“And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”—Isaiah 2:4

The Christmas Truce, December 25, 1914

ntering 2024, we will soon mark the 110th anniversary of the commencement of the First World War—“the war to end all wars”. In 1914 the nations of Europe collectively produced the greatest human catastrophe in the history of Western Civilization, the causes of which are still debated to this day. In four years of war, about eleven million men died on the battlefield and twenty million were wounded, many of whom later died of wounds. More than seven million civilians died in the war. Improved machine gun and artillery technology created battlefields in which killing proceeded on an industrial scale. The bereavement and sorrow that accompanied this unnecessary tragedy still resonates today, especially in Great Britain, Australia, and Canada.

British and German troops meet in no-man’s-land during the unofficial truce

The Christmas Truce on the Western Front, 1914

The repercussions of the war among “intellectuals” and purveyors of cultural mores in Europe, reflected in their art and philosophies a wholesale abandonment of biblical ethics, moral restraints, and hope in the future. An unrestrained moral turpitude and relativism, born in the evolutionary theories of the previous century, reached their climax in the post-war era. They quickly sifted down to popular culture and produced equally unrestrained offshoots of reaction and nationalistic paganisms represented in the Fascists of Italy and Nazis of Germany, not to speak of the revolutionary excesses of the Bolsheviks in Russia. In modern parlance, The First World War was the tipping point of world-wide change, and not for the better.

On December 25, 1914, with the British and German troops facing each other in their respective trenches across the frozen wastes of no-man’s-land—over which both sides had already shed much blood—a remarkable phenomenon occurred about which entire books have been written. Almost spontaneously, men on both sides began singing Christmas carols. Men so determined the day before to exterminate each other, probably for the last time in all of their lives, commemorated the birth of Christ in music. On the German side, men wore belt buckles stamped “Gott mit uns” (God with us), believing that they were on the side of right. On the English side, numbers of men came from Christian homes, and remembered the carols of safe and warm family celebrations where they sang hymns composed by German and English writers.

Unbelievably, several men climbed out of the trenches with hands up, from both sides, and met in no-man’s-land. Someone kicked out a soccer ball and they formed teams and played. Others exchanged souvenirs and talked about home and families. A few years ago, Sainsbury’s grocery chain in England memorialized that famous Christmas truce with this ad:

When the generals heard about the fraternization with the enemy going on all along the entrenchments, they called a halt to it and ordered the war to resume. Some believe up to a hundred thousand men participated in the informal truce of Christmas 1914.

In the early months of the war, the two sides sometimes agreed to bury bodies, otherwise irretrievably lying between the lines. This event was different—widespread and visually stunning, many men wrote home about it, from both sides. The Christmas truce provided a small shred of humanity in a war that would abandon any pretense of it in the coming years. Not only did that war not end wars, it provided the reason and impetus for a bigger and more destructive one twenty-one years later.

British and German soldiers play a soccer game during the truce

An artist’s impression of the truce from The Illustrated London News

Man has sought to find a solution to war through institutions like the League of Nations and the United Nations, treaties, policies like “Mutually Assured Destruction” (MAD), and legislation. No attempts at eradicating the sins of men and nations nor ending their never-ending pursuit of war through government action can or will succeed without the true salvation and peace of Christ in the hearts of leaders and people. God promises that He will bring about His peace in history future when His kingdom shall extend from shore to shore around the world. All Christians should pray to that end; every other kind of peaceful resolution is just another Christmas truce.

Image Credits: 1 British and German troops (wikipedia.org) 2 The Christmas Truce (wikipedia.org) 3 Soccer (indpendent.uk) 4 Illustration (wikipedia.org)

“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.” —Prov. 29:2

—Kevin Turley, Landmark Events

Removal of the Reconciliation Monument at Arlington, 2023

he year was 1898; war with Spain loomed on the horizon. William McKinley, the last Union Civil War veteran elected to the presidency, realized the psychological and social wounds of the Civil War, which had ended thirty-three years earlier, still festered in some parts of the nation, especially the South. His predecessor had taken overt steps to ameliorate some of the continuing animosity between the sections by returning captured battle-flags and successfully courting the southern Democratic votes. McKinley went one better by calling for the nation to take better care of the graves of Confederate soldiers. He soon would also appoint ex-Confederate Generals to serve in high-ranking positions in the War with Spain.

