Part 2 of Alex Christopher's work Pandora's Box.Never really liked the Catholic Church(It was why I told my parents at the age 14,that I had enough and was not going to be going to Church anymore)and throughout my adult years I came to understand the Church had done some down right disgusting things in the past. I am not sure,maybe because it was my association with the church when I was young, but more likely it was my Mothers involvement as a Catholic that kept me from looking at this institution as critically as I have with other subjects.
In the last couple of months,as some readers might be aware,I have been republishling some of the work of Anna von Reitz,and it is her work that has made me realize just how corrupt and despicable this church is,and I am not even talking about the sex scandals. I am not trying to make light of the suffering and abuse of this latest scandal,but it does not compare to the millions this church has murdered. And adding these chapters to what I have been thinking lately,it dawned on me,that it is this forsaken Church,that covets this land,and has from the beginning!
4
THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR
By the end of the 11th Century the Christian crusaders had wrested much of the Holy Land from the Islamic
Saracens and, in the year 1099 A.D., a French nobleman by the name of Godfroi De Bouillon became the King
of Jerusalem, The ascension of de Bouillon's line to the throne of Jerusalem has somewhat puzzled later
historians. De Bouillon knew what was going to happen before he left Europe on the Crusade. He gave up his
lands and titles in Europe. He allied himself and the fortunes of his House to Palestine. The newly-created
Kingdom of Jerusalem was accounted equal to the most illustrious European royalty.
Nineteen years later, the second King of Jerusalem, Baudoin, established the famous Order of the Temple,
better known as the "Knights Templar".
The Knights Templar have loomed more mysteriously in history than even the curious elevation of Godfroi de
Bouillion to the throne of Jerusalem.
At first, there were only nine knights of the Temple and for nine years no other recruits were admitted. The
mandate of these knights was to protect pilgrims on all the roads of the Holy Land. Aside from the fact that
their numbers were wholly inadequate to perform such a task, there is no record of the Knights Templar
actually protecting any pilgrims in Palestine.
Yet within a very short time the new Order had gained enormous prestige in Europe. Saint Bernard spoke
highly of the Templars and a papal decree made them answerable only to the pope and independent of all
secular authority.
Although individual knights of the Order were sworn to poverty and to a strict code of behavior drafted by
Saint Bernard himself, the Knights Templar immediately began to amass great wealth. And almost as quickly
individual Templars, at least, began to acquire a reputation for overbearing arrogance that conflicted with their
supposed code of behaviors.
"According to tradition, their quarters were built on the foundations of the ancient Temple of Solomon, and
from this the fledgling Order derived its name." Some suggested that the Templars were not established to
protect pilgrims in the Holy Land, but to form an elite guard for the Kings of Jerusalem, and to be a fighting
arm of that mysterious power that Godfroi's line apparently wielded. It has also been supposed that the
Templars' almost instant wealth derived from some treasure that might have been discovered in the Temple of
Solomon.
It appeared that the Knights Templar very quickly accumulated financial resources that enabled them to
become the bankers of their age. This was only the outside appearance tho because they were only carrying
out the desires of the de Bouillon bloodline in establishing the first banks. A royal family always has front
men to do their bidding while they stay anonymous and this was the case with the Knights Templar, they were
the front men. They built protected warehouses all over Europe in which merchants could store their goods in
safety. They loaned money and they revived the ancient practice of issuing and honoring letters of credit,
cheques, so that merchants could avoid carrying large amounts of bulky and tempting money around with
them. Whether or not the Templars did much for pilgrim traffic in the Holy Land, it is certain that they
encouraged the growth of trade and commerce in Europe.
Historians agree that the rise of the merchant class in Europe was the beginning of the end of the feudal
system. This puts the Templars in an ironic position. They were the idealized apex of chivalry, the unique
ideal of feudalism. Yet their banking and warehousing activities were not only far removed from appropriate
"knightly" activities, but assisted the growth of a non-feudal class which eventually undermined feudalism
itself.
Feudalism was an agricultural social structure based on the control of land. Trade and commerce, however,
are essentially urban activities and largely unconnected with the control of land and an organization based on agriculture. The rise of the merchant class in Europe also marked the rise of the cities. The revival of trade
and commerce spelled the end of the "Dark Ages" and the start of the Renaissance and the modern world.
Because the Templars were independent of all secular authority, they could pursue their banking and
warehousing throughout Europe, irrespective of the wishes of the local noble who thought he controlled
things. The Templars betrayed the very class they supposedly represented, at least in an economic and
political sense.
The dukes and counts and kings who complained about them saw the situation clearly enough. It is difficult
not to conclude that the Templars were somehow intended to fulfill this role. As nobles and knights
themselves, the possessions and titles of potential Templar recruits were feudal, and involved control of land
By giving up such titles and possessions. Templars not only became unorthodox within the scheme of feudal
chivalry as a knightly organization, but could individually work without too many second thoughts to
undermine their own class.
The Templars did not ignore the possibilities of sea-borne trade. They had their own fleet, based in La
Rochelle. Maritime activities of the Templars have an important bearing on later events.
The Order had an aura of mystery and sanctity about it that has never been adequately explained. A Bavarian
poet-knight and author of Parizival. makes the Templars guardians of the Holy Grail.
The Templars were believed to be custodians of some great treasure, or of some momentous secret, that subtly
altered the orthodoxy of their professed Christianity. Although they are zealous warriors on the battlefields of
the Holy Land against geopolitical foes of de Bouillon's clan, they apparently also at the same time established
peaceful contact with both Jewish and Muslim savants in Palestine and in Moorish Spain.
Being unorthodox in an economic and political sense in Europe, they were also apparently unorthodox in
matters of religion. It was not long before the initial aura of sanctity was transformed, among the already
financially disgruntled nobility, into suspicions of heresy.
Templars may also have been involved in financing the astonishing and short-lived phenomenon of Gothic
cathedral-building. The brief profusion of Gothic-style "Notre Dames" were constructed only during the two
centuries of Templar ascendency. Gothic architecture, except for mock-antique constructions, disappeared
with the Templars. Just as the Templars' wealth is a mystery, to some people and the financing of huge
cathedrals by small towns remains an enigma.
Gothic architecture contained secret messages in stone, keys to ancient religious and spiritual knowledge.
There is evidence to suggest that the "Our Lady" of the Gothic cathedrals was not the Virgin Mary, but
another
Mary.
In the year 1187 A.D., after less than a century of Christian rule, Jerusalem and much of the Holy Land was
recovered by the Muslims. The dynasty established by Godfroi de Bouillon lost much of its prestige along
with its throne.Godfroi de Bouillon had sprung from an obscure bloodline which arose in the south of France.
In the Pyrenees. During the 10th to 12th Centuries this area in the south of present-day France was the center
of a unique culture. It was unique in several ways. First of all, compared to most of Europe at the time, the
civilization of Languedoc and Provence was advanced in the arts and sciences. There was much contact with
the neighboring Moors across the Pyrenees, and much contact with the Jewish savants who lived among these
Moors. Noble French families in the south inter-married across the Pyrenees.
The civilization in the south of France was advanced in terms of trade and economics, again because of close
contact with the Moors who controlled much of the Mediterranean and all of the trade routes to the Far East.
The most profound way in which this southern French civilization differed from the rest of Europe was
religious. It does not seem as if this civilization was really "Christian" at all in the way that term was
understood then and is understood now. The civilization was Christian, its religion was a heresy.
The religion was called "Catharism" or the "Albigensian heresy" after the town of Albi, which was a particular
centre of this aberrant religion.
It is difficult to tell what Catharism really was, because all the accounts of it come from enemies of the
religion. The Cathars themselves, and their own writings, were systematically destroyed by the victorious
Roman Church.
At the "grassroots" or "village level" of participation, Catharism seems to have been vaguely Christian, or at least molded on the Christian model. There were Cathar churches operating in competition with Catholic ones.
By about 1200 A.D., most of the population of Languedoc and Provence patronized Cathar churches in
preference to Catholic ones. There were Roman churches in southern France where a mass had not been said
in several generations.
On the simplest level, the popularity of Catharism is easy to explain. The Roman clergy was corrupt and
suffered by comparison with the Cathar "parfaits" or "perfected ones" who passed for Cathar clergy. Saint
Bernard, who travelled to Languedoc to preach against these heretics in 1145 A.D., was impressed by them:
"No sermons are more Christian than theirs, and their morals are pure", he wrote.
By "Christian", the good saint must have meant Christian in spirit, because the Albigensians certainly were not
Christian in dogma according to the tenets of the Roman Church. Indeed, there are some who suspect that
Saint Bernard was extremely impressed with the Cathars and became one. in secret.
Cathar "Christianity" rejected the idea of the death and crucifixion of Jesus. Catharism seems to have rejected
the propriety of this sacrifice, and perhaps even the notion of salvation, as these concepts were understood by
Roman Catholics of the 13th Century and modern Christians of all sects nowadays. Instead, the Cathars
stressed the reality of "unconditional love" and the still-existing living legacy of love bequeathed by Jesus as
one, and perhaps the latest, manifestation of God's boundless love. It seems as though some of the Cathars,
and certainly some of the higher-ranking Templars were able to accept Mohammed within this context, not as
a living example of God's love incarnate as Jesus was viewed, but as a legitimate messenger speaking and
writing about God's love.
As "Christians", these Cathars therefore rejected the cross, the Roman Catholic "crucifix", as a proper symbol
to focus meditation upon, or worship of. the love that Christ was and remained. Instead, one important Cathar
symbol was the dove. It represented for them then, as it does for us today, the idea of "peace" or. more
accurately the more subtle concept of "grace", that state of being in God's love. After the first crusades, when
European Cathars in the entourage of Godfroi de Bouillon established some contact with the Sufi mystics of
Islam, the symbolism of the dove sometimes became linked conographically with the Islamic mystical idea of
baraka, which also means "grace" and with the idea that a person could be a "vessel of grace".
