Why is Friday 13th unlucky for some?
Knights Templar and Friday 13th October 1307,
The reason for this saying comes from Friday 13th October in the year 1307, when all Templar Knights were simultaneously arrested & persecuted and charged with being heretics - the most evil crime of the Christian Church in those days.
Jacques de Molay the Grand Master of the Order was imprisoned for seven years, tortured and questioned as a heretic before finally being bunt at the stake in the year 1314.
Rothely in Leicestershire England less than 5 miles from Leicester, is the site of an original English Knights Templar Preceptory which can still be visited in the grounds of the Rothely Court Hotel. Just go into the Hotel and ask to be let in to the Chapel.
The Knights Templar invented the modern Banking system of using paper travellers' cheques, which revolutionised the modern world. Rich people travelling across dangerous lands with their gold, were easy prey to bandits and robbers, so they 'banked' their gold in their nearest Knights Templar Preceptory, receiving a paper IOU which they traveled with and cashed in at the nearest Preceptory to their destination. This eventually became the Banking Cheque system.
You can buy a Knights Templar commemorative ceramic mug in black or a Knights Templar Ceramic Mug in white from König Books with free delivery to any UK address and a standard postage charge to Europe or Worldwide.
The Arrest of the Knights Templar on Friday 13th October 1307
In 1305, Pope Clement V (who at that time had his Papal curia at Avignon in Southern France) sent letters to the Grand Masters of the Knights Templar and Hospitaller, to discuss the possibility of a merging between the two Orders, to try and unite them together and retake the Holy Land back from the Infidel with a combined force.
Unfortunately, neither of the two were amenable to this particular idea, and after much persistence from the Pope, they both agreed to meet at the Papal curia to discuss the matter further. The Grand Master of the Templars, Jacques de Molay, arrived first in the early part of 1307, but the Grand Master of the Hospitallers, Faulk de Villaret, was delayed for several months.
During his forced time in waiting, Jacques de Molay and Pope Clement discussed several charges that had been made, two years previously, by a disgraced Templar, and although it was generally agreed that these accusations were believed to be false; Pope Clement still sent King Philip IV of France a written request for assistance into this unusual investigation.
King Philip was already deeply in debt to the Templars (for his costly war against the English), and so he seized upon those rumours to try and free himself from his own heavy financial burden. He decided to further exploit the situation by acting on his vehement suspicion of the Templars, and sent sealed instructions to his Lieutenants throughout his kingdom of France.
His orders were that they were to be opened simultaneously (at first light) on the morning of Friday the 13th of October.
When these documents were opened at the pre-determined time, the instructions strictly specified that the Lieutenants were to arrest all Knights Templar on sight, and that they were to take them into custody and throw them into the royal prisons – or failing that into their own dungeons.
As many as 15,000 Templars, and those associated with the Order were arrested from all over France, although the vast majority of these were just farmers or retainers to the Templar Order.
Out of this number, only a mere 500 were actually full Brethren – such as Chaplains, Sergeants and Brother Knights. In actual fact, only 138 Knights went on to face the Inquisition – under the charges of apostasy, idolatry, heresy, secrecy, financial corruption, obscene rituals and sodomy.
Even so, many of the accused confessed to these false charges under torture, and although these confessions were obtained under duress – it caused one of the biggest scandals of its age, and is still remembered today by being the origin of the superstitious saying “Friday 13th – unlucky for some”.
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