President William McKinley (1843-1901)

Unveiling of the Confederate Monument, Arlington National, June 4, 1914

In that spirit of reconciliation, two years later, Congress authorized the Confederate section at Arlington Cemetery. Numerous reinterments followed, totaling eventually more than four hundred, who await Judgment Day, along with the more than 16,000 Union soldiers also buried there. In 1906, Secretary of War, Ohioan William Taft, approved a request by the United Daughters of the Confederacy to commission Moses Ezekiel, one of the most famous sculptors in the world, to design the monument that would demarcate and celebrate the Confederate soldiers buried in their section.

President Howard Taft (1857-1930)

Wreath laying at Confederate Memorial Day Services by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, 1922

Ezekiel was the first Jewish graduate of the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia, and a member of the Corps when they fought in the Battle of New Market. After the War he moved to Italy to develop his skills, becoming an internationally renowned sculptor. Upon his death in 1917, Moses Ezekiel was buried next to the monument, desiring only the words recounting the service of his youth in the Civil War: Sergeant of Company C, Battalion of Cadets of the Virginia Military Institute.

The magnificent bronze monument, with multiple symbolic devices, is topped by a woman representing the South, in her right hand a pruning hook resting on a plow stock in a gesture of peace and reconciliation. The thirty-two figures adorning the frieze around the monument include every sort of Southern person from the war period, including a black Confederate soldier. The Reverend Randolph McKim, a Confederate officer and chaplain in the war, submitted, in part, the following words:

Moses Ezekiel (1844-1917)

“NOT FOR FAME OR REWARD—NOT FOR PLACE OR FOR RANK—NOT LURED BY AMBITION—OR GOADED BY NECESSITY—THESE MEN SUFFERED ALL—SACRIFICED ALL—DARED ALL—AND DIED”

Inscription as seen at the base of the north-facing frieze

President Taft spoke at the cornerstone dedication in 1912. His excellent speech is available for reading today. The unveiling took place in 1914 on Jefferson Davis’s birthday, overseen by President Woodrow Wilson who gave a heartfelt and magnanimous address to the thousands assembled. And so the monument has stood for 110 years, a symbol of reconciliation, respect, and honor. But no longer as of this week.

Frieze detail from the Arlington Monument

President Woodrow Wilson speaks at the 1914 unveiling ceremony

In 2021 Congress established “The Naming Commission” to devise a plan to “rid the military of its statues and monuments commemorating the Confederacy.” After renaming many military bases named after Confederate heroes, the Commission recommended that the Confederate Monument at Arlington be torn down, mandated to be accomplished before January 1. The destruction began today on orders of the Defense Department. Lawsuits by Heritage groups and others to stop the desecration have been set aside by the Army. Virginia Governor Younkin has conceded the action after protesting, along with forty Republican Congressmen who signed a letter demanding the “defense” secretary Lloyd Austin stop the proceedings—also ignored.

Naming Commission Chair, Michelle Howard

Monument foundations are laid, 1912

Beginning the monument’s removal, 2023

The Unity monument is joining the hundreds of other Confederate monuments around the country which have been dismantled or destroyed by the purveyors of a new narrative of American history based on Critical Race Theory and new revolutionary Marxist dogmas—substituting “racial oppression” for capitalism as the basis for all American history interpretation. This “march through the institutions of society” by revolutionaries is not new. The ideological overthrow of the Church, educational system, business, the military leadership, and politicians has been an ongoing enterprise for several generations and merely reflects the modern iteration of a spiritual war begun in Eden.

Removal of a Charlottesville Lewis and Clark / Sacagawea monument in 2021

When the rich and powerful declare courage, honor, sacrifice, and defense of home and hearth antiquated evidences of “patriarchal white supremacy” and fit only for destruction, we cannot stand by and hope the wave goes over our heads. We need to plant our banners, speak against the spirit of the age and show our children and grandchildren there are issues worth fighting and dying for. A monument may be a small thing in the larger scheme of the war, but the decision-makers need to know we’re still here and will continue the resistance, leaving ultimate outcomes to the Providence of God. Let us keep building monuments that are reminders of the truth that duty and obedience to God are sublime and eternal responsibilities.

