The deaths of Jacques de Molay and Geoffrey de Charnay in 1314

This evening is the 700th anniversary of the burning at the stake of Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Order of the Temple, and Geoffrey de Charnay, the Master of the Order in Normandy in Paris. There is an online life of the Grand Master here, and there is one of Geoffrey de Charnay here. The Charnay family in later generations had custody of the Shroud of Turin as set out in Ian Wilson's book The Holy Shroud, which links its transmission to the west to the Templars.

There is an illustrated online blog post today on the Daily Telegraph website by Dominic Selwood about the events in the years 1307-1314 that occurred leading to the suppression of the Order of the Temple and the deaths of Molay and Charnay. It can be viewed here.

Malcolm Barber has written what is, I suppose, now the standard book on the topic in The Trial of the Templars.  The executions of 1314 also appear in the first part of Maurice Druon's splendid series of novels The Accursed Kings - the first of these The Iron King begins with the burnings of the Templars and ends with the death of the King in November that same year, and covers the intervening crises which in Druon's interpretaion led to the Hundred Year War. A really splendid series of novels and wonderful televison in the original 1973-4 version - but do ignore the remake!

These days I tend to ignore anything about the Knights Templar that is not solid history like the work of historians like Barber, or clear dramatic recounting of specific events such as in Druon's books. Whatever the Templars did do - and they did much that was certainly good - or did not do - the allegations against them appear to be a mixture of some truth, falsehood, misunderstanding and very serious political manipulation - they do not deserve their continuing current fate of attracting so many loopy theories and associations.

The downfall of the Templars is a far from edifying episode - and really is so for all concerned. The Papacy was weak and vacillating, the French Crown cynical and mercenary, the Templars had perhaps lost something of their origibal vision as well as purpose - possible or actual abuses by a few of them could be made to besmirch the whole Order, which seems a rather contemporary point.  

The Shroud of Turin

Yesterday's Daily Telegraph had an exclusive interview with the author and extract from the latest book on the Shroud of Turin. Thomas de Wesselow's The Sign is the work of a Cambridge art historian and is just about to hit the bookshelves in time for Easter. The article in the Telegraph, with links, can be read here.

The speculation about the Holy Shroud is endless, and it is a remarkably inviting topic for the faithful, and not a few sceptics, to think and write about. From all I have read and seen on programmes I accept it as what it appears to be - to do otherwise seems very difficult. The carbon-dating which assigned it to the thirteenth century has been disputed so effectively that one should not worry about that. If it is a forgery, then it is still one of the most remarkable objects in the world, as no-one can explain how it was created with the technical skills available.

Of course, if it really is what it purports to be (and what is absolute proof to satisy everybody?) then it is even more remarkable. As I wrote above I have no problems believing that. The problem then is what does that mean for me or for others, because if in the modern age we do indeed have a proof of the unique and supernatural truth of the Resurrection over and beyond the call to faith, well we really do have to sit up and pay attention. A lot of attention. This is life-changing.This is serious. Really serious.

The face on the Shroud
Image:liturgy.co.nz

Which brings me back to Thomas de Wesselow and his book. As reported in the article he is fully convinced of the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin as the Shroud of Christ. He apparently follows Ian Wilson's excellent books on the topic, and is unafraid to commit himself to belief in the first century origin of the relic and that it is the burial cloth of Jesus.

Then, however, he seems to lose his nerve - the Resurrection appearances are not for de Wesselow what they are reported to be, in the Gospels, but rather the awed response of the Apostolic community to the Shroud itself - and presumably the Shroud did not eat broiled fish, walk on the road to Emmaus or appear on the Galilean shoreline. First century people were, he considers, so unused to images and so struck by the cloth that they projected physical resurrection onto an artifact. All this eighteen hundred and more years before the 1898 photographs revealed the details with which we, today, are so familiar.

His view seems to me considerably less credible than accepting that the seemingly impossible has indeed happened and betrays a modern sensibility that lacks sense. It may well be an interesting book, and positive about the Holy Shroud, but it appear to leave the central question not unanswered so much as unaddressed.

