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The
Fraternal Timeline:
Claimants to Templarism
by George Smart
Chapter 1: 1500-1600
A complete guide to what
came after the Knights Templar,
year by year, often month by month.
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Key: Books,
Articles, and Papers
Documentaries,
Movies, and DVD’s
Vatican
News Key Events
Items in
yellow are questionable and need
additional verification.
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1500
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People
begin to view time more linearly and less as a repetition of
cycles. This concept of linear time scares people into
thinking there is only one chance to find God -- in contrast
to earlier traditions, which allow one to choose to learn
and grow many times.
The
world population is approximately 400 million. |
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1501
|
Pope
Alexander VI orders the burning of any books against the
authority of the Catholic Church. His papacy is rife with
controversy, including many mistresses (including Rosa
Vanozza d'Catanei, with whom he will have four children). |
|
1502 |
On
June 11, The Shroud or Turin moves to the chapel in Chambery
Castle.
Venetian
printer Aldus Manutius starts the Venice Academy. |
|
1506
|
Hermeticist
and monk Trithemius (1462-1516) publishes Stenographia,
a book about telepathy, cryptography, and other advanced
applications.
Pope
Julius II (1453-1513) begins plans for a new St. Peter’s
Basilica and sells papal indulgences (lifetime forgiveness
of sins, or guaranteed entry into heaven) to the rich to
fund construction. |
|
1507 |
Cornelius
Agrippa von Nettesheim (1486-1535) meets Trithemius and
begins a career in alchemy, astrology, Hermeticism, and
Kabbalistic studies. Agrippa, quite a showman, plays up
the magus role and just plain lies to increase his
image and power in the eyes of the uninitiated. |
|
1508 |
Spanish
crusaders attach the Canary Islands. |
|
1510
|
According to
Holy Blood, Holy Grail,
Leonardo da Vinci becomes Grand Master of the Prieuré de
Sion. |
|
1512
thru 1517 |
5th
Lateran Council (18th Ecumenical) meets under
Pope Julius II, Pope Leo X, and Holy Roman Emperor
Maximilian I. The Council plans a new crusade against the
Turks, which never materializes, and forbids the printing of
books without Catholic approval. |
|
1513
|
Ascension
of Pope Leo X (1475-1521), highly educated and well-traveled
student of Marsilio Ficino. A big spender, he also is an
excellent fund-raiser, collecting enough revenue to continue
construction on St. Peters, wage a war and a crusade, and
lavishly support the arts. "What profit has not that fable
of Christ brought us!"
“God
has given us the papacy. Now let us enjoy it.”-- Pope Leo X
|
|
1516 |
The
Ottoman Empire conquers Egypt. |
|
1517
“The
church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round,
for I have seen the shadow on the moon, and I have more
faith in a shadow than in the church.” -- Ferdinand
Magellan |
Coffee
reaches Europe, making graduate school possible.
On
October 31, Martin Luther (1483-1546) starts a reformation
in protest against Catholic abuses of power such as selling
indulgences for fundraising. Luther rebels against Rome but
is not extremely tolerant of other faiths. Luther believes
"Jews" should be exiled from
"Christian"
lands and their homes and synagogues burned. He dismisses
the veneration of Mary and feminine qualities as a threat to
the worship of God and an indicator of honoring the devil.
Creating the path for future Protestants, his beliefs
include
salvation from sin comes from faith in God; that the Bible is the only source of faith;
that
only
faith leads to salvation; that God not man
is responsible for all things good and bad; that direct individual access to the Bible is better than
through priests.
"Get
you a wife and then your mind, however fussy it is, will
become straight as a ribbon; it will be reduced to one idea:
do and think as she wishes." -- Martin Luther in
Table Talk
“An
earthly kingdom cannot exist without some inequality of
persons. Some must be free, some serfs, some rulers, some
subjects.” -- Martin Luther, Werke, Volume XVIII.
Sultan
Suleiman I of Turkey conquers Jerusalem and folds it into the
Ottoman Empire. |
|
1519 |
According
to Holy Blood, Holy Grail, Connetable de Bourbon
becomes Grand Master of the Prieuré de Sion. |
|
1520
|
Pope
Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms.
Luther goes to prison and begins a German translation of the
Bible.
The
Kings of England and France prepare for a new crusade. |
|
1522
|
Martin Luther gets out of prison and publishes his German
Bible. The Teutonic Knights repudiate their Catholic
allegiance and give him their support.
Huldreich
Zwingli (1484-1531) preaches a movement consistent with
Martin Luther but also attacks celibacy, fasting, relic
worship, transubstantiation, and papal authority.