Our Heart of American History tour guests at the Monument 30 days ago

Image Credits: 1 President William McKinley (wikipedia.org) 2 Monument Unveiling, 1914 (wikipedia.org) 3 President Howard Taft (wikipedia.org) 4 United Daughters of the Confederacy (wikipedia.org) 5 Moses Ezekiel (wikipedia.org) 6 North Frieze and Base (wikipedia.org) 7 Monument Frieze Detail (wikipedia.org) 8 Woodrow Wilson at Monument Dedication (wikipedia.org) 9 Naming Commission Chair, Michelle Howard (wikipedia.org) 10 Construction of Monument Foundation (wikipedia.org) 11 Monument Removal (thegatewaypundit.com) 12 Lewis & Clark Statue Removal (thegatewaypundit.com)

Attack on Pearl Harbor,
December 7, 1941

t was a quiet Sunday morning at Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor, home of America’s U.S. Pacific Fleet. At five minutes before 8:00, many of the 60,000 sailors and other military personnel stationed there were still in their bunks resting or else eating breakfast; a few were on duty, others just straggling in after a long night. What appeared to be another beautiful day in paradise would quickly turn into a nightmare as 183 Japanese aircraft arrived from over the mountains north of Pearl Harbor with a mission to destroy the U.S. Fleet. Bombs were dropped on fuel and ammunition dumps, buildings, and ships—even the newly-built hospital. Japanese pilots strafed everything in their path with wing-mounted machine guns, while others dropped torpedoes.

USS Arizona Burning in Pearl Harbor

The attack was a complete surprise for those stationed there. Some sailors went down with their ship while still asleep in their bunks. Some were trapped only to drown inside, while others had to choose between staying aboard a doomed ship or taking a chance by diving into a harbor aflame with burning fuel. It was a living hell.

But in true, heroic, American fashion, these brave men and women pulled together and soon ammunition was passed around and weapons lockers were broken open in order to fight back. Wounded were carried to safety and trapped servicemen rescued. Pearl Harbor is often remembered as a day of days, monumental as America’s provoked entry point into the Second World War. But on Sunday, December 7, 1941, it was down to how each man responded and “conducted himself in wartime”.

As explosions emanate from the USS Shaw sailors watch amid wrecked planes at the Ford Island seaplane base

The capsized minelayer USS Oglala is seen in the foreground

Below are compiled a few first-hand accounts from the survivors of this devastating attack. Let us never forget.

“I had just awakened and took a shower when I heard all these explosions at Pearl Harbor. I looked out the barracks window and just then a Jap Torpedo Bomber flew by with his torpedo. I yelled out to my buddies ‘the Japs are here’ and the response I got was, ‘go to bed you’re drunk.’

 

About that time a bomb hit the Central Mess Hall of our composite barracks. My buddy… and I asked ourselves where and what to do during war time. I decided I should be with my B-18 Bomber since I was the Crew Chief and Engineer Gunner. (We) cautiously proceeded to the Flight Line where—in between Jap strafing runs, and with many high-ranking officers’ help—we managed to tow my aircraft out onto the field for disbursement.

 

As the Japs flew by after leaving Pearl Harbor my buddy and I emptied our 45s at them—sometimes the gun got so hot we couldn’t hold it.

 

The next day they took all the flyable B-18 aircraft and crews and put us in one squadron. We called ourselves the suicide squadron for we went looking for the Jap fleet with two 30 Cal. machine guns per aircraft. Later on we flew dawn to dusk on submarine search and patrol. We then received B-17s and moved to Bellows Field and on to the Midway Battle.”

—As written on November 14, 1991, by Staff Sergeant Edward J. Dvorak, 72nd Bomb Sq. (H), stationed at Hickam Field on December 7, 1941

“I was over at Lt. Shea’s bachelor quarters making myself breakfast. Throwing out the egg shell, I noted three odd aircraft flying about. Then I noticed the red ball, and I knew right that minute that it was the day. Only wearing tennis shorts and sneakers, I ran about the buildings screaming, ’They are here!’ and then all hell started to break loose.

 

I made it back to the barracks just in time, to get some better wear… and just as I exited the barracks, they were hit.

 

From that moment on, running about trying to escape from being hit, I and two others started picking bodies to take to the hospital which just opened the day before. I was later hit, and knocked out for a while… I was bleeding from a hanging finger and also leg wounds. But did not turn myself in. I managed to put my index finger back together with masking tape and it healed after six weeks. The other wounds, I also took care of myself. Fearing that if I did turn myself in, I would be placed in a bed or whatever, and probably get hit again, because the Japanese did not honor the new hospital. Nevertheless, I did the best I could in trying to save those more unfortunate.

 

Later our group fought in the Midway Battle, and then to the South Pacific, till we were in the Guadalcanal Island.”

