On Friday, 13 October 1307, hundreds of the
Knights Templar were arrested in France, an action apparently motivated financially and undertaken by the efficient royal bureaucracy to increase the prestige of the crown.
King Philip IV was the force behind this ruthless move, but it has also tarnished the historical reputation of
Pope Clement V. From the very day of
Clement V's coronation, the King falsely charged the
Templars with heresy, immorality, and abuses, and the scruples of the
Pope were compromised by a growing sense that the burgeoning French State might not wait for the
Church, but would proceed independently.
The connection between the
Friday the 13th superstition and the
Knights Templar was popularized in
Dan Brown's 2003 novel
The Da Vinci Code and in
John J. Robinson's 1989 work
Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry.
Rico says he wonders why, whenever he sees their slogan
In Hoc Signo Vinces ('In this sign I conquer'), he always thinks of
Señor Wences...
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