquity of
the Order, tries to leave it, they kill him and bury the body secretly by night. They
teach women who are pregnant by them how to procure abortion, and secretly ***
such newborn children. 4. They are infected with the errors of the
Fratecelli; they despise the Pope and the authority of the Church; they scorn
the sacraments, especially those of penance and confession. They pretend to comply with
the rites of the Church simply to avoid detection.
5. The superiors are addicted to the most infamous excesses of debauchery. If anyone
expresses his repugnance to this, he is punished by perpetual captivity.
6. The Temple-houses are the receptacle of every crime and abomination that can be committed.
7. The Order works to put the Holy Land into the hands of the Saracens, and favors them
more than the Christians. 8. The Master is installed in secret and few
of the younger brethren are present atthis ceremony. It is strongly suspected
that on this occasion he repudiates the Christian faith, or does something contrary to right.
9. Many statutes of the Order are unlawful, profane and contrary to Christianity. [In
fact, some of them are stone penises.] The members are therefore forbidden
under pain of perpetual confinement to reveal them to anyone.
10. No vice or crime committed for the honor or benefit of the Order is held to be a sin.
[Now] these charges were later augmented by others which were collected through testimony
from other enemies of the Order, and included such assertions as the
use of the phrase Ya Allah ([which means] O, Allah!) and the adoration of an idol
called the Head of Baphomet.[In fact, the Head of Baphomet was not an idolthat they
worshiped but represented the receptacle of the intelligence, or the seat
of the intelligence: the brain, the light, Lucifer, the gift of intellect, primordial
knowing—and that is what really the object of veneration was.]
Philip and his advisers prepared a great secrecy for the descent upon this powerful organization
[the Knights Templar]. [And] on the 12th of September, 1307, sealed
letters were sent to all the governors and Royal officers throughout France,
instructing them to arm themselves on the twelfth of the next month and open the sealed
orders—and to act upon them forthwith. By the morning of Friday, October
13, [and on that day] almost every Templar in France was in the hands of the
King's men.[And thus was born the legend that Friday the 13th is an unlucky day. And notice
that it was October, Friday the 13th, the very first October surprise.]
115 Hardly one seems to have had any warning.[But they did because, before the king
acted, the Templars had moved their wealth, their treasure, and their holdings out of
the country of France.] On the day before his arrest, the Grand Master had actually
been chosen by the King to be a pall-bearer at a state funeral.116
The secret orders had it that all Templars were to be seized, tortured and interrogated.
Confessions were to be obtained from them; pardon might be promised only if
they confessed. And all their goods were to be expropriated.[But the only thing
that they really got was the actual real estate property held by the Templars in France and
nowhere else. None of the gold, none of their wealth, none of their jewels,
none of their treasures, none of the relics that have recovered from the Holy Land
were ever found.] The King himself took possession of the Temple
at Paris as soon as the Grand Master and his knights were arrested. The
next day the University of Paris assembled, together with canons and other functionaries
and ministers; and the Chancellor declared that the knights had been proceeded
against for heresy. Two days later the University met in the Temple and some
heads of the Order, including the Grand Master, were interrogated. They are said to have confessed
to 'forty years' guilt' [whatever that means].
[Now] whether de Molay and others confessed on that occasion or not, the King was emboldened
to publish an accusation, in which he called the knights
"polluters of the error and devouring wolves." A public meeting was called in the
Royal Gardens and addressed by monks and representatives on this subject.
Edward II was the son-in-law of the French Philip, and to him was sent a priest who invited
the English monarch to act at once against the Order in Britain. [Well,]
Edward almost at once wrote to say that the charges seemed to him to be incredible.
But Pope Clement wrote on November 22nd to London, assuring Edward that the Master of
the Temple had confessed of his own free will that knights on their admission
to the Order had denied Christ. Others had admitted idolatry and other crimes.
He therefore called upon the King of England to arrest all Templars within his domains,
and to place their lands and goods in custody until their guilt or innocence should
be ascertained.[He condemned them to torture by the Dominican monks under
the Inquisition until they confessed their guilt or were dead.]
