Above is Thun Castle (German: Schloss Thun), built in the 12th century in the Swiss canton of Bern. It still stands, houses the Thun Castle museum, and is a Swiss heritage site of national significance.
EN ROUTE TO 1308 . . .
My records and research are a bit of a mess at the moment, but having been able to trace my family tree on my father's mother's side back to 1308, and knowing that my 17th great grandfather named 'Melanchor The Exile' was important enough to have been imprisoned in a castle (which still stands) in Bern, Switzerland rather than being thrown into the moat for his refusal to denounce his faith, I'm finding what I think is an unfolding connection to the Knights Templar, who essentially ended up as brutal mercenaries after their near extinction beginning in 1307.
In spite of all that I've found to date, I will likely never know for sure, but who doesn't want a rebel for a relative, right?
(Entrance to Knights Templar chapel in Laon, France, 12th century.) Rather than being murdered, Melanchor was eventually sent to France where I lost his trail. If he had not been released, regardless of how and why it happened, I would not be here today.
With that said, here's a big shout out to say "THANK YOU" to the powers that were.
It 'is' possible that 'Melanchor The Exile' walked across the stone walkway and on into the Knights Templar chapel shown above, which is the same stone walkway that Audrey Tautou (aka Sophie Neveu who is thought to be the last living descendent of Jesus) walked across in the movie The Da Vinci Code. Admittedly I am not a member of the Priory, meaning I was not there to greet Sophie.
Thrilling none-the-less.
Based on a much of what I've recently been posting about on social media and here on this Blog, namely religion, what I find interesting is that the mass arrests of the Knights Templar in 1307 were initiated by King Philip IV of France along with Pope Clement V who was, yes, the head of the Catholic Church.
Pope Clement and King George combined forces to take down the Knights Templar who up to that point had been granted limitless power, but it seems they had acquired ‘too’ much power, so King George and Pope Clement back pedalled and arrested the grand master Jacques de Molay on charges of heresy, sacrilege and Satanism.
(Satanism is a religious thing.)
With that said, having their arrests sanctioned by the church meant that these murders were endorsed by God, which in turn meant they were not murders at all, but rather a just and holy cleansing.
Praise be.
Under torture, Molay and other leading Templars confessed and were eventually burned at the stake. Their arrests were conducted simultaneously on October 13th, 1307, which happens to have been a Friday.
Yes . . . Friday the 13th.
All way too fascinating, unless of course you were the one being burned at the stake.
So if you've ever been criticized, like I have been and more than once, for unjustly accusing the Church of burning witches (aka women), your rebuttal can now be that they burned men as well. Welcome to the story of Christianity.
Part of the success I've enjoyed so far looking into the history of my father's side is because of their connection to the Mennonite culture. My paternal grand-parents, Veronica (aka Fannie) and Noah, my great grand parents Nicholas and Barbara, and my great great grandfather Joseph Ruby (I'm not certain how far back this goes), were all Mennonites of the Amish order.
Although originally Mennonites were Anabaptist Christians, my great great grandfather Joseph was a church Bishop in the Lutheran Church, and here he remains 'Until The Trumpet Shall Sound'. Fortunately, Mennonites are astute record keepers, but I've not enjoyed as much success so far with an initial deep dive into my mothers side, except to find that I have, or had, a number of great and great-great uncles who were Roman Catholic priests.
It's likely a good thing for me that we never met. I fear I would have been burned at the stake. Here are some pics of my maternal grandparents (top), my maternal great grandparents (middle), a second photo of my maternal great grandparents (3rd) 50 years after the one above, my maternal great grandparents home at my maternal great grandfathers funeral, and my grandmother with all her siblings (17 in total) and some of their spouses (my grandmother is front left with my great grandmother in the middle).
Thanks for hanging out here with me until the end.
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