Another common Cathar symbol was the serpent or dragon. This probably represented the much-maligned
"Serpent of Wisdom" in the Biblical Garden of Eden. The Cathars apparently believed that love without
knowledge was a potential hazard to the individual and to others around him. Unguided. ignorant love could
be a menace and. from the Cathar point of view, the truth of this perspective was self-evident in the behavior
of their enemies, the followers of the Pope and the practitioners of the Inquisition. In the name of love and
Christ, the Inquisition of the Roman Church justified hideous cruelties inflicted on an estimated three million
human beings between 1200 A.D. and 1800 A.D.
Therefore the Cathars venerated knowledge, or wisdom, and symbolized it through the serpent or dragon. The
Cathars were therefore gnostics (from the Greek gnosis ="knowledge"). Note that the dragon symbolism runs
through the whole story of the Grail. King Arthur's banner was the Red Dragon of Wales. Arthur's father was
Uther Pendragon - or "uther, the Chief Dragon".
These Cathar symbols became important after the Albigensian Crusade and the dispersal of Cathar heretics
and
Templars. Obliged to profess outward orthodoxy, but secretly preserving their heresy and knowledge, the
underground heretics or far flung refugees had to devise some means of recognizing each other. The heretical
families therefore often adopted names based on Cathar symbols as a means of mutual recognition.
Family names based on secret Cathar symbolism crop up repeatedly, as we shall see, in the story of
transatlantic voyages of discovery and exploration. Christopher Columbus is a Latinization of the Italian
"Colon" = "Dove", and there is evidence that Columbus was a member of that Cathar-islamic-Jewish amalgam
that crystallized around the de Bouillon power complex in the Pyrenees and the Albigensian heresy that could,
and did, bind together the intellectuals of the three great Western religions.
In further research you will find an Englishman who adopts the name of Francis Drake (from the Latin
draco+dragon), is a pirate specializing in predation upon Spanish Catholic treasure armadas, is knighted by the
Queen for his services, and the English Crown seems to be financially involved in his freebooting adventures.
We may suspect that something besides mere piracy was going on.
The Cathars were unorthodox in another important respect. They repudiated the idea of priests as
intermediaries between God and man. The Albigensians had no priest.
The Cathars had religious, or "spiritual" leaders. These people were vowed to honesty, poverty, chastity and,
apparently, vegetarianism. And they practiced it. Catharism attracted the majority of the population of
southern France.
At the higher levels of initiation it has been disputed that the Cathars were Christian at all. Runicman says that
they were Buddhists, while others insist that they were Sufis, that they only used "Christian" words, phrases an
parables to ease communication with the simple peasants who had been exposed to Christianity for
generations.
The Treasure
In addition to all of these departures from European society elsewhere, the Cathar civilization of southern
France was supposed to have another distinction. It was believed that they possessed some great treasure, or
some great secret, of a religious sort. The exact nature of the Cathar secret has been much debated, but the
knowledgeable minnesinger, the Templar guarded Holy Grail reposed in the castle of "Munsalvaesch". Which
most scholars agree was the Cathar citadel of Montsegur.
Of all of these departures from European orthodoxy, perhaps the truly fatal one was wealth. The prosperous
civilization of southern France excited the greed of the northern French barons. So long as Godfroi de
Bouillon's line held a kingdom in the Holy Land perhaps one should say The Kingdom, since it was Jerusalem
the prestige (plus the swords of the Templars) protected Godfroi's descendant and his "constituency" in the
Pyrenees. But when Jerusalem was lost, hostile forces rapidly converged on Languedoc and Provence.
Wealth, probably, was the major motivator, but Cathar and Templar heiresses were the pretexts.
In 1209 A.D., northern armies invaded the south in response to the Pope's call for a Crusade against the
Albigensian heretics. This was only 22 years after Godfroi's clan lost Jerusalem.
A protracted war of unparalleled ferocity raged for a third of a century until the last Cathar stronghold.
Montsegur, fell in March of 1244. The Cathars were crushed. The heretics, died at flaming stakes or on the
torture-racks of the victors. The Roman Church invented the Inquisition at this time, to interrogate the Cathars
by particularly hideous means, and the object of the Inquisition was not only to find the depth of their
unorthodox ways, but to find the location of their secret. But the victors did not find the treasure of the
Albigensians. Tradition says that it was taken out of doomed Montsegur by four knights a few days before the
citadel fell. None of the tormented parfaits revealed where it had been taken, and it is said that those who
could still speak after the tortures of the Inquisition sang as they burned at their stakes. The soul of
Esclarmonde de Foix ascended from the smoke in the form of a dove so it is said.
For a time, their sheer power military, political and economic prevented any overt moves against the
Templars,
even though many had participated in the defence of southern France and even though many had died at
Montsegur. But on Friday. October 13. 1307, King Philippe of France ordered simultaneous raids on Templar
castles, priories and warehouses in his domain. Again, the Templars apparent wealth and a desire to break
their power was the motivation, their various unorthodox uses the excuse. By 1312, King Philippe had pressured Pope Clement V into disbanding the Templars. In 1314, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar,
Jacques de Molay, was roasted to death over a slow fire by order of the king and pope.
Templar apparent wealth eluded the king. In addition to their own reputed treasure, it was widely believed that
the Cathar treasure of secret had been passed on to the Templars after the fall of Montsegur.
The Templar fleet put to sea from its port of La Rochelle a few hours before King Philippe's dawn raids of
October 13, 1307. It has never been heard from since. It is a reasonable conjecture that this fleet carried the
Templar treasures to safety, and perhaps the treasure of the Cathars as well.
The Templars who survived King Philippe's sudden strike against the Order dispersed to various countries
outside of France. They were welcomed in many places. It is known that some fled to Scotland where they
found refuge at Rosslyn, the family seat of the powerful Saint-Clairs. And still others fled to Portugal.
When the pope officially disbanded the Order in 1312 A.D., those Templars in Scotland, Germany,
Scandinavia and other corners of Europe went underground. Some joined the Teutonic Knights and fought in
Eastern Europe against the Mongols and Tartars. Others apparently formed secret societies which continued
whatever concealed doctrine the Templars may have had. It has been asserted by a number of scholars that the
Freemasons, the Rosicrucians and the illuminati of Bavaria were offshoots of the Knights Templar.
What was the legacy of de Bouillon's dynastic ambitions? Of the Templars' supposed sanctity and mysterious
prestige? Of the Cathars supposed treasure and religious secret?
The Templar-inspired secret societies have also endured to the present day. The Masons, and the
Rosicrucians, are still with us. And all profess to know a secret truth. We take this with a grain of salt and
endure the Shriners' Parades. We express gratitude for Shriner contributions to hospitals. We may be a bit
puzzled at their wealth, but shrug and explain it away by assuming that they're wealthy businessmen. But why
would wealthy businessmen, and therefore presumably relatively intelligent and responsible ones, be attracted
to such nonsense? Might there not be a whisper of something else to it all, something concealed from the rest of us?
What were all these "secrets"....... the secret of Godfroi de Bouillon's power and elevation to kingship, the
secret
treasures of the Templars and Cathars?
During the late 1950's and early 1960's there was a gang of books published about this period. They were
almost all written and published in France.
Many of them seemed to hint that something extremely important had happened. That a "turning point" in
human history had somehow happened, but that the significance of it had escaped the notice of establishment
historians.
It seems as though a unique lineage of humanity was almost, but not quite, re-established on earth. This same
dynasty had occupied other thrones, in many times and in many places. Scions of the dynasty had ruled
before, and some still do. The importance of those 200-odd years was that this lineage had a chance of rising
to extreme prominence at a time that was on the brink of becoming "the modern world". Had the dynasty been
successful, our world would have been much different. Perhaps much better.
Later in this book you are going to find out what happened to their plans and how it failed. And why it failed.
How its enemies closed in. It was defeated and basically driven into obscurity.
The long process of rebirth and re-establishment began with the fall of Montsegur and the dispersion of the
Templars. They are nothing if not persistent. They had "started again" many times.
Before we can understand exactly what this lineage is, we must follow their efforts, their triumphs and their
defeats, because this struggle is what they are, their "reason for being", their purpose.
More than troubadour romances and esoteric cults survived from the wreck of Godfroi de Bouillon's bid for
power. Even in defeat, and during the desperate business of reconstruction as hunted refugees, de Bouillon's
dynasty and its faithful guardians molded much of our own modern world. They inspired the "Age of
Discovery" and have been behind our progress since then.
Leaving aside, for a moment, the matter of the more mysterious Templar secrets and the more esoteric
religious treasures supposedly possessed by Cathar and Albigensian, might it be possible to come to grips with
the identity of somewhat more mundane secret treasures held by these people?
It is more than possible, because similar secret treasures have come into the hands of modern experts.
The Templars had been involved in trade and commerce. On land, they built protected warehouses and
indulged in banking. But the Templars also had a fleet of ships, and it is likely that they were also engaged in
maritime trade. The prime requirement for maritime commerce, after seaworthy ships, is accurate charts.
Not long after the Templar dispersal, very accurate and inexplicable sea-charts began to appear all over
Europe. These maps were far superior to the Ptolemaic maps studied by academic ecclesiastes in the
monasteries and fledgling universities. Most of the maps covered the area of the Mediterranean and the
European Atlantic coast. They covered the areas crucial to European sea-commerce.
De Bouillon established the Templars and his dynasties wealth was used by the Templars and, had his
Kingdom of Jerusalem survived, its economic well being would have depended upon trade, not upon
agriculture. Palestine was as arid in the 12th Century as it is today. And. just as it is today, Palestine is a
crossroads of three continents: Europe, Asia and Africa. A natural centre of commerce and conflict between
continental powers.
If the Templars were guardians of de Bouillon's line, one of their prime duties must have been to safeguard
information that could control trade on both land and sea.
Even after the fall of Jerusalem, and the "regrouping" of the family in Provence and Laguedoc. the Templars
must have still played this role until the surrender of the last Cathar stronghold in 1244 A.D. Wealth
characterized the civilization of southern France, and it was wealth derived in large measure from trade. As
the real "power centre" of what might be called "the de Bouillon dynasty", it is unlikely that the Templars
would have neglected the well-being of Languedoc and Provence. Cathar wealth prompted the war against
them, their heresies merely provided the moral excuse.