[Now notice the date folks: November the 22nd in the year 1307. That's a significant date
in our history and has direct bearing, as you will see, many hours down
the line.] 117
[William Cooper does an advertisement for an upcoming lecture]
115 October Surprise (American political jargon) is an unexpected, but popular, political act
made just prior to a November election, in an attempt to win votes
116 On October 12, 1307, the grand master was among the highest nobility of Europe who
acted as pallbearers at the funeral of Princess Catherine, the deceased wife of
King Philip's brother, Charles of Valois. Born in blood, p.131
117 John F. Kennedy was assassinated exactly 666 years later.123
Before [the King of England] received this missive, [he] seems to have been sorely troubled
by the allegations. He wrote, on November [the] 26th, to the Seneschal of
Agen, asking about the charges. On the 4th of December he wrote to the kings of
Portugal, Castile, Aragon and Sicily, asking "what they had heard, and adding that he had
given no credit to it". He wrote to the Pope himself on December [the] 10th, expressing
disbelief of what the French King said, and begging His Holiness to
institute an enquiry [Well folks,] by December [the] 15th, when the Papal Bull arrived, Edward
felt that he must act upon it without question. On December [the] 26th he
wrote to the Pope that his orders would be obeyed. [But] in the interim,
Edward had sent word to Wales, Scotland and Ireland that the Templars were all to be seized,
as in England; but they were to be treated with kindness.
On October [the] 19th, less than a week after they had been arrested [in France], 140 prisoners
were being tortured by the Dominican Imbert, in the Paris Temple. Promises
and the rack produced many confessions. Thirty-six of the examinees died
during these proceedings. Throughout France the racks worked overtime, and the confessions
poured forth. [Many good men were crippled for the rest of their lives.]
Many of these were contradictory and confused; [and] perhaps there is little wonder
of that.[How many of you could resist, even for five minutes, the tortures of the medieval
Inquisition?] The Pope now seemed a little uneasy at the
arbitrary methods which were being employed. Philip wrote sharply to him
saying that he, the King, was doing God's work, and rendered accounts to God alone.
He offered to turn over all the goods of the Templars to the service of the Holy Land,
Clement, still a weakling, merely stipulated that the inquisitions of each Bishop
should be confirmed by a Provincial Council, and that the examination of the heads of the
Order should be reserved to himself. Now we hear a constant succession
of confessions and retractions, allegations that the heads of the Order confessed
completely and spontaneously to the Pope himself. The Pope himself, for some unexplained reason
[folks], tried to escape to Bordeaux, but was stopped by the King. Now
he was the monarch's captive as well as his creation.
Detailed confessions of individual Templars have been kept on record, many of them undoubtedly
obtained by extreme racking and other tortures. The Templars who
were prepared to defend the Order in court were brought to Paris, to the
number of five hundred and forty-six. Deprived of their knightly habits, and the sacraments
of the Church, they had no means to acquire defense counsel. Their numbers
rose to nine hundred, and now they clamored for the presence of the Grand
Master, who was held elsewhere. An Act of Accusation in the name of the Pope was drawn
up, and seventy-five Templars drew up the Defense.
The accusation had it now that "At the time of their reception they were made to deny
God, Christ, the ***, etc., and in particular to declare that Christ was not
the true God, but a false prophet, who had been crucified for his own crimes and not
for the redemption of the world. They spat and trampled upon the cross, especially on
Good Friday. They worshiped a cat, which sometimes appeared in their chapters.
Their priests, when celebrating Mass, did not pronounce the words of
consecration. They believed that their Master could absolve them from their sins. They were
told at their reception that they might abandon themselves to all kinds of licentiousness.
They have idols in all their provinces, some with three faces, some
with one. They worshiped these idols in their chapters, believed that they could save them,
regarded them as the givers of wealth to the order and of the fertility to
the earth; they touched them with cords which they afterwards tied around their
own bodies [underneath their robes—and that is still practiced today by Freemasons and
by the Mormon Church]. Those who at the time of their reception would not
comply with these practices were put to death or imprisoned."
