Read James Acton 04 - The Templar's Relic for Free Online Page A

retreat to the secure walls of Acre, leaving behind thousands of nameless innocents, including the bodies of four who would forever remain burned in his memory.
    Rest in peace my brothers.
     

 
     
     
    Northern Wall Construction Site, Vatican City
    Present Day
     
    “If these are indeed the bodies of Templar Knights, then you’re right, we now know why they were sealed in and forgotten.”
    Laura ran her finger along the edges of the distinctive flared cross extending from top to bottom of the shield, and across to the sides. “The shields would certainly suggest they’re Templar’s.”
    “Agreed.”
    Acton swept more dust away, below the shield and his heart skipped a beat.
    “There’s an engraving.”
    Laura rounded the sarcophagus to get a better look as Acton ran his finger along the text, reading it aloud. “Here rests Sir John of Ridefort, son of Guy, and Knight of the Order of the Temple, died in Rome, 16 July in the year of our Lord 1215, as he lived, a hero, saving the life of an innocent, and honoring his Lord our God, and the Holy Roman Catholic Church. May he forever rest in peace.” He looked at Laura. “I guess that settles that.”
    She nodded, patting the boot of the stone effigy. “I’m afraid, Sir John, that we will be interrupting your rest, at least for a short time.”
    Acton resumed cleaning the top of the sarcophagus. With these being Templar’s, it was understandable that the Church had sealed this chamber off. The Templars were once the mightiest of orders, probably even rivaling the modern day Triarii for how widespread they were. Founded in 1119 with the approval of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem by Hugues de Payens under the auspices of providing protection to European pilgrims on their way to the holy land, they were given special dispensation in 1139 by Pope Innocent II to be exempted from all local laws. They were poor, at first, hence their emblem of two men riding on the back of one horse, and their official full name of the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon.
    But they quickly grew wealthy through money paid by the pilgrims, and bounty collected from the criminals they killed. Their power grew, and at their peak had twenty thousand members, of which almost two thousand were knights. A vast administration ran their business; their wealth grew exponentially when they began to offer the first international banking system, where a pilgrim or other traveler could deposit their wealth at a Templar office, receive a piece of paper confirming the value of what was deposited, then, travel in safety with nothing of value to have stolen. When they reached their destination, they would hand over their ‘check’, payable only to them, and receive the equivalent value.
    Less a service charge of course.
    But as with all wealth came jealousy, and bad business partners. King Philip IV of France borrowed a fortune from the Templars to wage war against England, and was unable to pay the money back. Rather than own up to this, he convinced Pope Clement V to prosecute the Templars on many charges including apostasy, idolatry, heresy, obscene rituals and homosexuality, financial corruption and fraud, and secrecy. On Friday, the 13 th of October, 1307, Templars across France were arrested en masse, and charged. Eventually the arrest order was extended across Europe. Most of the leaders were burned at the stake. In the end, none confessed to any crimes except under torture, and once freed, recanted.
    The Templar network had been destroyed, and what remained was folded into the Knights Hospitallers, thus ending the most powerful order of knights to have ever existed, all due to a French king who didn’t want to pay his loan back.
    And with the Templars shamed, the walls of this chamber were most likely sealed, these four men no longer considered worthy of the honor bestowed upon them, and conveniently forgotten by the time the Church categorically but quietly forgave all