—Everest Capra, Army Medical Corps

“I am an on board survivor of the attack on the USS Arizona on Dec. 7, 1941. Six men were trapped on the foremast; on the sky control platform one deck above the bridge, where the Admiral and the Captain were killed. We had no way off and were burning alive, when we saw a sailor on the USS Vestal. We waved at him and got his attention, and he threw us a line and we tied it off to a bigger line and proceeded to go hand over hand to the Vestal after we suffered burns. The Japanese were firing at us as well as the oil in the water under us was burning.

 

We all made it across the line because of the bravery of the seaman, Joe George. Two men died of their burns that day at the hospital and the four other men, Bruner, Lott, Rhiner, and myself lived. I was in the hospital for a year, but because of Joe George I went on to have a family. There are two of us alive today. We attended the 70th USS Arizona reunion in Hawaii.

 

Joe George was never awarded anything for his bravery and going against a direct order from his Captain, who wanted to pull away from the Arizona and leave us all to die. He is no longer with us, but I believe his widow, in his memory, should be awarded the Navy Cross.”

—Donald Stratton

Image Credits: 1 USS Arizona Burning (wikipedia.org) 2 USS Shaw Explosion (wikipedia.org) 3 The Oglala capsizes (wikipedia.org)

The Battle of Franklin, Tennessee,
November 30, 1864

n a late Indian Summer’s day, the crippled Confederacy gave its last valiant gasp when 33,000 brave southern men and boys charged the Union Army’s entrenchments amongst the homes and businesses of Franklin, Tennessee. The last grand frontal assault of America’s Civil War, these men charged over two miles of open ground, in perfect order, with bands playing and flags unfurled, in the face of a hailstorm of bullets. The tactics of the assault were questioned by the majority of the Confederate Army’s own commanders, but having been decided upon by their superior—General John Bell Hood—there was never a braver or more ferocious fight to liberate what was the beloved hometown of many in the Army of the Tennessee.

General John Bell Hood (1831-1879)

An artist’s depiction of the Battle of Franklin

The fighting continued after nightfall—butchery and carnage and valor displayed by both sides over every square mile—and by the end of the day, the town was in Confederate hands. But the cost had been too dear: a casualty list of over 6,000 men in those five hours of fighting left the Army of the Tennessee a shell of itself. Among the fallen were an unprecedented number of major-ranking Confederate generals, among them General Patrick Cleburne, General Otho Strahl, General States Rights Gist, General Hiram Granbury, General John Adams and General John Carter.

Patrick Cleburne (1828-1864)

Otto Strahl (1831-1864)

States Rights Gist (1831-1864)

Hiram Granbury (1831-1864)

John Adams (1825-1864)

John Carter (1837-1864)

Before the battle of Franklin, there had been much uncertainty regarding the fate of the Confederate States, despite their many recent losses. Yes, Atlanta had fallen in the summer, leaving General Sherman free to complete his terrorizing of southern civilians in his infamous March to the Sea, which he had begun in the Carolinas the previous spring. In Virginia, a slow hemorrhage had been inflicted by the losses of Spotsylvania Courthouse, New Market and the brutal siege of St. Petersburg. Mobile Bay in Alabama had fallen to Admiral Farragut in August. In a last effort to regroup and seize vital railroad lines, as well as river commerce in Nashville, John Bell Hood took his Army of the Tennessee into middle Tennessee and eventually to Franklin, where in a campaign full of minor victories and substantial failures, the confederacy showcased its last grand display of fortitude.

Columbia, South Carolina after Sherman’s devastating “March to the Sea”

The romance of a lost cause is often bandied about as something to be quickly sobered by realisms such as the cruel yoke of defeat and the horrors of needless death. But there is much to be recalled with great pride of the men and their officers who willingly endured the hellish conditions of war, its miseries of starvation and plague, trying with one last valiant effort to free their homes from a Federal invader bent on statism. Cultures that go down fighting rise again in some form eventually, while those who gently pass away are forgotten. Those men who charged over two miles of open field in the face of certain death knew what was at stake. They were motivated by their imperiled rights, a hard-fought inheritance encompassing the legacy of revolutionary and pioneering forefathers, generations of sacrifice and sacred beliefs. Thus, it was well that, to quote the fallen General Patrick Cleburne on that fateful day, “If we are to die, let us die like men.”