It is likely that even after the fall of the last Cathar fortress, the Templars would have kept their geographic
knowledge to themselves for the sake of de Bouillon survivors. So long as they remained a cohesive force,
and so long as they remained a recognized Order under the Papacy, the Templars represented a core of
strength around which the "de Bouillon dynasty", whatever it was, might regroup and begin reestablishment.
But with the dawn raids of 1307 and the final dissolution of 1312, the game was up, as far as any rapid
reconstruction was concerned. The Templar core was destroyed. Recouping the de Bouillon fortunes would
be a long business. Policy decision was apparently made. Since the treasure of geographical knowledge
relating to European lands and waters was of limited use to the surviving Templars and refugee de Bouillons,
the precious charts would be released to the "general Public" to assist mercantile development.
The Opinicus de Canestris portolan chart of 1335 is one of many that have survived to the present day. The
surviving map show so many similarities, and such inexplicable accuracy, that modern scholars are of the
opinion that there must have been only a few original maps, perhaps only one, from which hundreds of copies
were made.
When the maps were released to the public these newly discovered maps caused quite a stir and was the
subject of both intense scholarly examination and excited popular press stories because it showed the
American continents very accurately.
From the point of view of the surviving Templars who were still guardians of the de Bouillons, the strange
new lands shown on the edges of such maps would have held the hope of a refuge. And the de Bouillons were
in desperate need of a refuge for themselves and for their secret that the Roman Church sought so avidly and
with such cruelty.
The new lands on the edges of the old maps represented hope in what must have been the darkest hour in the
long history of the lineage.
But if the European and Mediterranean portions of the maps had proved accurate, why should the rest of the
maps be any less accurate?
There was only one way to find out. Explore. Verify that the new lands existed. Establish a refuge.
Many of the Templars fled to Portugal, Spain; while others fled to Scotland. Is it mere coincidence that
voyages of exploration on the Atlantic almost immediately set out from these two places? Is it mere
coincidence that Prince Henry "The Navigator", who began Portugal's and Europe's "Age of Discovery" was
the Grand Master of the Knights of Christ, the new Portuguese name for the old Knights Templar?
There is absolutely no doubt that the royalty of Portugal possessed maps already showing geographical facts
that would be "discovered". The maps showed geography very literally "at the ends of the earth" before the
supposed "discoverers" ever arrived to confirm the truth of the charts. One of Magellan's officers wrote about
the historic voyage to "discover" the passage at the tip of South America.
We don't know all that was in Columbus' mind, but we know some of it. He insisted to the scholars of the
Spanish examining commission that he "might find some very beneficial land or continent" some 750 leagues
(about 3000 miles) to the westward. He did exactly that, and at exactly that distance westward. Is that mere
coincidence? Or did Columbus, too, come into possession of a chart? Or could Columbus have been a
Templar that was sworn to protect the Grail?
One thing was for sure Columbus knew something. We may never know exactly how much. Or how he found
out about it. But is it mere coincidence that his flag-ship, the famous Santa Maria, bore, Templar crosses on
her sails when Columbus set sail from Palos? Is it mere coincidence that his voyage was financed, not by the
sale of Isabella's jewelry as so commonly thought, but by a mysterious consortium of wealthy men which
included Jews and other heretics? And is it only coincidence that Columbus weighed anchor on August 3,
1492 just a few hours before the deadline for all Jews to be out of Spain?
We will recall that the "de Bouillon Dynasty" in southern France had close connections with the Jewish and
Moslem savants of Moorish Spain. As did the Templars. It seems significant that the Moors were finally
expelled from Spain only in 1492, the year of Columbus' voyage. Did he take some of the mixed Cathar-Jewish-Muslim-Templar refugees with him? Was that why the venture was financed by "heretical" money?
In general, the entire "Age of Discovery" exhibits a curious characteristic. The early explorers show inordinate
representation by heretics. Protestants and other sorts of religious dissidents and/or refugees from Roman
Catholicism. And, inexplicably, these dissidents and heretics often sailed with charters granted by supposedly
orthodox Catholic monarchs. And. in some cases, by undoubtedly orthodox ones who were, simultaneously,
conducting religious wars of great ferocity against co-religionaries of the explorers themselves.
In fact, it can be said that the entire early exploration and colonization of the Americas bears the unmistakable
stamp of a religious refugee movement.
The "Pilgrim Fathers" of American history are too familiar to need much elaboration. They were Protestants
fleeing from religious oppression.
But recent research has shown a similar phenomenon elsewhere. Many of the "Spanish" discovers and
conquistadors turn out to have been a mixture of Cathar-Jewish-Muslim refugees from Andalusia, the
Pyrenees fringe area again, after the region was finally acquired by Catholic royalty from the Moors in 1492.
In the north, we find Protestants, like de Monts, prominent among explorers and colonizers for the Catholic
king of France. And religious wars raged at the time.
It seems simple enough. Although the Cathars and the Templars had been crushed, and although the de Bouillons were underground, they still somehow wielded some sort of power that the Catholic establishment
feared. And. in spite of the persecutions, this power steadily drew supporters. In short, whatever the "de
Bouillon dynasty" represented, it could not be completely eradicated. It could only be pushed out of sight,
pushed underground, so that orthodoxy "appeared to be served". But not really. There was some sort of
secret, and it gave some sort of power.
Enough, perhaps, to negotiate (or "blackmail"?) a deal with the Roman church and various Catholic monarchs. It must have gone something like this: the heretics would, as far as possible, simply leave Europe;
they would pay for the exploration of the new lands, take a rather small percentage of any profits of
exploitation while leaving the lion's share to the European monarch. The heretics would represent the politics
or nationality of their country of origin. But, in return, they would be granted a measure of religious tolerance
in the new lands. It was agreed by both parties that it would be "business as usual" in Europe itself, which
meant continued ferocious religious wars, the heretics not being willing to change, and the Church wanting
uniform orthodoxy and absolute control. And, as both parties realized, all the dissidents and heretics couldn't
emigrate. There were too many. The stay-at-homes who couldn't or wouldn't leave would just continue to
slug it out with the Inquisition.
There seem to have been local variations of the deal. In some places, and at some times, the heretics
apparently agreed to maintain "outward and visible" orthodoxy or, at least, to keep a "low profile".
It must be understood that there was no mercy or goodwill in this compromise. It was a sort of situation that
developed as the result of a balance of power.
In south of Europe, things did not go so well for the "de Bouillon dynasty." The monarchies of Spain and
Portugal became well and truly Catholic. The Church gained control of these countries with a grip that is only
now beginning to slacken. And the Church gained a foothold, and then virtual control, in the overseas
colonies of these countries. The Inquisition raged in tropical America, just as it did in Europe. In fact, some
of the Cathar-Jewish-Muslim refugees who had once fled from Andalusia to Mexico as "Spanish"
conquistadors after 1492, later found themselves in trouble with the inquisition, again, in Mexico itself. Many
died at flaming stakes or on the torture-racks of the victors. Those who were not prepared to recant their secret
Cathar. or Jewish or Muslim tenets fled further. Into the southwestern U.S. And they remained what they
always had been, whether in Andalusia or on the coastal plains of France or in North Africa. Herdsmen. As
they had been also in Mexico. They began the cowboy tradition of the southwestern U.S.
As "cow-pokes", they continued to "poke" cows with the long poles still used in Spain, France and North
Africa to herd cattle. The same long poles which, in times of war, were the lances of the Pyrenees Cathar-Jewish-Muslim knight-herdsman levies that fought beside the Templars for the lineage of Godfroi de
Bouillon. In time, they adopted Catholicism peacefully, along with the American Indian lariat, but they were
still called "cow-pokes", even when Anglo-Saxon Protestants from the northeast adopted the trade. They are
familiar to us. From endless episodes of Bonanza and Gunsmoke. Just as familiar as King Arthur, from the
film and musical of Camelot.
The "de Bouillon dynasty" fared better. The Church never gained the same sort of authority in the north as it
did in the tropics. Not even in the French possessions of North America. There was never any Inquisition in
the north.
Wicca suffered. Witchcraft. The women suffered. Not much, as similar things are accounted in Europe, but
they suffered. Wicca. the old fertility religion of Europe, may have been somehow incorporated in the Cathar
beliefs of southern France and was destroyed by the Inquisitors. Disguised, even among refugees, it
apparently got transplanted to the New World, where, ironically, it was just as ruthlessly persecuted by the
spiritual decedents of the Cathars. the Massachusetts Puritans. But it did not suffer much, as things were
accounted in Europe. Some 3 million women died in Europe, as witches, so it has been estimated, between
1244 A.D. and 1750 A.D.
At least, the Inquisition and the intolerance did not rage in North America as it did in Europe and in the tropics
of America.
It is known that the Templars fled to Scotland, too. after the dissolution of 1312, and it is known that some
found refuge.
A note from the author;
I am always looking for more and new information about the history that has put us into this pot of hot water
that we find ourselves in. The following information I have had for over a year but was not able to use it until
the summer of 1995 .
As you know the truth is flying our of the wood work at an incredible rate these days and this is just another
example of that truth that adds one more important missing piece to the puzzle.
This puzzle piece puts forth knowledge I was looking for about why the worlds three leading families would
dare employ the progeny of Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun, to bring about a new kingdom.
During the Crusades some forty thousand Templar Knights went into battle against the Mongols but a fog
swept over the protectors as they began to attack. As the fog cleared several thousand of the Templars were
missing and remaining Knights were dazed, blinded and confused. The Mongols slaughtered all of the
survivors of the "fog".
Nothing stood between the Mongols and the Atlantic Ocean but the Horde withdrew to assist other armies in a
campaign against China. Before withdrawing the Mongols forced secret treaties of surrender with the Vatican.
Hapsberg relatives and ancestors of the House of Orange and the House of Hess. The natural "middle-men"
between the Mongols and the European powers was a tribe known as the Khazars.
The secret treaties of surrender are still in effect and never expired.
After the Mongols withdrew the Vatican declared war on the weakened Templars and directed the Khazars in
solidifying the banking systems at later dates. The Nazi's beliefs are an extension of this manipulations.
As you read on in this book I want you to remember the mysterious fog that killed the Knights. That almost
sounds like chemical or biological warfare being used almost 700 years ago, who would have had that kind of
capability that long ago? Who would stand to gain most from the treaty in the future as a new world power?
