Posted by: Eddie Lark, Paladin

This article is an excerpt from the Twenty First Century Grail: The Quest for a Legend, by Andrew Collins, Virgin Books, 2004 ISBN 1 85227 1396.

John De Stoke's Initiation

It concerns the confession of one John de Stoke, not a Templar knight but a Templar priest who would attend to the spiritual needs of the brother knights and perform mass each day. On 1 July 1311 he made a formal statement concerning his two formal receptions into the Order. The first of them had taken place eighteen years previously, and was orthodox in nature. Yet a year later, thus 1294, he underwent a second, more secretive initiation at the preceptory of 'Garewy', in the diocese of Hereford, presided over by the head of the Order, Jacqeus de Molay (c.1244-1314), and Master of the Temple John de Stokes claimed that, during this ceremony, a crucifix was placed down before him and he was asked by de Molay what it signified, to which he responded: ‘Jesus Christ who had suffered for the redemption of the human race.” Not the answer that the Master of the Temple had expected, for he responded with the following words: “You speak badly, and you are in error; for he was the son of a certain woman, and since he said that he was the Son of God, he was crucified.”

Jacques de Molay next asked de Stoke to deny Christ, and when he did not, the priest was allegedly threatened with prison. Two brother knights then held their swords menacingly towards de Stokes, forcing him to make the denial. De Stoke was told by de Molay that he should ‘honor your devotions to the great omnipotent God, who created heaven and earth, and not in the Crucifixion‘.

John de Stoke’s confession should be taken with a certain amount of caution, because it could have been taken under extreme torture, yet what he had to say seems of extraordinary significance, and has an air of truth about it.

A recent article in The Temple magazine, on Garway’s church of St Michael and Jacque de Molay's presence there at the reception into the second order of John de Stoke, makes some interesting observations about the place:

Surrounded by tall trees, hidden away, veiled in mystery, it gives a feeling that it is hiding something. . . Its importance can be understood because we know that the Last Grand Master of the Templars, Jacques de Molay, visited Garway preceptory in 1294. One of the few preceptories in England to receive the honour.

Heads in England

Adding to the weight that Garway might have possessed a head reliquary is the fact that during the trials of the English Templars, a Minorite friar came forward to affirm that there were idols worshipped by his brethren. Four of them were in the possession of preceptories in this country, ‘one in the sacristy of the Temple in London, another at Bristelham, a third at Brueria, and a fourth at some place beyond the Humber.

Such head reliquaries were unquestionably idols, or skulls, for it is recorded that they were worshipped in the Order’s chapters and congregations, and that each different province possessed one. In this instance, they were to be found at New Temple, Temple Bruer (Brueria), a major preceptory in Lincolnshire, a well as an unnamed preceptory in Yorkshire, where the Templars built several strategically important bases, and at ‘Bristelham’, which can only be a reference to Bristol. According to our reckoning, the one found at Garway was silver, twin-faced, with a beard on one face at least. Strangely enough, this description matches the report of a head witnessed by Guillaume de Arrablay, the French king’s almoner, when he received admission into the Order, presumably in the Paris Temple. It was carried before him and placed on the high altar, at which he was able to see that it was made of silver with ‘two faces, a terrible look, and a silver beard’.

Other knights described seeing very similar heads, some with single faces, others with even three faces, although whether they were moved around from preceptory to preceptory is not made clear.

The head used at Garway for the star ritual involving the seven knights was important to the whole Order, not just in England, but also in France.

So what become of it? Presumably the head never fell into the possession of Edward II or it would have been recorded in history. Perhaps the Inquisition got hold of it, and spirited it away to Rome?

. . . It is thought that it remained in England for a few years after the arrest if the English Templars, and was then taken out of the country under a cloak of secrecy. So where did it end up? As ridiculous as it might seem, it ended up at or very close to Rennes le Chateau.