The
University of Alcala publishes the Polyglot Bible in
Latin, Greekxe
"Greek",
Hebrew, and Aramaic).
Sultan
Suleiman I of Turkey successfully attacks Rhodes. The
Knights of Rhodes retreat in 1523 to Malta. The Grand
Master of the order becomes ruler of that island, making
Malta a true Catholic principality. |
|
1524 |
Italian
explorer Giovanni Verrazano lands on Nova Scotia and names
it Arcadia. |
|
1525
|
Matteo
Bassi founds the Capuchin Order of monks, based on the
Franciscans.
Martin
Luther, former monk, marries Katharina von Bora (born 1499),
former Cistercian nun, whom he comes to love more than the
"Kingdom of France and the treasures of Venice". (TWC)
William
Tyndale (1494~1536) publishes the first English version of
the Bible. |
|
1527
|
Swiss-born
Paracelsus (a.k.a. Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim,
1493-1541), one of the world’s most well educated and
traveled Renaissance men, settles at Basle as teaching
magic, alchemy, surgery, and medicine. A former student of
Tritethemius and Rufus Mutianus, Paracelsus believes
imagination is the beginning point of transformation for
both the body and the spirit. Although brilliant,
especially about blood circulation and anesthesia, he is
soon fired for outrageous behavior, including publicly
burning the works of scholars with whom he disagreed.
"Resolute imagination is the beginning of all magical
operations" -- Paracelsus
According to Holy Blood, Holy Grail, Ferdinand
de Gonzague becomes Grand Master of the Prieuré de Sion.
|
|
1529 |
Ottomans
attack Vienna. |
|
1530
|
Orval,
one of the Cistercian abbeys created under Bernard, is home
for Michel de Notredame, (a.k.a. Nostradamus, 1503-1566),
French prophet, physician, and astrologer.
The
Knights of Rhodes change their name to the Knights of Malta.
King
of Sicily Charles V gives the Hospitallers the island of
Malta and the city of Tripoli in Libya. |
|
1532
|
John
Calvin (1509-1564) leads the Protestant Reformation in
France, his Calvinists eventually becoming the
Presbyterians.
A
Catholic Council influences the Waldensians and Swiss
Protestants to merge into the Vaudois.
On
December 4, a fire in Chambery Castle damages the Shroud. of
Turin. |
|
1533 |
On
January 25, the very married King Henry VIII (1491-1547)
secretly marries his mistress of six years, Anne Boleyn
(1507-1536) who is already pregnant with Elizabeth I.
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|
1534 |
King
Henry VIII severs ties with Catholicism because Rome will
not grant him an annulment from his first wife Catherine of
Aragon.
In
turn, Pope Paul III (1468-1549) excommunicates King Henry
VIII.
King
Henry VIII closes England's convents and other schools for
girls, forcing parents to send them out of the country or
educate them in secret. |
|
1535 |
Angela
Merici founds an order of nuns, the Ursulines. |
|
1536
|
On
May 19, King Henry VIII executes Anne Boleyn for not bearing
him a son and marries her lady-in-waiting Jane Seymour
(1509-1537) the next day.
King
Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell (born 1485, beheaded by Henry
VIII in 1540) begin the Dissolution – closing all the
Catholic monasteries and seizing their property.
King
Henry VIII persecutes William Tyndale as a heretic for his
publication of the English New Testament.
Death
of John of Leyden (born 1505), Anabaptist zealot who
publicly beheaded one of his own wives in 1535. John and
his followers are tortured then executed in Munster,
Germany, where his remains are suspended from the rafters of
the church well into the 20th century. |
|
1539
|
Thomas
Cromwell puts together the Great Bible, authorized by
King Henry VIII for public use in Anglican churches.
Death
of Guru Nanak (born 1469), founder of Sikhism as a
combination of Islam and Hinduism. Sikhs believe one’s life
should be devoted to the name of God -- the Satguru.
Rebelling against the orthodox priesthood as well as India’s
caste system, Nanak believes in a compassionate, loving,
powerful God that is present everywhere.
Dominican
monk Inigo Lopez de Loyola (1491-1556) starts the
Societas Jesu (a.k.a. Society of Jesus, Jesuits) with
six original members. With a missionxe "Jesus" to combat
Protestants and other Catholic theological adversaries,
Jesuits become known for their honesty, high standards,
formidable intellect and persistence, teaching ability,
missionary work, fanatical loyalty to the Pope, and as
confessors to royalty, high-ranking clergy, and statesmen.