Who would not want to see a group or race of people establish their kingdom of freedom? Who would want to
make sure that people remained enslaved and controlled? I am sure that this race of people are ____________.
You
finish the sentence. You decide for yourself. You finish the blanks.
5
A SAILOR STORY
It was brought to my attention some time back that Christopher Columbus may have been on a more urgent
and important mission when he set sail across the Atlantic.
There is no proof that Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa in 1451, the son of Cominico and Susanna.
There is no guarantee at all that this Christopher Columbus, if he ever existed, was the one who crossed the
Atlantic in 1492.
In by passing a few years to come to 1476 let us take a look at our traditional Christopher Columbus as he
would have been twenty-five years of age in this year and he was supposed to have been an accomplished
mariner within the Mediterranean world. In 1476 he was part of a trading convoy of five vessels bound from
Genoa to Flanders and England. This little merchant fleet had hardly cleared the Straits of Gibraltar when it
was attacked by pirate vessels.
History does reveal that Christopher Columbus found himself in the water, hanging on to a piece of ship
wreckage, and he swims some six miles to the coast of Portugal.
Lucky for us he made it. Christopher emerged as the man who dragged himself ashore on the Portuguese
beach. It was at this point that his life became documented and rose to fame in Portugal and Spain. When he
reached the beach, he became the Christopher Columbus that we have all learned of in our history books.
After his rise to fame he started telling of his birth in Genoese, his boyhood, youth and maritime experiences.
In later years his son's Diego and Fernando wrote a book about their father, but Christopher only told them to
write what he wanted the world to know about the created Christopher Columbus.
In all the information on Columbus there is but one brief mention of Genoa and nothing suggesting that he
was
born there. Further, in Genoa itself there is no record of Christopher Columbus the mariner.
Who was the man who dragged himself ashore on the Portuguese beach in September of 1476? History does
not know.
Understandable obscurity is deepened by the name of the pirate who attacked this merchant fleet. He was a
fairly well known swashbuckler of the era and went by the name Coullon. Coullon is the French analog for
Columbus, and both mean "Dove."
In short, the Columbus of Genoa was pirated by a Columbus of France and only one man swam ashore to
make history. Was this man our traditional Columbus of Genoa, or was he the Columbus who was a French
pirate and master navigator on the Atlantic, and man of proven nerve and daring?
The French pirate disappeared completely from the stage of history in September 1476, and Christopher Columbus "of Genoa" makes his entrance at the same time.
Columbus was hired by Rene' d'Anjou, in the year 1472, to sail to Tunis and capture the Aragonese Galleass,
the Ferrandina. That is, Columbus was hired to pirate this vessel in the struggle between the Angevins and the
Aragonese for the control of Naples. Before 1472, our traditional Columbus of history had never claimed to
have been master of a vessel. This piracy, then, was Columbus's First claimed voyage as a full captain. Would
an obscure merchant captain be commissioned to do a job of piracy on his very first voyage as sole master of a
vessel? A king like Ren' d'Anjou who was a redoubtable and knowledgeable fighting man himself would have
entrusted such a mission to someone experienced in the task at hand, piracy. Then, is it not more likely that
French Rene' d'Anjou would have favored an established French pirate than a Genoese?
In 1473, Columbus made a voyage to Chios, one of the Aegean Islands. Chios was a garrison of the Knights
of St. John of Jerusalem, that "brother-Order" of knighthood created by the de Bouillon dynasty along with the Templars. It is also a fact that, according to the story of the Holy Grail, Anjou was a center where some of the
Holy Blood settled immediately after evacuation from Arthur's Britain. The secret of the Holy Grail was
preserved in Anjou as in very few other places.
Columbus also made a voyage in 1473 to an outpost of the Knights of St. John, and the previous year had
pirated a ship on behalf of Rene' d'Anjou. Both incidents are at least associated with the complexities of the
Holy Grail story. Both seem anomalous within the context of the traditional story of Christopher Columbus.
Was the Christopher Columbus "of Genoa" a new alias created for a daring French pirate who was chosen to
undertake a desperate and complicated mission? Is the Columbus of Genoa a total myth for all practical
purposes?
The Holy Grail was supposedly spirited out of doomed Montsegur two days before the surrender by four
chosen knights, in 1244. Did the Holy Blood survive the Albigensian Crusade? Were operatives working on
behalf of the survivors 230 years later? Was Columbus such an operative?
It has been discovered that there was a family named Columbus did settle in the French town of Calvi and left significantly more documentation of their existence than the Columbus's of Genoa. And there is more documentation about the French pirate Columbus than about our Genoese Columbus.
Why did he undertake the 1492 voyage across the Atlantic? It is hinted, that he was commissioned to find a refuge for Jews, Moors and Cathar heretics who were all associated with what might be called the "Holy Grail Dynasty".
As a master mariner, Columbus above all men would not have undertaken such a voyage, even for a noble cause, without knowing that there was land within reach of European caravels of the time.
It has been discovered that there was a family named Columbus did settle in the French town of Calvi and left significantly more documentation of their existence than the Columbus's of Genoa. And there is more documentation about the French pirate Columbus than about our Genoese Columbus.
Why did he undertake the 1492 voyage across the Atlantic? It is hinted, that he was commissioned to find a refuge for Jews, Moors and Cathar heretics who were all associated with what might be called the "Holy Grail Dynasty".
As a master mariner, Columbus above all men would not have undertaken such a voyage, even for a noble cause, without knowing that there was land within reach of European caravels of the time.
Columbus must have known for certain that there was land to the west, that it was within the reach of the ships
of his day, and he must have known as well as any other expert of his day that this land could not be the Indies or Asia. But this new western land which could not be Asia could be a haven for religious refugees if only
Columbus were successful in extracting certain concessions from Spain.
Columbus partly countered objections to his truly impossible project by saying that he "might discover some very beneficial island or continent about 750 leagues to the west" where the ships could re-provision in order to continue the voyage to "Asia." Columbus discovered precisely this, and precisely that distance westward. Is that a happy coincidence, or did he know that some vast unknown land lay that distance away from Iberia? Legal documents suggest strongly that he knew about this unknown land. In the agreements signed on April 17th, 1492, (The Capitulo) and on April 30th, 1492, (The Titulo) the strange fact is that more attention is given to the rulership and jurisdiction of problematical lands that might be discovered en route than to a division of spoils from wealthy Asia. It was crucial for Columbus to extract a guarantee of his own rulership and jurisdiction over any new lands discovered before reaching "Asia" if he knew it was there and needed to control it for an urgent reason.
Because so many facts have been swept under the carpet of history that it has become unsightly with lumps, even a scholar is compelled to admit that nothing is quite so straightforward as it seemed about Columbus. It is even conceded that Columbus very possibly came from a Jewish family.
Revelations of this sort, even partly endorsed by some may seem like more than enough shock for the average reader to absorb about someone so familiar. Columbus may have been Jewish? At the same time, Jewish readers can accept that easily and with satisfaction, and may not be inclined to go any further: "Of course, it's only right that someone as famous as Columbus was Jewish! We knew it all along!"
For the non-Jewish and Jewish-Parisian readers alike, there are yet more curious facts and mysterious associations swirling around the life of Columbus.
Columbus was part of a noble conspiracy to discover a haven for religious refugees of the heretical "Holy Grail Dynasty" of belief. And, whereas it is true that some of these heretics came originally from a Jewish background, others and the majority of them seem to have come from Cathar "Christian" and Islamic backgrounds. This "Grail Religion" was a body of supposed fact and associated beliefs and loyalties which could truly convert someone from previous orthodoxy of one of the three great Western religions; it did not mirror the polite farce of "converses" to Spanish style Roman Catholicism that some Jews and Muslims professed openly while secretly practicing another faith.
Since it is known that some of the Grail Dynasty heretics came originally from Jewish backgrounds, there would not be cause for surprise if Columbus happened to come from a Jewish background too. But that does not necessarily mean that he was a Jew any longer in any meaningful, modern or orthodox sense, anymore than he was the good Roman Catholic he professed to be. He had come into contact with a complex but very plausible body of fact and traditional lore that compelled him to transcend his original Jewish, Christian or Islamic parochialism in more universal and cosmopolitan view of human development and human destiny. He may well have represented a neo-Catharism similar to the contemporary "Jews for Jesus" movement which has caused so much consternation within the modern North American Jewish community.
By 1479 Columbus was back in Portugal working as a Lisbon bookseller and map-maker. In that same year he married Dona Felipa Perestrello Moniz, and this must stand as yet another anomalous fact in Columbus's life.
Columbus partly countered objections to his truly impossible project by saying that he "might discover some very beneficial island or continent about 750 leagues to the west" where the ships could re-provision in order to continue the voyage to "Asia." Columbus discovered precisely this, and precisely that distance westward. Is that a happy coincidence, or did he know that some vast unknown land lay that distance away from Iberia? Legal documents suggest strongly that he knew about this unknown land. In the agreements signed on April 17th, 1492, (The Capitulo) and on April 30th, 1492, (The Titulo) the strange fact is that more attention is given to the rulership and jurisdiction of problematical lands that might be discovered en route than to a division of spoils from wealthy Asia. It was crucial for Columbus to extract a guarantee of his own rulership and jurisdiction over any new lands discovered before reaching "Asia" if he knew it was there and needed to control it for an urgent reason.
Because so many facts have been swept under the carpet of history that it has become unsightly with lumps, even a scholar is compelled to admit that nothing is quite so straightforward as it seemed about Columbus. It is even conceded that Columbus very possibly came from a Jewish family.
Revelations of this sort, even partly endorsed by some may seem like more than enough shock for the average reader to absorb about someone so familiar. Columbus may have been Jewish? At the same time, Jewish readers can accept that easily and with satisfaction, and may not be inclined to go any further: "Of course, it's only right that someone as famous as Columbus was Jewish! We knew it all along!"
For the non-Jewish and Jewish-Parisian readers alike, there are yet more curious facts and mysterious associations swirling around the life of Columbus.