The reply of the Templars denied every charge and stated that they had been subjected to
every kind of illegality since their arrest. Fifty-four of the knights who
had volunteered to defend the Order were committed to the flames, having been
declared relapsed heretics, before the trials had even started.[And you'll see this number
fifty-four crop up later, and even in the modern-day, and sometimes it's fifty-four
plus one—the Grand Master, who later was burned at the stake.]
Four years to the day after the first arrests, the Pope led a convocation of one hundred
and fourteen bishops to come to a final decision about the Templar Order. [Well,
folks,] the prelates of Spain, England, Germany, Denmark, Ireland and
Scotland called for the Templars to be allowed to defend themselves. The Pope reported by
closing the Session almost at once. [He would not hear of it.] Out of fifteen
hundred to two thousand Templars who were in hiding in the vicinity, nine knights 124
came forward to testify for the Order. The Pope doubled his guard and sent a message
to the King to do the same, as there was still danger from the hidden knights.
They were not heard. Only one Italian prelate and three French ones voted to
prevent the Order from putting in its defense. Now Philip, deciding that something should
be done to hasten affairs, sent off for Venice and the conference. His arrival
had an electric effect. On his sole authority the Pope almost immediately abolished the
Order of a secret consistory. [And] this was on March 22nd, [in the year] 1313.118
[And 1313 plays a significant number later on as that was a famous address in
New Orleans, as some of you may remember.] On May 2nd, when the Bull was published, the
Order ceased officially to exist. The Grand Master, assumed but not proved to
be guilty, was sentenced to perpetual imprisonment. Most of the other knights
were released and many of these past their remaining days in poverty. De Molay and one
of his chiefs, Guy of Auvergne, [pronounced or] proclaimed their innocence
on the public stage to which they had been taken to have sentence announced.
The King, upon hearing [them recant their confession], immediately had them committed
to the flames. [No longer reading]
And some say that, while he was being burned at the stake, that de Molay cursed both the
Pope and the King of France, stating that within a certain short period
of time, he would meet them . . . he would meet them in another life, in front of God,
who would judge them for their crimes. And, believe it or not, folks, well within the
period of time, which was not very long, both the Pope and the King of France were
dead, and I'm sure joined Jacques de Molay in front of God for their final
judgment. We are in no way finished with the story of
the Knights Templar. But until tomorrow night, good night, and God bless
each and every one of you. (Outro music: unknown orchestral music)
119 118 Vox in excelso was actually issued in
1312. The king of France made for Vienne on 20 March (1312), and after two days
Clement V delivered to the commission of cardinals for approval the bull by which the order of
Templars was suppressed (the bull Vox in excelso). In the second session
of the council, which took place on 3 April 1312, this bull was approved and the
pope announced a future crusade (that never started). Norman P. Tanner, Decrees of the
Ecumenical Councils, 1990 Hour 14: Skull and Bones (aired March 8th, 1993)
Get comfortable, ladies and gentlemen, open your ears, sit back and relax. And get set
for an unbelievable revelation tonight. You're going to want copies of this tape . . .this
tape of the Hour of the Time. I'm William Cooper.
(Intro music: The Rose) 120
Ah, yes, the seed that lies beneath the snow, in the springtime becomes the rose. I'm going
to begin tonight's broadcast, ladies and gentlemen, by reading a portion
of the introduction of a book, entitled Born in Blood, by John J. Robinson, The Lost
Secrets of Freemasonry. Now, you should seek out this book, purchase it and read it. It
is a wonderful edition to your own library, and I begin now:
[Reading from Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry]:121
The research behind this book is not originally intended to reveal anything about Freemasonry
or the Knights Templar. Its objective had been to satisfy my own curiosity
about certain unexplained aspects of the Peasants' Revolt in England in
1381, a savage uprising that saw upwards of a hundred thousand Englishmen march on London.
They moved in uncontrolled rage, burning down manor houses, breaking
open prisons, and cutting down any who stood in their way.
