Jacques de Molay, Thou Art Busted!

Seven hundred years ago, on Friday, October 13, 1307, Philip the Fair of France took decisive steps toward ending his debt problem. Instead of burning his credit cards, he burnt his creditors: the Templars. He had them arrested, tortured, tried, and burnt at the stake for immorality and heresy. Interestingly, the heresy accusation wasn't the sin of usury, although they charged interest. No, he accused them of sodomy. Some things don't change.

So today, if you read Umberto Eco, write a check, or watch The Da Vinci Code, think of the Templars.

And in more Templar news:

The Vatican, confessing to an archiving error, has released documents showing that Pope Clement originally found the Templars not guilty of heresy. I am annoyed at the misusage of "absolved" here; the Pope acquitted them. "Absolve" has a special religious meaning, which makes the usage here unnecessarily ambiguous.

A conference will be held by the Ecclesia Gnostica in Los Angeles in observance of the 700th anniversary of the day the Templars were arrested.