Columbus was part of a noble conspiracy to discover a haven for religious refugees of the heretical "Holy Grail Dynasty" of belief. And, whereas it is true that some of these heretics came originally from a Jewish background, others and the majority of them seem to have come from Cathar "Christian" and Islamic backgrounds. This "Grail Religion" was a body of supposed fact and associated beliefs and loyalties which could truly convert someone from previous orthodoxy of one of the three great Western religions; it did not mirror the polite farce of "converses" to Spanish style Roman Catholicism that some Jews and Muslims professed openly while secretly practicing another faith.
Since it is known that some of the Grail Dynasty heretics came originally from Jewish backgrounds, there would not be cause for surprise if Columbus happened to come from a Jewish background too. But that does not necessarily mean that he was a Jew any longer in any meaningful, modern or orthodox sense, anymore than he was the good Roman Catholic he professed to be. He had come into contact with a complex but very plausible body of fact and traditional lore that compelled him to transcend his original Jewish, Christian or Islamic parochialism in more universal and cosmopolitan view of human development and human destiny. He may well have represented a neo-Catharism similar to the contemporary "Jews for Jesus" movement which has caused so much consternation within the modern North American Jewish community.
By 1479 Columbus was back in Portugal working as a Lisbon bookseller and map-maker. In that same year he married Dona Felipa Perestrello Moniz, and this must stand as yet another anomalous fact in Columbus's life.
This girl was not a nobility in Portuguese society, but a member of what might be termed the middle-rank
nobility. Her father, a decade in his grave in 1479, had been Perestrello, one of the "re-discoverers" of the
Madeira Islands who had been made governor of Porto Santo.
Scarcely two years before, Columbus had come ashore supposedly destitute and, in any case, claiming no noble title. One cannot really expect that he and Bartolome made so much money in the book selling and map-making business, or that Columbus made so much money by shipping out on trading vessels, that their wealth could overcome their lack of social status. Portuguese of the 15th century were no less obsessed with lineage and nobility than other Europeans. How, then, could a presumably poor or. at best, "middle class" Benoese castaway manage to marry into the Perestrello aristocracy so quickly or at all?
Columbus at least possessed a regal appearance. He was of greater than average height, well built, with pale blue eyes and blond hair and an aquiline nose. His complexion is not what we normally expect of Mediterranean Jews, or Sephardic Jews, who came into Liberia from Palestine during the Diaspora. Some people said that Columbus's hair, blond in his youth, had a distinct reddish tinge.
If appearance means anything at all, the description of Columbus at least suggests a Celtic or Nordic genetic heritage, not a south European one.
In recalling your attention to the fact that the Cathars were defeated, their parfaits tortured and burned alive. The Holy Grail itself was taken to safety by four knights just two days before the Stronghold of Montsegur surrendered. If the Holy Grail as being a bloodline descended from Jesus, this means, that one or more children representing the most direct descent from Jesus were evacuated from Montsegur and taken to some place of relative safety.
If the bloodline survived, according to tradition, the Templars were sworn to defend it above all else. Many Templars participated in the defense of Province during the 35-year Albigensian Crusade, and although many died at Montsegur, they still retained a European organization of great military strength and equal wealth. No combination of monarchies.
The blow fell on October 13, 1307. when King Philippe IV of France ordered simultaneous raids on all the Templar priories in his country. Hundreds of knights were captured, including the Grand Master of the Order. Jacques de Molay. They were all tortured, sometimes for months and years continually, in order to extract from them the secret of the Holy Grail and its whereabouts. The Grand Master. Jacques de Molay, was given special attention and suffered for years. It is said that none of the Templars revealed the desired information.
The Knights Templar, officially disbanded, dispersed all over Europe as hunted men. For the fighting men all over Europe, these refugee knights still commanded immense respect, and they were welcomed in many places and given sanctuary as heroes.
In some places, however, the Templars were welcomed and did not have to cloak themselves with too much secrecy. Portugal was such a place. The Knights Templar retained something of a cohesive organization there and merely changed their name to "The Order of the Knights of Christ." and they found royal support to which the Church could only turn a blind eye. First, King Alfonso IV of Portugal became the Grand master of the "new" Knights of Christ.
Scarcely two years before, Columbus had come ashore supposedly destitute and, in any case, claiming no noble title. One cannot really expect that he and Bartolome made so much money in the book selling and map-making business, or that Columbus made so much money by shipping out on trading vessels, that their wealth could overcome their lack of social status. Portuguese of the 15th century were no less obsessed with lineage and nobility than other Europeans. How, then, could a presumably poor or. at best, "middle class" Benoese castaway manage to marry into the Perestrello aristocracy so quickly or at all?
Columbus at least possessed a regal appearance. He was of greater than average height, well built, with pale blue eyes and blond hair and an aquiline nose. His complexion is not what we normally expect of Mediterranean Jews, or Sephardic Jews, who came into Liberia from Palestine during the Diaspora. Some people said that Columbus's hair, blond in his youth, had a distinct reddish tinge.
If appearance means anything at all, the description of Columbus at least suggests a Celtic or Nordic genetic heritage, not a south European one.
In recalling your attention to the fact that the Cathars were defeated, their parfaits tortured and burned alive. The Holy Grail itself was taken to safety by four knights just two days before the Stronghold of Montsegur surrendered. If the Holy Grail as being a bloodline descended from Jesus, this means, that one or more children representing the most direct descent from Jesus were evacuated from Montsegur and taken to some place of relative safety.
If the bloodline survived, according to tradition, the Templars were sworn to defend it above all else. Many Templars participated in the defense of Province during the 35-year Albigensian Crusade, and although many died at Montsegur, they still retained a European organization of great military strength and equal wealth. No combination of monarchies.
The blow fell on October 13, 1307. when King Philippe IV of France ordered simultaneous raids on all the Templar priories in his country. Hundreds of knights were captured, including the Grand Master of the Order. Jacques de Molay. They were all tortured, sometimes for months and years continually, in order to extract from them the secret of the Holy Grail and its whereabouts. The Grand Master. Jacques de Molay, was given special attention and suffered for years. It is said that none of the Templars revealed the desired information.
The Knights Templar, officially disbanded, dispersed all over Europe as hunted men. For the fighting men all over Europe, these refugee knights still commanded immense respect, and they were welcomed in many places and given sanctuary as heroes.
In some places, however, the Templars were welcomed and did not have to cloak themselves with too much secrecy. Portugal was such a place. The Knights Templar retained something of a cohesive organization there and merely changed their name to "The Order of the Knights of Christ." and they found royal support to which the Church could only turn a blind eye. First, King Alfonso IV of Portugal became the Grand master of the "new" Knights of Christ.
The destruction and dispersal of the Knights Templar had at least three direct and important repercussions in
Europe, of which the most visible and least important was an upsurge in "piracy." When King Philippe
ordered the dawn raids on October 13, 1307, the Templar fleet based at La Rochelle somehow got advance
warning. The entire fleet set sail, escaped Philippe's net, and has never been heard from since. This fleet very
possibly carried some of the Holy Blood to safety or, at least, that's a geographically reasonable speculation
since La Rochelle is a port on the extensive Garonne estuary, and the Garonne River wends its way deep into
the Pyrenees. If descendants of Jesus were evacuated from Montsegur in March of 1244 they probably hid in
numerous secret Pyrenees caverns for months or even years, and some troubadour poetry refers to this. True
safety meant being taken out of France eventually, and even out of Europe ultimately. The Garonne River was
the obvious route to reach the Templar fleet at La Rochelle. with a sanctuary at the town and fortress of
Angouleme which may have been used as a haven for two or three generations. So long as the Templars
remained a cohesive and independent Order, there was hope that the de Bouillon lineage could successfully
hide secretly in Europe and begin the process of recouping its fortunes. But with the dawn raids in 1307, and
the effective destruction of the Templar core, the only recourse was evacuation. So, the Templar fleet set sail a
few hours before the raids, and it is not irresponsible to suggest that at least some of these Templar vessels
carried "The Holy Grail" because guarding it was the task of the Templars.
Many different vessels were used as the Holy Blood's navy, to strike back at the hated Roman Catholic Church and the monarchies and countries loyal to it. An upsurge in European piracy begins from this time and the pattern of it suggests that many pirates were not mere freebooters who would attack anyone, but very curious "pirates" who confined their attentions to Vatican and loyal Catholic shipping. Later, of course, Captain Drake ("dragon" would elevate "piracy" to big business, but he preyed only upon Spanish-Catholic ships once the Inquisition had been established in the New World.
Everyone knows that the proper pirate flag is the "Jolly Roger," a black flag with the "Skull and crossbones" in white. What most people do not know, however, is that this same "skull and crossbones" is carved on many Templar and Freemason gravestones. It is nothing more or less than the old Templar "cross pattee" rendered in human skeletal material with the knobs of the leg bones being the "pattees" of the Templar cross. The message of the "skull and crossbones" is abundantly clear: a "neo-Templar" vow to oppose the Roman Catholic Church to the death, and thus the symbolism of human bones on both the flag and the Templar and Freemason gravestones.
The transatlantic navigation of both north and south was borne out in Columbus's 1492 voyage. Passage to America was both swift and pleasant, but the return trip to Europe was a nightmare to negotiate.
We can not begin to understand the truly daunting dilemma that confronted the conspiracy. Even though the Holy Grail underground possessed some ships and "pirate" captains to sail them, their resources were insufficient to colonize the new lands independently. Even if they did so. the secret would inevitably leak out because of increased transatlantic traffic. Their colonies would become prey for any and all European powers which wished to conquer them. The Grail Dynasty was beyond the pale of European society, and underground organization that was represented by no nation and protected by no law.
If the new lands were to be colonized, the discovery of them and claim to them must be the acknowledged work of some established European national state strong enough to support and defend its claim to the new territories. The catch was that all suitable European nation-states were officially Roman Catholic in terms of religion; and therefore officially enemies of the Grail dynasty.
Even if Columbus could extract a legal agreement form the target nation that nicely balanced greed and independence, the nation sponsoring the voyage would get the lion's share of the wealth that could be extracted from the new lands, while Columbus would demand hereditary powers of vice royalty and absolute governorship in the discovered territories. European monarchs would get the majority of the gold, but the conspiracy would secure a vast new world for the heretics and dissidents to colonize. Refer to the chapter on the "Virginia Company".