"One unsolved mystery of that revolt was the organization behind it. For several years,
a group of disgruntled priests of the lower clergy had traveled the towns, preaching
against the riches and corruption of the church. During the months before
the uprising, secret meetings had been held throughout central England by men weaving
a network of communication. After the revolt was put down, rebel leaders confessed
to being agents of a 'Great Society,' said to be based in London. So very little
is known of that alleged organization that several scholars have solved the mystery simply
by deciding that no such secret society ever existed.
"Another mystery was the concentrated and especially vicious attacks on the religious
order of the Knights Hospitaller of St. John, now known as the Knights of Malta.
Not only did the rebels seek out their properties for vandalism and fire, but
their prior was dragged from the Tower of London to have his head struck off and placed
on London Bridge, to the delight of the cheering mob.
"There was no question that the ferocity that was unleashed on the crusading Hospitallers
had a purpose behind it. One captured rebel leader, when asked for the
reasons for the revolt, said, 'First, and above all...the destruction of the Hospitallers.'
What kind of secret society could have that special hatred as one of its primary purposes?
"A desire for vengeance against the Hospitallers was easy to identify in the rival crusading
order of the Knights of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. The problem
was that those Knights Templar have been completely suppressed almost
seventy years before the Peasants' Revolt, following several years during which the Templars
had been imprisoned, tortured and burned at the stake. After issuing the
decree that put an end to the Templar order, Pope Clement V had directed that all
of the extensive properties of the Templars should be given to the Hospitallers. Could
a Templar desire for revenge actually survive underground for three generations?
"There was no incontrovertible truth, yet the only evidence suggest the existence of
just one secret society in fourteenthcentury England [just one], the society that was,
or would become, the order of Free and Accepted Masons. There appeared
to be no connection, however, between the revolt and Freemasonry, except for the name
or title of its leader. He occupied the center stage of English history for just eight
days and nothing is known of him except that he was the supreme commander of
the rebellion. He was called Walter the Tyler, and it seemed at first to be mere coincidence
that he bore the title of the enforcement officer of the Masonic lodge.
In Freemasonry the Tyler, who must be a Master Mason, is the sentry, the sergeant-
120 Bette Midler, The Rose, performed by unknown artist
121 John J. Robinson, Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry, 1991 at-arms, and
the officer who screens the credentials of visitors who seek entrance to the lodge. In
remembrance of an earlier, more dangerous time, his post is just outside
the door of the Lodge room, where he stands with a drawn sword in his hand
[William Cooper: even to this day]. "I was aware that there had been many attempts
in the past to link the Freemasons with the Knights Templar, but never
with success. The fragile evidence advanced by proponents of that connection had never
held up, sometimes because it was based on wild speculation, and at least once
because it had been based on a deliberate forgery. But despite the failures to
establish that link, it just will not go away, and the time-shrouded belief in some relationship
between in two orders remains as one of the more durable legends of Freemasonry.