From their special relationship to the Pope, Jesuits are
independent and not particularly deferential to monarchs --
who perceive them as threats. The Jesuits’ zeal evolves
gains them nothing but enmity from rulers, the public, and
eventually the Papacy itself. |
|
1540
|
Pope
Paul III officially recognizes the Jesuits.
King
Henry VIII outlaws the studies of Greek, Hebrew, divinity,
civil law, and physics at Oxford and Cambridge.
John
Knox (1514-1572), follower of John Calvin, starts the Scotch
Presbyterians (Church of Scotland) out of a disagreement
with Lutherans over sacraments and church government. He
condemns all other religions and is especially scornful of
the opinions of women. He believes the material world to
be evil (a Cathari sentiment, ironically), and condemns
pleasure, especially sexual or even sensual pleasure (i.e.,
beautiful things). No longer, he believes, is the physical
world the work of God -- it is the work of the devil. |
|
1541 |
Appointment
of Henry Sinclair, Bishop of Ross and grandson of Oliver
Sinclair, as Abbot of Kilwinning. |
|
1542
|
Pope
Paul III renames the Inquisition to the Congregation of the
Inquisition, enlarges their jurisdiction to
cover all Catholic countries, and gives them a new focus on
witches. Out of fear for woman as a representative of
Satan, Catholics re-cast the crime of witchcraft as a plot
to establish a Satanic kingdom on earth with an objective to
emasculate men (and therefore God). Witches are considered
carnal sources of all evil by the Papacy -- especially older
women who achieved a level of life wisdom (the crone
archetype) and tend to be healers, herbalists, and, most
importantly, less deferential to men. Contrary to what had
always been enforced before, it became heresy not to
believe in the existence of witches. |
|
1543
|
First
Protestants burn at the stake during the Spanish
Inquisition.
Nikolaus
Copernicus (born 1473) dies shortly after publishing his
book, On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres, in
which he proves that the Earth rotates around the Sun and
not the other way around. |
|
1545
to
1563
|
Pope
Paul III convenes the Council of Trent (19th
Ecumenical) which kicks off the Counter-Reformation, the
Catholic response to Protestant reforms. The Council calls
for moral reform among the clergy, re-affirms
transubstantiation; sets up seminaries for training of the
clergy, condemns the Protestants as heretics, tightens
Catholic bureaucracy, and again recognizes the absolute
authority of the Papacy. For the first time, Catholics are
told that faith alone is not sufficient for salvation – one
must also include “good works.” The final edition of the
Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are approved at this
Council, nearly 1500 years after they were originally
written. |
|
1546 |
According
to an original letter in the National Library in Edinburgh,
Queen Regent Mary of Guise writes to Lord William St. Clair
at Rosslyn Castle in deep gratitude for having been shown “a
great secret” within Rosslyn. |
|
1549 |
Publication
of the First Book of Common Prayer in England by
Thomas Cranmer that standardizes Anglican services. |
|
1551 |
On
August 14, Ottoman Turks take over Tripoli from the
Hospitallers. |
|
1552 |
Publication
of the Second Book of Common Prayer, also by Cranmer. |
|
1553
|
On
October 27, Michael Servetus (born 1511), Spanish theologian
and physician, discoverer of pulmonary circulation, and
author of Christianismi Restitutio (Christianityxe
"Christianity"
Restored),
burn at the stake. Fleeing from Catholic authorities in
France, he seeks refuge in Protestant Geneva, Switzerland,
only to have John Calvin turn him in for execution.
Servetus teaches a Unitarian rather than Trinitarian system:
God is a whole entity, not three. |
|
1555 |
Return
of England to Catholicism by Queen Mary Tudor (dies 1558).
300 Protestants burn at the stake, including Archbishop
Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556), Hugh Latimer (1485-1555), John
Hooper (1495-1555), and Nicholas Ridley (1500-1555) on
October 16.
The
Scottish Parliament bans the annual production of Robin
Hood and Little John at Roslin Castle. |
|
1557 |
Pope
Paul IV, former head of the Holy Office of the Inquisition,
authorizes publication of the Catholic Index of
Prohibited Books. |
|
1558
|
Publication
of Zohar (Book of Splendor), a massive
Kabbalistic work first written in Spain around 1290 by
Jewish Spanish mystic Moses de Leon (1240-1305). The
Zohar is the third most important Jewish book behind
the Bible and the Talmud. |
|
1560
|
Beginning
of Puritanism in England which will later become the
Congregational Church.