The coat that General Patrick Cleburne was wearing when he was mortally wounded during the Battle of Franklin

The McGavock Confederate Cemetery, with the McGavock home, Carnton Plantation, visible in the background

The Army of the Tennessee didn’t linger in the town of Franklin longer than a day after they had taken it, pushing on to Nashville to chase the retreating Union Army, and there meeting the extinction of the South’s last hope. But for the little town of Franklin, the echoes of their bloody liberation would last into the 20th century. In a poignant epilogue to this devastating last conflict, the citizenry took it upon themselves in the coming years to rebury the thousands of casualties who had been interred in mass graves. Prominent among these was the McGavock Family of Carnton Plantation whose home served as a field hospital during the battle and housed wounded soldiers unable to go home for up to two years after the Civil War had ended. With the backing of her husband, the minister E.M. Bounds, and the cooperation of Franklin’s townfolk, Carrie McGavock oversaw the reinterment of over a thousand confederate soldiers, identified and reburied, each with all respect and diligence in her family’s cemetery. Carrie McGavock kept a strict account of her noble charge, and for the rest of the century received the relatives and hopefuls looking to find the remains of their fathers and sons and brothers who had not been heard from since that dreadful day of November 30, 1864. Mrs. McGavock wore black the rest of her days and her personal commitment to the boys buried beneath her soil earned her the moniker “the Widow of the South”. It is now so peaceful and transporting to stand in the Carnton Cemetery, and it is one of Landmark Events’ dearest sites to tour, remembering the days of when nobility of spirit ruled and the quiet impact of every-day godliness transformed one town’s heavy legacy.

Carrie McGavock

Image Credits: 1 John Bell Hood (wikipedia.org) 2 Battle of Franklin (wikipedia.org) 3 Patrick Cleburne (wikipedia.org) 4 Otto Strahl (wikipedia.org) 5 State Rights Gist (wikipedia.org) 6 Hiram Grandbury (wikipedia.org) 7 John Adams (wikipedia.org) 8 John Carter (wikipedia.org) 9 Columbia, SC (wikipedia.org) 10 Cleburne’s Coat (wikipedia.org) 11 McGavock Cemetery & Carnton Plantation (wikipedia.org) 12 Carrie McGavock (wikipedia.org)

“Deus Vult!”

The Knights Templar Destroyed, November 22, 1307

ohammed, the founder and prophet of Islam, and his successors, spread their new religion across the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Asia beginning in the 7th Century, through conquest, commerce, and missionaries. Those who did not convert, particularly Christians and Jews, were compelled to pay extra taxes, and bid to comply with the new cultural changes. They established new Muslim dynasties in the areas conquered, including in Palestine, where many of the historic sites from the time of Christ and the apostles were located. Christian pilgrims who travelled to those places were sometimes set upon by thieves and lawless gangs, and the Christians and Jews of those areas faced the constant pressure to convert to Islam. Moslem structures were sometimes constructed over the older Christian ones. The Roman Pontiffs began calling for the re-conquest of the Middle East, from the 11th to the 14th Centuries.

A panoramic view of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, as seen from the Mount of Olives

Kings, princes and monks raised armies in Europe, especially France, to make the long journey to the Holy Land to drive out the Muslim interlopers. The Latin Church granted them forgiveness and indulgence, the nobility called on the feudal obligations of their vassals to go to war, and Kings took up their positions at the head of armies, all with the commendation and approval of the Pope in Rome. The success of the First Crusade, with the capture of Jerusalem in 1099, however, did not eliminate the dangers that awaited Christian pilgrims, who had to walk or ride from Joppa to Jerusalem. Death came to hundreds of European pilgrims from thieves and terrorists who stalked the byways leading to the city.

King Baldwin II of Jerusalem ceding the location of the Temple of Solomon to Hugues de Payns and Gaudefroy de Saint-Homer in the presence of Warmund, Patriarch of Jerusalem

In 1119, nine knights banded together and petitioned Baldwin II, King of Jerusalem and Warmund, the Patriarch of the region, to allow them to create a new warrior-monastic order to protect the pilgrims coming to the Holy City. Their petition was granted and the Knights were given part of the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem for their headquarters.

The Temple Mount in Jerusalem, showing Al Aqsa Mosque (once headquarters of the Knights Templar) prominently in the center with the gold dome

The first knights were poor men, relying on donations to keep their horses and themselves in shape for the hazards that lay in wait. Their initial moniker consisted of two knights riding one horse. Their official name began as “Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon,” fortunately shortened to Knights Templar. One of the founding Templars was André de Montbard, the uncle of one of the most influential monks of Christendom, Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux, founder of the Cistercian Order, hymn writer, and powerful preacher. In 1129 Bernard convinced a Church Council to approval the Knights, resulting in large contributions, new recruits, and a Templar fighting force to be reckoned with.