The risk to find the "New Jerusalem " had to be taken sometime in the late 15th century. The new lands across the Atlantic would be discovered anyway by expeditions of European nations. They would claim it as a matter of course and fall under the inevitable domination of the Roman Catholic Church automatically. Columbus, if he could only extract legal guarantees of governorship and practical politic control of the new lands, might prevent this. The underground Grail conspiracy entirely devoted to founding a New Jerusalem of tolerance for all faiths, then the late 15th century was the time to gamble on Columbus's project.
Meanwhile, any sympathy for the Templars and for any underground Grail Dynasty could be dangerous. Any obvious and provable association with Templar secrets and the Grail Dynasty would be dangerous.
Portugal could get away with African explorations and the Templar map that inspired them could be passed off as data derived from a Zanj captain. But duplicating this success with Columbus and the New World might seem too much of a good thing. It might well kindle the suspicions of the Inquisition. It would certainly excite the greed and envy of other European states. There would be nothing to prevent the Pope calling for a new Crusade, like the Albigensian one, and envious and much more power kingdoms than Portugal would be only too glad to participate.
Portugal's apparent apathy about its territories in Northeastern North America had another, and long-term, effect. Other European states felt more or less free to explore the area and eventually to plant colonies there; the English, the Dutch, the French and the Scottish. As history knows well, many of these earliest colonists were heretics and descendants fleeing from the Roman Catholic persecution. The "Pilgrims" of Massachusetts are just one example, but one of national importance to the United States. "New Holland" became a haven for Dutch Protestants. New France became a haven for Huguenots. Is all this a coincidence? In the 16th century, Portugal became a powerful nation rivaled in European affairs only by Spain. Portugal could have colonized and defended her North American possessions legally confirmed by the Treaty of Tordesillas and could have excluded the Dutch, English and French, just as Spain proved capable of excluding other European powers in central and South America on her side of the Line of Demarcation.
It is also possible that Portugal agreed not to assert any claims to this region because of a 14th-century agreement with the dispersed Templars and the Grail dynasty they guarded. Perhaps Portugal turned a blind eye toward this heretic's haven in return for the maps and geographic knowledge that catapulted Portugal into an age of wealth and empire. It is at least possible that the religious and political freedoms that North Americans value so highly today were made possible by a pact between King Alfonso IV of Portugal and Templars, and that these freedoms derive essentially form the Holy Grail.
Columbus found the time between 1485 and 1492 to have an affair with the Marquise de Moya, reputedly the most beautiful woman in Spain who was, indisputably, married to the richest man in Spain. There are the inevitable rumors also that Columbus had an affair with Isabella as well.
These affairs were tolerated, with suspicion, only because the people involved possessed the financial acumen that Spanish royalty needed and lacked. Columbus, aside from his imposing physique and rakish personality, must have possessed, as an "open secret," some claim to, or high-level association with, royalty of a caliber that the Spanish nobility and royalty of the era could not match. Otherwise, so many noble and wealthy women would have not dared to share a bed with him such that their relationships were known well enough to have come down.
to historians. There was only one lineage of royalty that could fit this pattern; the royalty of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The royalty of the Western World.
If we are truly dealing with an underground representing the most illustrious royalty of Europe, and the most critical threat to the Vatican, then "the best defense is a good offense". The Grail Dynasty yet survives and that Christopher Columbus not only serves it, but has powerful allies in high places all over Europe.
It is even possible that the Roman Catholic Church, and even the fanatics of its Inquisition, may have backed off in the face of Columbus's confidence with his choice of financial backers and mistresses. Columbus in Spain was serving notice that the Grail Dynasty was alive and well. It could not command the power to conform the Catholic Church in open conflict, but it was potent enough to scare the Vatican. In Columbus's time, offshoots of Catharism, more of less garbled, were again surfacing in the world. This would become known as the Protestants but later to be adulterated by the Catholic Church. This faith was emerging in northern France, Holland and Germany. Columbus may have been serving notice in Spain that he represented a formidable religious and politic group that the church had thought it had confidently destroyed during the Abigensian Crusade.
Columbus had to achieve two things to achieve safety for the Grail group: official claim to the new lands by a powerful maritime European power and legal guarantees of his family's actual vice regal governorship of the new lands. Until he had accomplished that, the potential "New Jerusalem" could not exist. Columbus had to wait for six more years to obtain the guarantees that he thought would protect the New World against incursions of the Inquisition.
Columbus met with Ferdinand and Isabella for the last and ultimately successful round of negotiations, in Santa Fe in an effort to acquire funds to support his quest for the search for the New Jerusalem.
He had many demands that he felt that had to be met in order for his quest to be successful for all of the Grail dynasty.
First, he wanted to be officially made a noble of Spain which would empower him to be call Don Cristobal Colon, and his heirs and successors forever were to have that title. Second, he was to be Admiral over all "islands and mainlands" that he might discover before reaching Asia, the same title to be held by his heirs and successors forever, which meant that he and his nominees would absolutely control all shipping to and from these hypothetical new lands. Third, he was to be Viceroy and governor General over all such lands, again powers to be hereditary or nominated bv Columbus's heirs and successors forever, and all officials of these new lands were to be appointed by the monarchs of Spain from a short list of three candidates submitted by Columbus and his heirs and successors; in short, Columbus and his heirs and nominees would absolutely control the government of any new lands forever. Fourth, he was to have the option of paying one-eight the costs of sending forth any ships to "his domain." and receiving one-eight of the profits. Fifth, he was to retain, tax free, one-tenth of all the precious metals, jewels, spices and other valuable products which any new lands might produce.
Columbus also asked the monarchs for several copies of a letter of credence confirming him as an official explorer representative of Spain. These letters were to have blank spaces so that Columbus could conveniently fill in the names of any Asiatic potentates he might encounter. He asked also for a Latin passport entitling him to cross the ocean to the region of India and at the same time empowering him to take possession of. and govern, any islands and mainlands he might discover on the way as per the five demands out lined above.
It is quite evident from all this that Columbus was much more concerned about the islands and mainlands he mighty reach en route to Asia than about what he would get out of wealthy Asia itself. What Columbus was really asking was nothing less than to be king of any new lands he might discover. These demands could make him and his dynasty more powerful than Aragon and Castile, more powerful than Ferdinand and Isabella. Columbus was not granted these articles and clauses that he demanded immediately by the monarchs. Three months or more were to elapse before the documents were actually signed, what urgent negotiations went on during this time no one really knows.
On April 17, 1492, the monarchs signed the so-called Capitulations with Christopher Columbus, the all important document granting his demands. Is this not a very strange title for an agreement between monarchs and a humble Genoses skipper?
On April 30, 1492. Ferdinand and Isabella signed another document, the Titulo, which actually empowered Columbus with all the titles and rights he had demanded in return for what he had discovered. In the view of conventional history, the past perfect tense was used so that Ferdinand and Isabella could repudiate the deal if Columbus failed, but the past tense may have been important to Columbus. It was the only way that the concessions would be legally iron clad when he found the new lands that, we have strongly suggested, he knew existed and knew that he could reach. The only other way of writing such a contract would have been for the monarchs to have promised to grant Columbus's demands upon his successful return. Royal promises have often proved notoriously worthless. With the past tense wording of the Capitulations and the Titulo, however, Columbus had his demands legally wrapped up the instant he discovered any new lands.
Simply. Columbus got his demands, and sailed off and discovered islands and mainlands for the Grail Dynasty and that history is fairly common. History tells us that there was a title wave of immigrants that left Europe for the New World.
What happened after that is not common knowledge. Between 1493 about 1520, the identity of Columbus's discoveries remained in reasonable doubt. These 27 years or so represent a kind of mini Dark Age in European and American history. In 1506. the Bishop of Puerto Rico complained to the monarchs and the Vatican that ships were bringing mostly Jews as colonists. Four years later, in 1510, the Bishop of Cuba made exactly the same complaint to the same authorities; the ships brought mostly Jews and he adds, secret heretics. Thee official royal census for 1545 noted that 25 percent of Mexico City's population were admitted and openly practicing Jews; and this figure did not include secret Jews, heretics, converses or secret Muslims. If this was truly the case, then the majority of Mexico City's population must have been non-Catholic. This seems to have been true because, in 1527, the estimate was that there were more Jews than Catholics in Mexico City.
Complaints of bishops and the other comments quoted in history refer mostly of Jews but also mention heretics and even Muslims. It is a minor mystery of history why Columbus, in preparation for his third voyage, in 1498, which was a mixed exploratory and colonizing expedition, requested and received three Arab speaking interpreters!
There can be little doubt that the majority of dissidents emigrating to escape the Inquisition were Jews. A great many unconverted Jews had lived in Moorish Spain enjoying religious toleration. Tens of thousands of known, practicing Jews had to get out of Spain, somehow, by August 3, 1492, or profess outwardly credible Roman Catholic orthodoxy until some opportunity to leave presented itself This large population of Jews from Moorish Spain doubtless greatly out numbered the surviving Cathar heretics of Jewish, Islamic and Christian origin. But that does not necessarily mean that the conspiratorial planning and negotiations which made the exodus of dissidents possible was primarily a Jewish achievement. The Conspiracy of which Columbus may have been a part had its origins in the Cathar heresy of the Pyrenees and had essentially been initiated by the fall of Montsegus in 1244. Although Jews were to become the dominant category of refugee fleeing Spain, the conspiracy itself was not primarily a Jewish one but a Cathar initiated one.
In August 3, 1402, the Jews were expelled from Spain; it did not prevent them from settling in Spanish territories. This may have been merely an oversight on the part of the Church because Spain at that time had no territory outside of Iberia. Columbus had not yet discovered it. Yet it also may have been a deliberate oversight and. one might say. the Catholic Church more less expected religious dissidents to colonize the New World once it had been discovered. But around 1550 the church woke up and changed its attitude. Spain exported the inquisition along with colonists, and the Inquisition immediately set about the extermination of all Jews and heretics who would not convert. The Inquisition of sorts is coming again; refer to the chapter on F.E.M.A.
