 Godefroy
de Bouillon: complies with Urbain II request
for the liberation of Christ's grave. He sells his
castle and on the 7the of August 1096 he sets off
at the head of one of the four first crusade's army
: that of the Knights from Meuse and Rhin.
After a very trying journey, Jerusalem is conquered in July 1099.
He is the first to tread on his walls.Out of humility Godefroy
refuses, to be appointed as King of Jerusalem as is offered him
and only agrees to become Attorney of the Holy Sepulcher.
Church of Holy Sepulcher: Many Christians -- especially
Catholics and Greek Orthodox -- believe t hat
Jesus was crucified on this spot and buried here. The building
of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher - known to the Byzantines
as the Church of the Resurrection (Anastasis) at the order
of the Emperor Constantine probably took ten years (326-335).
It was a complex of monumental structures, including a
rotunda built over the tomb, a great basilica, and columned
courtyards. According to a fourth-century Christian tradition,
it was Constantine's mother Helena who found the true cross
at this site.
Sepulcher: A chamber that is used as a grave.
 Hugues
de Payns (1.118-1.136): The brotherhood was founded,
about 1118, by Hugues de Payns, a nobleman residing near
Troyes, in Burgundy, and Godefroy de St. Omer (or Aldemar),
a Norman knight. Their original purpose was to protect
pilgrims to sacred places, more especially those who sought
the Holy Sepulcher. At first there were eight or nine Knights
Templar. They bound themselves to each other as a brotherhood
in arms, and took upon themselves vows of chastity, obedience
and poverty according to the rule of St. Benedict. It is
also recorded that they pledged themselves to fight against
ignorance, tyranny and the enemies of the Holy Sepulcher,
and "to fight with a pure mind for the supreme and true
King."
Pierre Klossowski (1905 - 2001) - influenced Surealists
with drawings and writing. The Baphomet."Retain well this
for the joy of my detractors: I am neither a 'writer,'
neither a 'thinker,' neither a 'philosopher' nor anything
in any mode of expression nothing of all that before to
have been, to be and to remain a monomane," He was
an accomplished writer, artist, philosopher and translator
of Nietzsche and other major German poets. He was both
a scholarly theologian and an expert on the works of the
Marquise de Sade and Gilles des Rais.
Saint Macarius: (..394) weired hermit saint, who
for seven years he lived on raw vegetables  dipped
in water with a few crumbs of bread, moistened with drops
of oil on feast days. Also picked up the worms that dropped
from him and put them back on his body etc... Spent six
months naked in the marshes, beset constantly by blood-sucking
flies and mosquitoes, in the hope of destroying his last
bit of sexual desire. The terrible conditions and attacking
insects left him so deformed that when he returned to the
monks, they could recognize him only by his voice.
Ascalon: In 1153, Baldwin launched a major attack
on Ascalon, with an army large enough to invade the great
city completely. The siege dragged on for months, with
the Egyptians unable to challenge the Franks on land, but
the Christians unable to gain superiority over the Egyptians
at sea. But eventually the garrison realized that there
was no rescue in sight. The city surrendered on August
10, on condition that the garrison be allowed to leave
peacefully. This was allowed, and the Christians occupied
the city, gaining a great store of treasure.
Halcyon: Idyllically calm and peaceful. Suggesting
happy tranquility. Also: A mythical bird, identified with
the kingfisher, that was fabled to nest at sea about the
time of the winter solstice and to calm the waves during
incubation.
Manichaeism: founded by Mani, a wandering (Persioan)
prophetc240.Had contact with Buddhism in N. India (Bactria).
Blend of Gnosticism, Zoroastrianism, other Persian religions,
Christianity, Buddhism, and Taoism. The religion spread
rapidly across the Roman Empire and into China. Religion
of dualism between God (light) and Satan (dark). The struggle
between these forces is seen as a nature event rather than
a moral struggle. The more light a person acquired (through
strict celibacy, austerity, teaching, and preaching etc),
the better the after death prospects. Transmigration ( rebirth)
of soul as an 'elect' was the aim. Basically its all about
being on the side of 'Good' or 'Evil'. Nothing in-between.
G. W. Bush has been called a modern Manichean. (axis of
evil etc).
Manichean doctrines doctrines reappear in the medieval heresies
of the Cathari, Albigenses, and Bogomils. It was the practice in
the Middle Ages to call by the name of Manichaeism any dualist
Christian heresy.
Cathari (puritans) : A term used by the Manichæans
and generally applied to several sects at various periods.
In its more usual sense, Cathari was a general designation
for the dualistic sects of the later Midde Ages. Also known
as: Cazzari", "Gazzari", in Italy, and "Ketzer" in
Germany, Arians, Piphili, Arnoldistæ, Textores" (Weavers),
Waldenses, Bagnolenses, Albigenses, Bulgari. Dualistic,
good/evil principle. All sexual activity is evil so final
consequence is extinction of the human race. Heavy conflict
with the Catholics - heresy. Catharism was descended from
Gnosticism and Manichaeism and echoed many of the ideas
of Marcion. The Cathari tended to  reject
not only the outward symbols of the Christian church, such
as the sacraments and the hierarchy, but also the basic
relationship between God and humanity as taught by orthodox
Christianity. Instead, the Cathari believed in a dualistic
universe, in which the God of the New Testament, who reigned
over spiritual things, was in conflict with the evil god
(or Satan), who ruled over matter. Asceticism, absolute
surrender of the flesh to the spirit, was to be cultivated
as the means to perfection. There were two classes of the
Cathari, the believers and the Perfect. The believers passed
to the ranks of the Perfect on acceptance of the consolamentum,
a sort of sacrament that was a laying on of hands. The
Catharist concept of Jesus resembled modalistic monarchianism
in the West and adoptionism in the East. Persecution, such
as that by the Inquisition, and the efforts of popes like
Innocent III destroyed Catharism by the 15th cent.
Marcion: (c 84-160 CE), born to the bishop of Sinope,
was condemned a heretic and excommunicated in July of 144.
In his teachings, he opposed the Jewish scriptures to new
Christian teachings going so far as to claim that the God
of the Hebrew scriptures was an evil, creator God and could
not therefore be the same God as the father of Jesus Christ.
In addition, he proclaimed a docetic view ( Docetic
Gnosticism viewed Christ as a phantom. Christ did not really
take on human form, it only appeared that way.) of
Christ, claiming that Jesus could not be human, for the
evil creator God created flesh. The role of Jesus, in fact,
was to liberate Christians from the power of the creator
God. He thought that only Paul understood the true teachings
of Jesus Christ and accordingly formed the first canonical
list of Christian scriptures. It consisted of the ten letters
of Paul and the Gospel of Luke, which Marcion believed
to have been written by Paul. Thus, Marcion did contribute
positively to the history of Christianity by providing
the idea of a New Testament canon and forcing the orthodox
church to establish its own list of texts. Marcion succeeded
in building his own church which survived in the East until
the fifth century. Marcionism may be the most dangerous
foe Christianity has ever known.
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