The Seal of the Knights Templar, showing two knights riding one horse

On March 31, 1146—with King Louis VII of France present—Bernard of Clairvaux preached to an enormous crowd in a field at Vézelay, making “the speech of his life”

The Popes declared that the Templars could pass through any lands, exempted from taxes and local laws, and answerable to the Pope alone. Mounted on their huge destriers, wearing the finest armor and confident in their cause, the Knights led Crusader attacks wearing their white tunics with the red cross on the front and bearing their banners so the enemy would know who they were up against. In one battle, five hundred knights and a few thousand foot soldiers defeated a 26,000-man army led by Saladin himself, the most feared of the Moslem chiefs.

Represented by Guy of Lusignan, members of the Knights Templar (in their classic white robes with red crosses) surrender to Saladin after their defeat at the Battle of Hattin

While the knights of the order took individual vows of poverty, and most of them just provided logistical help for the fighters, the Templars accumulated vast treasures put in their care by crusader nobles along with donations from wealthy supporters and the Church. Their financial services became an early form of banking. The Knights Templar built castles and cathedrals and acquired vast tracts of land in Europe and the Middle East, becoming a form of multi-national corporation. They inspired the creation of other warrior orders, the Teutonic Knights from the Germanies and the Knights of St. John, known as the Hospitallers, devoted to both the healing arts and ferocious warriors of the Church.

Hugues de Payens (1070-1136) was the co-founder and first Grand Master of the Knights Templar. In association with Bernard of Clairvaux, he created the Latin Rule, the code of behavior for the Order.

Krak des Chevaliers in Syria was built during the 12th and 13th centuries by the Knights Hospitaller with later additions by Mamluks

In the mid-12th Century, Crusader fortunes waned as strong Islamic leaders like Saladin found strategies to defeat the Latin armies. The military orders became sometimes bitter rivals, thus dividing the loyalties within the Crusader ranks. They lost Jerusalem in 1187, retook it in 1229 and surrendered the city in 1239, where it remained under Muslim control until the British seized it in 1917 from the Ottoman Turks. Templar headquarters moved to Acre, which they held for a hundred years before yielding to relentless attacks, pushing them to Cyprus. After two hundred years of fighting, the Templars settled down to international businesses, farming, and vineyards.

Philip IV of France (1268-1314)

Pope Clement V (c. 1264-1314)

In 1307, King Philip IV of France (deeply in debt to the Templars) and Pope Clement V (eager to put an end to the order) colluded together to destroy the Templars. On November 22, Clement issued a papal bull ordering the disbandment of the Knights Templar, and calling for their arrests and the seizure of their properties. Following their arrests, they were put on trial for crimes that historians conclude never occurred, based on the best evidence. Besides charges of financial corruption, the Templars were accused of spitting on the cross of Christ, blasphemy, and idolatry. Torture and coerced confessions confirmed the charges, though they all recanted their confessions once the torture was finished. In the end, de Molay and many Templars were burned at the stake, others were pensioned off, or joined other orders. Many of their assets were transferred to the Hospitallers. Some believe there still exists a vast treasure trove of hidden Templar wealth. There are all sorts of reported sightings of Templars in the years following their disbandment, such as joining Scottish armies in battle in Scotland against the English. Templar architecture remains intact in several countries, including Portugal, Spain, and England. The mystique of the Knights Templar still excites historians of the Middle Ages and of the Crusades, as well as those who still dream of gallant Christian warriors putting a stop to the enemies of Christendom.

Jacques de Molay (c. 1240–1250 – 1314) was the 23rd and last grand master of the Knights Templar, leading the order sometime before April 20, 1292 until it was dissolved by order of Pope Clement V in 1312

Image Credits: 1 Jerusalem Panoramic (wikipedia.org) 2 Temple given to Templars (wikipedia.org) 3 Temple Mount (wikipedia.org) 4 Seal of Templars (wikipedia.org) 5 Bernard Preaching (wikipedia.org) 6 Saladin and the Knights (wikipedia.org) 7 Hugues de Payens (wikipedia.org) 8 Krak des Chevaliers (wikipedia.org) 9 Philip IV of France (wikipedia.org) 10 Clement V (wikipedia.org) 11 Jacques de Molay (wikipedia.org)