Many dissidents converted and avoided the stake, but many refused and were burned alive. This happened in all the major cities of the New World. Some dissidents, however, rather than be burned or recant their faith, fled into the hinterland beyond the easy reach of the Inquisitors, and it is interesting to note that whatever skills these people had practiced before in Spain and Mexico, they reverted to their original ancient occupation. The Cathar Christians, Muslims originally from north Africa and Jews originally from Palestine had all be herdsman of cattle, horses and sheep. They used long poles to prod cattle in the desired direction, just as Berbers do today and as horsemen in France's "conargue" do today.
These mixed religious refugees from the transplanted New World Inquisition became cowpokes and started the cowboy tradition of northern Mexico and the southwest United States. The first known European cattlemen in what is now Texas was Don Luis de Carvajal de la Cueva, of the same Carvajal family that once helped finance Columbus's 1492 voyage. Don Luis started his Texas ranch in 1592 as a practicing and unrepentant Jew. Unfortunately for Don Luis and his family, Texas wasn't far enough from the Inquisition. Almost all of the Carvajals were tracked down and burned alive in Mexico City between 1594 and 1597.
All of the refugee cowpokes, and there were hundreds of Jewish and heretic and even Muslim families of them, did not perish in the flames of the Inquisition. Many, or even most, went further afield than Don Luis and found safety; to extreme northern Mexico, and especially into Arizona. California. Colorado and elsewhere. Eventually, they adopted the American Indian lariat, which was more efficient than their tradition poles, and they seem to have gradually become more or less orthodox Catholics. But they were still called cowpokes when newcomers from the Northeast English colonies trickled southwest to adopt the trade and the name lingered even when now independent Americans settled the west.
The ancient Berber-Islamic, Jewish and Cathar heritage survives to this day, although it is well disguised. The cowboy's musical instrument is the guitar, a word deriving from Al Qu Tar, Arabic for a kind of lute. Although the lyrics of traditional cowboy songs gradually changed to English, the melodies of some have survived for over a thousand years, were originally Moorish or Jewish or Provencal tunes from the Pyrenees. A rodeo is an exhibition of herdsman skills and one event is a demonstration of virtuosos horsemanship around a complicated course.
The Cathar heretics and hunted Jews would have shared a Columbus like view of the new lands. They sought a home where they realized that they would be few in number among native people with whom they must co-exist. They did not come for conquest and gold so that they could return to Spain and buy noble titles, which was the motivation of the worst conquistador exploiters. The cathar heretics and Jews could not return to Spain at all. Although participants of beneficiaries of the Columbus conspiracy may indeed have represented the majority of immigrants in the early days of New World colonization. They came as colonists, not as conquerors.
Very few recanted their faith, and they were burned for it, but many of them fled into the unknown and unexplored interior of North America, and again colonization and co-existence was both their motive and their necessity. They did not push into the hinterland to conquer the people already there. On the contrary, as a mere sprinkling of Europeans among more numerous Indians, they established ranches among Apaches, Comanche, Payute and other native tribes and nations, and, somehow, for roughly 250-300 years this scattered population of European Jews and heretics manage to survive among the very same Indians who had to be wiped out in fierce wars when the U.S. Cavalry came to conquer in the 1800's.
Columbus seems to have been part of an ancient conspiracy whose long term goal is the progress and humanization of humanity. Although his key to the barrier of the Ocean Sea was snatched from Columbus's hand so that his New Jerusalem perished in the flames of the Inquisition five hundred years ago, it was but a temporary defeat in the continuing conflict. His great contribution was, and is that this key has taken the conspiracy momentous secret struggle to every shore. The contest is not against any specific church. It is essentially only against ignorance and intolerance. If the chance for a New Jerusalem perished in Columbus's time in the tropical New World that he discovered, it did not quite perish in other places. The seeds of the New Jerusalem are alive and well in this country still.
next
THE LOST FRENCH DAUPHIN
Many different vessels were used as the Holy Blood's navy, to strike back at the hated Roman Catholic Church and the monarchies and countries loyal to it. An upsurge in European piracy begins from this time and the pattern of it suggests that many pirates were not mere freebooters who would attack anyone, but very curious "pirates" who confined their attentions to Vatican and loyal Catholic shipping. Later, of course, Captain Drake ("dragon" would elevate "piracy" to big business, but he preyed only upon Spanish-Catholic ships once the Inquisition had been established in the New World.
Everyone knows that the proper pirate flag is the "Jolly Roger," a black flag with the "Skull and crossbones" in white. What most people do not know, however, is that this same "skull and crossbones" is carved on many Templar and Freemason gravestones. It is nothing more or less than the old Templar "cross pattee" rendered in human skeletal material with the knobs of the leg bones being the "pattees" of the Templar cross. The message of the "skull and crossbones" is abundantly clear: a "neo-Templar" vow to oppose the Roman Catholic Church to the death, and thus the symbolism of human bones on both the flag and the Templar and Freemason gravestones.
6
IN SEARCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM
THE NEW WORLD
Assuming for the moment that Columbus was part of a great conspiracy to create not just a mere refuge across
the Atlantic but an entire "New World" free of religious intolerance, an "New Jerusalem", we can then begin
to
appreciate the complexity of the conspiracy's problems.The transatlantic navigation of both north and south was borne out in Columbus's 1492 voyage. Passage to America was both swift and pleasant, but the return trip to Europe was a nightmare to negotiate.
We can not begin to understand the truly daunting dilemma that confronted the conspiracy. Even though the Holy Grail underground possessed some ships and "pirate" captains to sail them, their resources were insufficient to colonize the new lands independently. Even if they did so. the secret would inevitably leak out because of increased transatlantic traffic. Their colonies would become prey for any and all European powers which wished to conquer them. The Grail Dynasty was beyond the pale of European society, and underground organization that was represented by no nation and protected by no law.
If the new lands were to be colonized, the discovery of them and claim to them must be the acknowledged work of some established European national state strong enough to support and defend its claim to the new territories. The catch was that all suitable European nation-states were officially Roman Catholic in terms of religion; and therefore officially enemies of the Grail dynasty.
Even if Columbus could extract a legal agreement form the target nation that nicely balanced greed and independence, the nation sponsoring the voyage would get the lion's share of the wealth that could be extracted from the new lands, while Columbus would demand hereditary powers of vice royalty and absolute governorship in the discovered territories. European monarchs would get the majority of the gold, but the conspiracy would secure a vast new world for the heretics and dissidents to colonize. Refer to the chapter on the "Virginia Company".
The risk to find the "New Jerusalem " had to be taken sometime in the late 15th century. The new lands across the Atlantic would be discovered anyway by expeditions of European nations. They would claim it as a matter of course and fall under the inevitable domination of the Roman Catholic Church automatically. Columbus, if he could only extract legal guarantees of governorship and practical politic control of the new lands, might prevent this. The underground Grail conspiracy entirely devoted to founding a New Jerusalem of tolerance for all faiths, then the late 15th century was the time to gamble on Columbus's project.
Meanwhile, any sympathy for the Templars and for any underground Grail Dynasty could be dangerous. Any obvious and provable association with Templar secrets and the Grail Dynasty would be dangerous.
Portugal could get away with African explorations and the Templar map that inspired them could be passed off as data derived from a Zanj captain. But duplicating this success with Columbus and the New World might seem too much of a good thing. It might well kindle the suspicions of the Inquisition. It would certainly excite the greed and envy of other European states. There would be nothing to prevent the Pope calling for a new Crusade, like the Albigensian one, and envious and much more power kingdoms than Portugal would be only too glad to participate.
Portugal's apparent apathy about its territories in Northeastern North America had another, and long-term, effect. Other European states felt more or less free to explore the area and eventually to plant colonies there; the English, the Dutch, the French and the Scottish. As history knows well, many of these earliest colonists were heretics and descendants fleeing from the Roman Catholic persecution. The "Pilgrims" of Massachusetts are just one example, but one of national importance to the United States. "New Holland" became a haven for Dutch Protestants. New France became a haven for Huguenots. Is all this a coincidence? In the 16th century, Portugal became a powerful nation rivaled in European affairs only by Spain. Portugal could have colonized and defended her North American possessions legally confirmed by the Treaty of Tordesillas and could have excluded the Dutch, English and French, just as Spain proved capable of excluding other European powers in central and South America on her side of the Line of Demarcation.
It is also possible that Portugal agreed not to assert any claims to this region because of a 14th-century agreement with the dispersed Templars and the Grail dynasty they guarded. Perhaps Portugal turned a blind eye toward this heretic's haven in return for the maps and geographic knowledge that catapulted Portugal into an age of wealth and empire. It is at least possible that the religious and political freedoms that North Americans value so highly today were made possible by a pact between King Alfonso IV of Portugal and Templars, and that these freedoms derive essentially form the Holy Grail.
Columbus found the time between 1485 and 1492 to have an affair with the Marquise de Moya, reputedly the most beautiful woman in Spain who was, indisputably, married to the richest man in Spain. There are the inevitable rumors also that Columbus had an affair with Isabella as well.
These affairs were tolerated, with suspicion, only because the people involved possessed the financial acumen that Spanish royalty needed and lacked. Columbus, aside from his imposing physique and rakish personality, must have possessed, as an "open secret," some claim to, or high-level association with, royalty of a caliber that the Spanish nobility and royalty of the era could not match. Otherwise, so many noble and wealthy women would have not dared to share a bed with him such that their relationships were known well enough to have come down.
to historians. There was only one lineage of royalty that could fit this pattern; the royalty of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The royalty of the Western World.
If we are truly dealing with an underground representing the most illustrious royalty of Europe, and the most critical threat to the Vatican, then "the best defense is a good offense". The Grail Dynasty yet survives and that Christopher Columbus not only serves it, but has powerful allies in high places all over Europe.
It is even possible that the Roman Catholic Church, and even the fanatics of its Inquisition, may have backed off in the face of Columbus's confidence with his choice of financial backers and mistresses. Columbus in Spain was serving notice that the Grail Dynasty was alive and well. It could not command the power to conform the Catholic Church in open conflict, but it was potent enough to scare the Vatican. In Columbus's time, offshoots of Catharism, more of less garbled, were again surfacing in the world. This would become known as the Protestants but later to be adulterated by the Catholic Church. This faith was emerging in northern France, Holland and Germany. Columbus may have been serving notice in Spain that he represented a formidable religious and politic group that the church had thought it had confidently destroyed during the Abigensian Crusade.