Beginning
of battles between Catholics and French Huegenots
(Protestants). |
|
1562
|
Catholic
King Philip II of Spain starts construction on El Escorial,
an enormous library, monastery, church, and palace northwest
of Madrid. Built to honor San Lorenzo (St. Lawrence) after
having defeated the French five years earlier. Using sacred
geometry, architects Juan Bautista de Toledo and Juan de
Herrera (1530-1597) create one of world's most impressive
structures.
Creation
of the Order of Santo Stefano. |
|
1564 |
John
Dee (1527-1608), Queen Elizabeth I’s astrologer and owner of
the greatest personal library in England, publishes
Monas hieroglyphia, a synthesis of Agrippa's works
and a cornerstone work of Rosicrucianism. |
|
1565
|
Catholics
introduce the private confession box which takes the place
of public confession.
Muslim
Sultan Suleiman II of Turkey again attacks Malta
unsuccessfully. The Knights of Malta hold out against a
siege long enough for Spanish forces to come to the rescue. |
|
1570 |
French Protestants (a.k.a. Huegenots) get limited freedom of
worship.
Pope
Pius IV (1499-1565) excommunicates English Queen Elizabeth I
and causes a backlash in England against Catholics. |
|
1571
|
Death
of Isaak Luria (born 1533), Kabbalist mystic and new
interpreter of the Zohar (Book of Splendor). Luria
believes God made the world by creating a space out of
himself in which the world would exist. He believes evil is
part of God’s plan, not outside of it, and that free will
exists and is made possible through the ability to choose
between good and evil. Admirers John Dee and Giordano Bruno
bring Luria's ideas to Europe.
Turks
under Sultan Suleiman II takes Cyprus from the Venetians.
The
Holy League (Spain, Austria, and Italy) decidedly defeats
Sultan Suleiman II's Turkish fleet at the Battle of Lepanto,
reversing Arabic domination for the first time since 1453
and rescuing the Knights of Malta from Turkish attacks. |
|
1572 |
On
August 23 and 24, Catholic King Charles IX and his mother
Catherine de Medici kill over 10,000 French Protestants.
Merger
of the Orders of Saint Lazarus and Saint Maurice. |
|
1573 |
On
March 7, Venice makes peace with the Turks through payment
of protection money. |
|
1575 |
Philip
Neri founds the Congregation of the Oratory, a new religious
order.
Louis
de Nevers becomes Grand Master of the Prieuré de Sion. (HBHG) |
|
1576 |
The
French prohibit Protestantism. |
|
1578 |
On
September 4, the Duke of Savoy moves the Shroud to the Royal
Chapel in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist at Turin,
Italy. |
|
1579 |
British
explorer Drake lands on the California coast. |
|
1582 |
Pope
Gregory XIII (1502-1585) adjusts the calendar to align the
length of the year with the solar cycle. |
|
1585
|
20th-century
carbon dating of the wood found in the main shaft on Oak
Island in Nova Scotia places it at this year, plus or minus
85 years. |
|
1587 |
150
English settlers land in North America at Roanoke Island.
Arriving too late to plant crops, their leader John White
goes back to England for supplies but upon his return to
Roanoke finds the settlement abandoned. |
|
1588 |
Date
of oldest recorded Masonic lodge meeting at St. Mary’s
Chapel in Scotland. Masonry offers an arena for intellectual
and freethinking dialogue, a network for communications; and
a perspective for unity that, at least according to
Catholics makes the Church irrelevant. Much like a United
Nations, the Masons attract those who appreciate freedom of
thought and conversation, the special jazz of belonging to a
secret society, and the group’s success at creating
understanding across belief systems. |
|
1592 |
In
August, Protestants force the removal of altars in Rosslyn
Chapel. |
|
1595 |
According to Holy Blood, Holy Grail, Robert
Fludd (1574-1637) becomes Grand Master of the Prieuré de
Sion. |
|
1598
|
The
Edict of Nantes grants French Huguenots (Protestants)
freedom of worship equal to Catholics. |
|
1600
“It
is with greater fear that ye pass this sentence upon me than
I receive it.” -- Giordano Bruno at his execution |
After
eight years of imprisonment and torture, Pope Clement VIII
(1536-1605) and the Holy Inquisition burn mystic writer,
memory expert, former Dominican monk, and genius Giordano
Bruno (born 1548). Bruno believed in an infinite Universe
in which God dwells everywhere and sought a unifying
synthesis of philosophy, science, and world religion. He
rejected the Trinity; believed in necromancy; believed that
humans can purify themselves to become one with God; and
supported the Copernican theory the Earth revolves around
the Sun. Bruno inspired many secret societies including the
Giordanisti.
Sir
Walter Raleigh goes exploring for Templar treasure in the
Herdewyke area of England. |