Jesse James and the Lost Templar Treasure by Daniel J. Duke

Author:Daniel J. Duke
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Occult/Ancient Mysteries
Publisher: Inner Traditions/Bear & Company
Published: 2019-05-01T16:00:00+00:00

The south of France, where a large Jewish and Saracenic element remained, was a hotbed of heresies, and that region was also a favorite one with the guild of Masons. It is asserted too that, as far back as the 12th century, the lodges of the guild enjoyed the special protection of the Knights Templars. It is easy in this way to understand how the symbolical allusion to Solomon and his Temple might have passed from the Knights into the Masonic formulary. In this way too might be explained how after the suppression of the Order of the Temple, some of the recalcitrant, maintaining their influence over the Freemasons, would be able to prevent what had been hitherto a harmless ceremony into an elaborate ritual that should impart some of the errors of the Templars to the initiated. A document was long ago published, which purports to be a charter granted to a lodge of Freemasons in England, in the time of Henry VII., and it bears the marks in its religious indifference of a suspicious likeness between Freemasons of then and now. In Germany, the guild was numerous and was formally recognized by a diploma granted in 1489 by the Emperor Maximilian. But this sanction was finally revoked by the Imperial Diet in 1707.6

Paolo Riccio’s brother, Augustinus Riccius (Riccio), was a follower of Abraham Zacuto, a Sephardic Jew, historian, astronomer, and rabbi who knew Cornelius Agrippa and was the royal astronomer for King John II of Portugal. Christopher Columbus used Zacuto’s astronomic tables on his famous trip to the New World, and when looking for funding for that trip, Columbus met with King John II. Columbus’s request for funding was denied—though some believe Columbus remained loyal to King John II—so he turned to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. Upon his return from discovering the New World, Columbus announced his discovery to King John II, who replied that Columbus’s discovery was also under the influence of Portugal. Before Columbus could get word to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, King John had contacted them, and in the end, he got a cut of the discoveries. There is evidence enough to cause suspicion, leaving some researchers wondering if Columbus was working for King John II the entire time. If so, the king had a shrewd business plan in that Spain would finance the exploration, and if or when it paid off, Portugal could draw the water from the well which Spain had dug.

Columbus himself is said by many to have been a member of the Knights of Christ, while others say he was closely associated with them and that his father-in-law was a member of the order. The Knights of Christ were a modification of the Knights Templar, and King John II is said by some to have been the order’s grand master at that time. “In Portugal, the Order was cleared by an inquiry and simply modified its name, becoming Knights of Christ. Under this title, they functioned well into the sixteenth century, devoting themselves to maritime activity.

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