One cannot argue others into belief by using the evidence for the Shroud as "proof" - that is not how God or how faith works. We can never be 100% certain that this is the burial cloth of Jesus of Nazareth, however much we genuinely and seriously believe this is what the Turin relic is - there is always the possibility that someone else died a similar death (?) , that their burial cloth was reverently preserved (?) or that someone else, somehow - but we don't yet have any idea of how - impressed the outline of their body on a piece of linen (?) - but we may believe, we can believe, and probably we should believe, that this piece of fabric links us to those unparalleled events recorded in the writings of contemporaries or near contemporaries.

An artist's reconstruction of the face on the Shroud

Image:religiousstudiesblog

A Pilgrim to the Shroud of Turin

I spent part of Tuesday evening talking to a friend who had spent the weekend on a pilgrimage to the exposition of the Holy Shroud in Turin. The idea for the visit had come from some of the boys at the school at which he teaches, and had coincided with the Pope's own visit to the relic.

Four things emerged for my friend from the visit.

First, and most important, was the fact of seeing the Shroud itself. He had clearly found this to be a deeply moving and thought provoking experience. Convinced of its authenticity he had reflected upon the fact that this really was the shroud of Christ. that it really had been the silent witness to the Resurrection, that it had been seen by St Peter and St John and by St Mary Magdalene. We agreed that the attempts to explain the phenomenon by elaborate theories of people inventing photography in the Middle Ages and then forgetting about it, or of creating a forgery are more far fetched than the awe-inspiring and indeed awful, fact that it really is what it purports to be. That is a very sobering thing for the believer - and doubtless why the non-believer seems so anxious to not believe or come up with theories that seek, however improbably, to explain the evidence of the Shroud away.

The second fact was the impact of the Papal presence. There was a real sense of being in the presence of a figure of sacral authority, and made him reflect on the traditional perception of being in the presence of sanctified rulership. He also noted the genuine warmth of people's welcome to the Holy Father, and that the Pope appeared well. He also contrasted the crowds welcoming the Pope on Sunday with the handful of people marking May Day as a socialist workers festival on Saturday - they were definitely left overs from the past, if you will pardon my pun.

The third fact was the state of the Church in Turin. Several of the churches were very much 'post-Vatican II' in their spirit - a middle aged priest strumming his guitar at a poorly attended Youth Mass for example. On the other hand he was struck by seeing a young Dominican in his full habit by his church, and the fact that at what was essentially a private EF Mass for their party in the church reserved for that use in Turin they found themselves rapidly joined by many others, and that there was a real desire, even hunger, for Traditional forms of liturgy.

The fourth fact was the sense that something was missing in Turin - the Monarchy. With four royal palaces and numerous institutions with the prefix Royal, and the arms of the House of Savoy in churches and on public buildings it seemed incomplete without the actual presence of the family as rulers. I heartily concurred. Without raising the whole question of Italian Unification and the Roman Question, no-one can deny the rightful claim of the House of Savoy to rule the Kingdom of Sardinia and particularly their ancestral lands in Piedmont.

Turin cathedral

Turin Shroud

A topic I have sometimes returned to in my Lent reading over the years is that of the Holy Shroud. Once you begin to learn something about it the topic stays with you, and it is difficult not to believe in the authenticity of the relic - there seems no means by which it could have been produced artificially. The inexplicable nature of the images unless they really are what they appear to be and the fact, despite the seemingly implausible chance of a cloth surviving for almost two thousand years, that people did safeguard it and venerate it makes for an impressive argument on historical grounds. Having seen a television programme at Christmas which seriously questioned the value of the 1988 Carbon-14 testing it on the simple basis that the fragments which were tested were affected by repairs in the sixteenth century, if they were not indeed substantially of that date, and with the impending display of the Shroud in Turin I have been readingThe Shroud of Turin: A Case for Authenticity by Fr Vittorio Guerrera, and published by TAN in 2001. This gives a history of the relic, and an account of recent research, including the seemingly shambolic 1988 Carbon-14 work ,which further weakens the credibility of the results obtained. Guerrera's book is well worth reading both as an historical study, and, as a suitable Passiontide reflection.