That is entirely appropriate, because all of the various theories of the
origin of Freemasonry are legendary. Not one of them is supported by any universally accepted
evidence." [William Cooper]: Ah, here I break from reading
from the introduction of the book and interject a comment here. There
was never any universally accepted evidence until you hear what you're going to hear tonight,
produced by John Galt, an agent of the Citizens Agency for Joint Intelligence
[CAJI]. The connection, dear listeners, is in the genealogy of the families of the
elite. You are going to be amazed, and now I continue from the introduction to Born in
Blood: "I was not about to travel down that time-worn
trail, and decided to concentrate my efforts on digging deeper into the
history of the Knights Templar to see if there was any link between the suppressed Knights
and the secret society behind the Peasants' Revolt. In doing so, I thought that
I would be leaving Freemasonry far behind. [And] I couldn't have been more
mistaken. "Like anyone curious about medieval history,
I had developed an interest in the Crusades, and perhaps more than just an
interest. Those holy wars hold an appeal that is frequently as romantic as it is historical,
and in my travels I had tried to drink in the atmosphere of the narrow defiles in
the mountains of Lebanon through which Crusader armies had passed, and had sat
staring into the castle ruins Sidon and Tyre, trying to hear the clashing sounds of attack
and defense. I had marveled at the walls of Constantinople and had strolled the
Arsenal of Venice, where Crusader fleets were assembled. I had sat in the round
church of the Knights Templarin London, trying to imagine the ceremony of its consecration
[by] the Patriarch of Jerusalem in 1185, more than three hundred years before
Columbus set sail west to the Indies. "The Templar order was founded in Jerusalem
in 1118, in the aftermath of the First Crusade. Its name came from the
location of its first headquarters on the site of the ancient Temple of Solomon, helping
to fulfill a desperate need for a standing army in the Holy Land, the Knights
of the Temple soon grew in numbers, in wealth, and in political power. They also
grew in arrogance, and their Grand Master de Ridfort was a key figure in the mistakes
that led to the fall of Jerusalem in 1187. The Latin Christians managed to hold on to
a narrow strip of territory along the coast, where the Templars were among the
largest owners of the land and [the] fortifications. "Finally, the enthusiasm for sending men and
money to the Holy Land waned among the European kingdoms, which were
preoccupied with their wars against each other. By 1296 the Egyptian sultan was able to push
the resident Crusaders, along with the military orders, into the sea. The
Holy Land was lost, and the defeated Knights Templar moved their base to the
island of Cyprus, dreaming of yet one more Crusade to restore their past glory.
"As the Templars planned to go on a new Crusade against the infidel, King Philip IV of France
was planning his own private crusade against the Templars. He longed
to be rid of his massive debts to the Templar order, which had used its wealth
to establish a major [international] banking operation. Philip wanted the Templar treasure
to finance his continental wars against Edward I of England.
"After two decades of fighting England on one side and the Holy Roman Church on the
other, two unrelated events gave Philip of France the opportunity he needed.
Edward I died, and his deplorably weak son took the throne of England as Edward
II. On the other front, Philip was able to get his own man on the Throne of Peter as
Pope Clement V. "When word arrived onCyprus that the new pope
would mount a Crusade, the Knights Templar thought that their time 127
of restoration to glory was at hand. Summoned to France, their aging Grand Master, Jacques
de Molay, went armed with elaborate plans for the rescue of Jerusalem.
In Paris, he was humored and honored until the fatal day. At dawn on Friday, the
thirteenth of October, in the year 1307, every Templar in France was arrested and put in
chains on Philip's orders. Their hideous tortures for confessions of heresy
began immediately. "When the pope's order to arrest the Templars
arrived at the English court, young Edward II had took no action at all. He
protested to the pontiff that the Templars were innocent. Only after the pope issued
a formal Bull [William Cooper: on November the twenty-second in the year 1307]
was the English king forced to act. In January [William Cooper: in the year],
1308, Edward finally issued orders for the arrest of the Knights Templar in England,
but the three months of warning had been put to good use. Many of the Templars
had gone underground, while some of those arrested managed to escape. Their
treasure, their jeweled reliquaries, even the bulk of their records, had [totally] disappeared.