The Roussillon-Aragon Templars

What is the likelihood that one of the idols of the Knights Templar, a head reliquary referred to as ‘Head of God’, left England shortly after the arest of the Templars of England and eventually found its way to this region of the globe? Well, every  likelihood, actually, for after its official endorsement at the Council of Troyes in 1128/9, the Order shifted its power base from Champagne to the Languedoc-Roussillon region of what is today southern France. From 1132 the region’s principal preceptory at Mas Deu served as the new order’s nerve centre, although not under the jurisdiction of the Templars of France, but under the protection of the Spanish kingdom of Aragon. Extensive properties and lands including numerous chateaux, farms, mills and vineyards were given to the Templars of Roussillon and Aragon by very rich benefactors, including the Count of Barcelona. The purpose of this accumulation of wealth was apparently in order for the Templars to carve out their own independent state, a plan conceived as early as 1143. As one commentator on the subject has written:

"From then on, the Templars conceived a great project: that of creating a vast independent state in the Midi [i.e.  the south]. This project they never abandoned [for it was pursued by] . . . the Templars of the Roussillon and Aragon. This extraordinary and secret enterprise was directed at the end of the 13th century by the commanderie of Mas Deu."

Being so far away from Paris, the seat of the French king, the Templars of Roussillon-Aragon rarely came under any kind of official scrutiny and were virtually a law unto themselves. In fact, the preceptor of Mas Deu became so powerful that he acknowledged both the King of Aragon and the sovereign Count of Barcelona as equals. Indeed, under Jacques I, King of Aragon, the Templars were to carve out a territory extending from Montpelier in the north to Barcelona in the south, and this included extensive lands and properties on the Baleric island of Majorca, which was also under the sovereignty of  Aragon.

In the middle of the thirteenth century the Knights Templars of Roussillon-Aragon, under the authority of Mas Deu, sought out and gained possession of properties and lands at Le Bezu, 6 kilometers south southeast of Rennes le Chateau. Here in a valley beneath a hilltop castle they established a preceptory, marked on maps today as a farm called Les Tiplies, known also as the 'Chateau de Templiers'. This is a strange fact, for there was already a Templar presence in the area, at Campagne-sue-Aude, although this came under the authority not of Mas Deu and the Templars of Roussillon-Aragon, but the French commanderie of Douzens, located close to the fortified city of Carcassonne. This fact has led some historians to question why the Templars of the south should have wanted to found a new preceptory at Le Bezu, so close to Campagne-sur-Aude. According to one book on the mystery of Rennes Le Chateau, which speaks of several treasures hidden locally:

The prevailing and enduring tradition among the locals was that the Templars had discovered and wanted either to exploit a hidden treasure, or bury one of their own . . . what better place to hide the enormous Templar treasure away from the clutches of King Philippe than in the heart of the Templars’ own intended kingdom. Unlike Douzens, Mas Deu was of course not within the realm of the King of France. It is thus logical that the isolated valleys of the Corbieres . . . [were] thus. . chosen as the last hiding place of the treasure of the Knights Templar.

Powerful stuff, and of equal interest was the knowledge that, unlike their French brethren, the Templars of Roussillon-Aragon were not arrested prior to the dissolution of the order in 1312. It made sense of why any major Templar relic might have been shipped back to this region, where it would remain safe in the hands of these knights, who were now under the exclusive protection of the King of Aragon. Was this then, what happened to the two-faced head reliquary, which apparently started its journey at Garway, England, and ended up in the French Languedoc?]

Footnotes:

(1)   Barber, The Trial of the Templars, p.102

(2)   Ibid.

(3)   Ibid.

(4)   Olsen, ‘St Michael’s Church, Garway', The Temple 3 (September 2003)

(5)   Wright, The Worship of the Generative Powers, p. 138, CF Wilkins, Concil., ii.p. 363

6)   Wright, Narratives of Sorcery and Magic, i, p. 56

(7)   Ibid., I, p. 59, for the two-faced head with beard at the Paris temple; Wright, The Worship of Generative Powers, , p. 136, for the account of Guillaume de Arrablay.

(8)   Wright. The Worship of the Generative Powers, p. 135

(9)   Picknett and Prince, The Templar Revelation, pp. 213-4

(10) The Baroness of Arques, Henrietta-Catherine de Joyeuse, the wife of Charles de Lorraine, Duc de Guise, was banished with her husband to Italy in 1631, when Poussin was also in residence in Rome. It seems highly probable that they would have met whilst there since they shared a dislike for Louis XIII, King of France, and Cardinal Richlieu, the French Prime Minister. See emails from Guy Patton to the author dated 31 March and 1 April 2004.

(11) Mazieres, Les Templiers du Bezu, p. 11.

(12) Patton and Mackness, Sacred Treasure, Secret Power, pp. 44-5