Columbus had to achieve two things to achieve safety for the Grail group: official claim to the new lands by a powerful maritime European power and legal guarantees of his family's actual vice regal governorship of the new lands. Until he had accomplished that, the potential "New Jerusalem" could not exist. Columbus had to wait for six more years to obtain the guarantees that he thought would protect the New World against incursions of the Inquisition.
Columbus met with Ferdinand and Isabella for the last and ultimately successful round of negotiations, in Santa Fe in an effort to acquire funds to support his quest for the search for the New Jerusalem.
He had many demands that he felt that had to be met in order for his quest to be successful for all of the Grail dynasty.
First, he wanted to be officially made a noble of Spain which would empower him to be call Don Cristobal Colon, and his heirs and successors forever were to have that title. Second, he was to be Admiral over all "islands and mainlands" that he might discover before reaching Asia, the same title to be held by his heirs and successors forever, which meant that he and his nominees would absolutely control all shipping to and from these hypothetical new lands. Third, he was to be Viceroy and governor General over all such lands, again powers to be hereditary or nominated bv Columbus's heirs and successors forever, and all officials of these new lands were to be appointed by the monarchs of Spain from a short list of three candidates submitted by Columbus and his heirs and successors; in short, Columbus and his heirs and nominees would absolutely control the government of any new lands forever. Fourth, he was to have the option of paying one-eight the costs of sending forth any ships to "his domain." and receiving one-eight of the profits. Fifth, he was to retain, tax free, one-tenth of all the precious metals, jewels, spices and other valuable products which any new lands might produce.
Columbus also asked the monarchs for several copies of a letter of credence confirming him as an official explorer representative of Spain. These letters were to have blank spaces so that Columbus could conveniently fill in the names of any Asiatic potentates he might encounter. He asked also for a Latin passport entitling him to cross the ocean to the region of India and at the same time empowering him to take possession of. and govern, any islands and mainlands he might discover on the way as per the five demands out lined above.
It is quite evident from all this that Columbus was much more concerned about the islands and mainlands he mighty reach en route to Asia than about what he would get out of wealthy Asia itself. What Columbus was really asking was nothing less than to be king of any new lands he might discover. These demands could make him and his dynasty more powerful than Aragon and Castile, more powerful than Ferdinand and Isabella. Columbus was not granted these articles and clauses that he demanded immediately by the monarchs. Three months or more were to elapse before the documents were actually signed, what urgent negotiations went on during this time no one really knows.
On April 17, 1492, the monarchs signed the so-called Capitulations with Christopher Columbus, the all important document granting his demands. Is this not a very strange title for an agreement between monarchs and a humble Genoses skipper?
On April 30, 1492. Ferdinand and Isabella signed another document, the Titulo, which actually empowered Columbus with all the titles and rights he had demanded in return for what he had discovered. In the view of conventional history, the past perfect tense was used so that Ferdinand and Isabella could repudiate the deal if Columbus failed, but the past tense may have been important to Columbus. It was the only way that the concessions would be legally iron clad when he found the new lands that, we have strongly suggested, he knew existed and knew that he could reach. The only other way of writing such a contract would have been for the monarchs to have promised to grant Columbus's demands upon his successful return. Royal promises have often proved notoriously worthless. With the past tense wording of the Capitulations and the Titulo, however, Columbus had his demands legally wrapped up the instant he discovered any new lands.
Simply. Columbus got his demands, and sailed off and discovered islands and mainlands for the Grail Dynasty and that history is fairly common. History tells us that there was a title wave of immigrants that left Europe for the New World.
What happened after that is not common knowledge. Between 1493 about 1520, the identity of Columbus's discoveries remained in reasonable doubt. These 27 years or so represent a kind of mini Dark Age in European and American history. In 1506. the Bishop of Puerto Rico complained to the monarchs and the Vatican that ships were bringing mostly Jews as colonists. Four years later, in 1510, the Bishop of Cuba made exactly the same complaint to the same authorities; the ships brought mostly Jews and he adds, secret heretics. Thee official royal census for 1545 noted that 25 percent of Mexico City's population were admitted and openly practicing Jews; and this figure did not include secret Jews, heretics, converses or secret Muslims. If this was truly the case, then the majority of Mexico City's population must have been non-Catholic. This seems to have been true because, in 1527, the estimate was that there were more Jews than Catholics in Mexico City.
Complaints of bishops and the other comments quoted in history refer mostly of Jews but also mention heretics and even Muslims. It is a minor mystery of history why Columbus, in preparation for his third voyage, in 1498, which was a mixed exploratory and colonizing expedition, requested and received three Arab speaking interpreters!
There can be little doubt that the majority of dissidents emigrating to escape the Inquisition were Jews. A great many unconverted Jews had lived in Moorish Spain enjoying religious toleration. Tens of thousands of known, practicing Jews had to get out of Spain, somehow, by August 3, 1492, or profess outwardly credible Roman Catholic orthodoxy until some opportunity to leave presented itself This large population of Jews from Moorish Spain doubtless greatly out numbered the surviving Cathar heretics of Jewish, Islamic and Christian origin. But that does not necessarily mean that the conspiratorial planning and negotiations which made the exodus of dissidents possible was primarily a Jewish achievement. The Conspiracy of which Columbus may have been a part had its origins in the Cathar heresy of the Pyrenees and had essentially been initiated by the fall of Montsegus in 1244. Although Jews were to become the dominant category of refugee fleeing Spain, the conspiracy itself was not primarily a Jewish one but a Cathar initiated one.
In August 3, 1402, the Jews were expelled from Spain; it did not prevent them from settling in Spanish territories. This may have been merely an oversight on the part of the Church because Spain at that time had no territory outside of Iberia. Columbus had not yet discovered it. Yet it also may have been a deliberate oversight and. one might say. the Catholic Church more less expected religious dissidents to colonize the New World once it had been discovered. But around 1550 the church woke up and changed its attitude. Spain exported the inquisition along with colonists, and the Inquisition immediately set about the extermination of all Jews and heretics who would not convert. The Inquisition of sorts is coming again; refer to the chapter on F.E.M.A.
Many dissidents converted and avoided the stake, but many refused and were burned alive. This happened in all the major cities of the New World. Some dissidents, however, rather than be burned or recant their faith, fled into the hinterland beyond the easy reach of the Inquisitors, and it is interesting to note that whatever skills these people had practiced before in Spain and Mexico, they reverted to their original ancient occupation. The Cathar Christians, Muslims originally from north Africa and Jews originally from Palestine had all be herdsman of cattle, horses and sheep. They used long poles to prod cattle in the desired direction, just as Berbers do today and as horsemen in France's "conargue" do today.
These mixed religious refugees from the transplanted New World Inquisition became cowpokes and started the cowboy tradition of northern Mexico and the southwest United States. The first known European cattlemen in what is now Texas was Don Luis de Carvajal de la Cueva, of the same Carvajal family that once helped finance Columbus's 1492 voyage. Don Luis started his Texas ranch in 1592 as a practicing and unrepentant Jew. Unfortunately for Don Luis and his family, Texas wasn't far enough from the Inquisition. Almost all of the Carvajals were tracked down and burned alive in Mexico City between 1594 and 1597.
All of the refugee cowpokes, and there were hundreds of Jewish and heretic and even Muslim families of them, did not perish in the flames of the Inquisition. Many, or even most, went further afield than Don Luis and found safety; to extreme northern Mexico, and especially into Arizona. California. Colorado and elsewhere. Eventually, they adopted the American Indian lariat, which was more efficient than their tradition poles, and they seem to have gradually become more or less orthodox Catholics. But they were still called cowpokes when newcomers from the Northeast English colonies trickled southwest to adopt the trade and the name lingered even when now independent Americans settled the west.
The ancient Berber-Islamic, Jewish and Cathar heritage survives to this day, although it is well disguised. The cowboy's musical instrument is the guitar, a word deriving from Al Qu Tar, Arabic for a kind of lute. Although the lyrics of traditional cowboy songs gradually changed to English, the melodies of some have survived for over a thousand years, were originally Moorish or Jewish or Provencal tunes from the Pyrenees. A rodeo is an exhibition of herdsman skills and one event is a demonstration of virtuosos horsemanship around a complicated course.
The Cathar heretics and hunted Jews would have shared a Columbus like view of the new lands. They sought a home where they realized that they would be few in number among native people with whom they must co-exist. They did not come for conquest and gold so that they could return to Spain and buy noble titles, which was the motivation of the worst conquistador exploiters. The cathar heretics and Jews could not return to Spain at all. Although participants of beneficiaries of the Columbus conspiracy may indeed have represented the majority of immigrants in the early days of New World colonization. They came as colonists, not as conquerors.
Very few recanted their faith, and they were burned for it, but many of them fled into the unknown and unexplored interior of North America, and again colonization and co-existence was both their motive and their necessity. They did not push into the hinterland to conquer the people already there. On the contrary, as a mere sprinkling of Europeans among more numerous Indians, they established ranches among Apaches, Comanche, Payute and other native tribes and nations, and, somehow, for roughly 250-300 years this scattered population of European Jews and heretics manage to survive among the very same Indians who had to be wiped out in fierce wars when the U.S. Cavalry came to conquer in the 1800's.
Columbus seems to have been part of an ancient conspiracy whose long term goal is the progress and humanization of humanity. Although his key to the barrier of the Ocean Sea was snatched from Columbus's hand so that his New Jerusalem perished in the flames of the Inquisition five hundred years ago, it was but a temporary defeat in the continuing conflict. His great contribution was, and is that this key has taken the conspiracy momentous secret struggle to every shore. The contest is not against any specific church. It is essentially only against ignorance and intolerance. If the chance for a New Jerusalem perished in Columbus's time in the tropical New World that he discovered, it did not quite perish in other places. The seeds of the New Jerusalem are alive and well in this country still.
next
THE LOST FRENCH DAUPHIN
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