In Scotland, the papal order was not even published. Under those conditions
England, and especially Scotland, became targeted havens for fugitive Templars
from continental Europe, and the efficiency of their concealment spoke to some assistance
from outside, or from each other. "The English throne passed from Edward II
to Edward III, who bequeathed the crown to his ten-year-old grandson who,
as Richard II, watched from the Tower as the Peasants' Revolt exploded throughout the city
of London. "Much had happened to the English people along
the way. Incessant wars had drained the king's treasury and corruption
had taken the rest. A third of the population had perished in the Black Death, and famine
exacted further tolls. The reduced labor force of farmers and craftsmen found
that they could earn more for their labor, but their increased income came at the
expense of land-owning barons and bishops, who were not prepared to tolerate such a state
of affairs. Laws were passed to reduce wages, and prices to preplague levels
in genealogies were search to reimpose the bondage of serfdom and villeinage on
men who thought themselves free. The king's need for money to fight the French wars inspired
new and ingenious taxes. The oppression was coming from all sides, and
the pot of rebellion was brought to the boil. "Religion didn't help, either. The landowning
church was as merciless a master as the landowning nobility. Religion would
have been a source of confusion for the fugitive Templars as well. They were a religious body
of warrior monks who owed allegiance to no man on earth except the Holy
Father [William Cooper: according to the Holy Father. But according to the
Templars, in secret, their allegiance was only to themselves]. When their pope turned
on them, chained them, beat them, he broke their link with God. In fourteenth-century
Europe there was no pathway to God except through the vicar of Christ on
earth. If the pope rejected the Templars and the Templars rejected the Pope, they had to
find a new way to worship their God, at a time when any variation from the teachings
of the established church was blasted as heresy. "That dilemma called to mind a central tenet
of Freemasonry, which requires only that a man believe in a Supreme Being,
with no requirements as to how he worships the deity of his choice. In Catholic Britain
such a belief would have been a crime, but it would have accommodated the fugitive
Templars who had been cut off from the universal church. In consideration of
the extreme punishment for heresy, such an independent belief also...made sense of one
of the more mysterious...of Freemasonry's Old Charges."
[William Cooper]: The ancient rules that still govern the conduct of the fraternity. The
charge says that no Mason should reveal the secrets of a brother that may deprive
him of his life and property. That connection caused me to take a different
look at the Masonic Old Charges. "They took on new direction and meaning when
viewed as a set of instructions for a secret society created to assist and
protect fraternal brothers on the run and in hiding from the church. That characterization
made no sense in the context of a medieval guild of stonemasons, the usual claim
for the roots of Freemasonry. It did make a great deal of sense, however, for
men such as the fugitive Templars, whose very lives depended upon their concealment. Nor
would there have been any problem finding new recruits over the years
ahead: There were to be plenty of protesters and dissidents against the church
among future generations. The rebels of the Peasants' Revolt proved that when they attacked
abbeys and monasteries, and when they cut off the head off of Archbishop
of Canterbury, the leading Catholic prelate in England. 128
"The fugitive Templars would have needed a code such as the Old Charges of Masonry, but
the working stonemasons clearly did not. It had become obvious that
I needed to know about the Ancient Order of Free and Accepted Masons. The
extent of the Masonic material available at large in public libraries surprised me, as
did the fact that it was housed in the department of education and religion. Not
content with just what was readily available to the public, I asked to use the library
in the Masonic Temple in Cincinnati, Ohio." [William Cooper]: By the way, folks, Cincinnati,
Ohio is an extremely important location in this country, the United
States. "I told the gentlemen there that I was not
a Freemason, but wanted to use the library as part of my research for a book
that would probably include a new examination of the Masonic order. His only question to
me was, 'Will it be fair?' I assured him that I had no desire or intention to be
anything other than fair, to which he replied, 'Good enough.' I was left alone with
the catalog and the hundreds of Masonic books that lined the walls. I also took advantage
of the publications of the Masonic Service Association in Silver Springs, Maryland.
"Later, as my growing knowledge of Masonry enabled me to sustain a conversation of the
subject, I began to talk to Freemasons. At first, I wondered how I would
go about meeting fifteen or twenty Masons and, if I could meet them, would
they be willing to talk with me? The first problem was solved as soon as I started asking
friends and associates if they were Masons. There were four in one group I had
known for about five years, and many more among men I had known for twenty
years and more, without ever realized that they had any connection with Freemasonry.
As for the second part of my concern, I found them quite willing to talk, not about
the secret passwords and hand grips (by then, I had already knew them), but
about what they have been taught concerning the origins of Freemasonry and its ancient
Old Charges. "They were as intrigued as I about the possibilities
of discovering the lost meanings of words, symbols, and ritual for
which no logical explanation was available, such as why a Master Mason is told in his
initiation rights that 'this degree will make you a brother to pirates and corsairs.'"
[William Cooper]: And folks, I'll explain that to you (laughs) a little later.
"We agreed that unlocking the secrets of those Masonic mysteries would contribute most to
unearthing the past, because the loss of their true meanings had caused
126 U2, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, , performed live