Rosslyn Treasury

by P. L. Snow

  For many years Titurel and the Templars guarded the mountain from any who would attempt the climb with less than a pure heart. At last, he knew that he should build a temple to house the Grail. He and the knights set to work to clear the mountain top, and the summit was revealed as a smooth onyx of great size. Upon this foundation they set about building the shrine of the Holy Grail.

  Now this temple was a hundred fathoms in diameter, and surrounding it were seventy two chapels, octagonal in shape. A tower six storeys high crowned each chapel, with a winding stair on the outside. At the centre was a tower twice as high as the others, resting on arches. The ceiling vaults were of sapphires and in the centre a plate of emerald, showing the Lamb of God represented in enamel. The altar stones were sapphires, symbolizing the propitiation of sins. Inside the cupola were shown the sun and moon, all made of diamond and topaz. The floor was all of clear crystal, with fish carved of onyx beneath, so that to stand on it was as if to stand on the sea itself. The windows were made of translucent stones, such as crystal and beryl; the towers were of precious stones, with gold inlaid, and their roofs were made of gold and blue enamel. Every tower was crowned with a cross of pure crystal, and an eagle with outspread wings atop each one. The summit of the main tower was capped with an immense carbuncle stone, to act as a guiding light to the Templars at night. And at the heart of the building, under the central dome, was a representation in miniature of the temple, and in this was placed the Holy Grail itself, but not by any human hand. Its invisible, angelic bearers placed it there. Upon the vessel, from time to time, there appeared a message from the Heavenly Heights, which the guardians of the Grail would read in the deepest awe and reverence.

  It was the holy vessel that sustained the men whose duty was to guard it, and gave them long life, granting them all that they needed to live.

  The cup of jasper

  There is, however, yet a third version, and this tale we owe again to the modern seership of Judith von Halle. According to her account, Joseph of Arimathea took the cup that was used at the Last Supper. It was neither a rich chalice, according to this account, nor was it a green stone: it was made of jasper. He did, as the legends tell, scoop up as much of the precious blood as he could from the depression at the foot of the Cross where it gathered, and travel with the Holy Blood through the Mediterranean world, coming to the South of France. He did not travel alone, but Mary Magdalene accompanied him, and preached beside him. She could not speak on her own account, as women in those days were not given respectful listening. Instead, she spoke of what her brother John the Evangelist had witnessed, for much of this she, too, had witnessed with her own eyes, and could speak of with authority.

  It was Joseph’s practice, as indeed the foregoing legends tell, to pour a few drops of Christ’s blood on to the earth in certain places.

  One such place was a rock, and around this rock was built a castle. Though not as rich in its materials as the Grail Castle of the legend, it was nevertheless built with great cunning. The long chamber where those who ordained the construction of the building welcomed guests and dined was carefully made to deceive the eye. It was, in fact, shorter than it looked. Beyond the farther wall was a hidden chamber, and in the centre of that chamber was the rock upon which Joseph let fall some drops of the Holy Blood. Within this chamber, the very highest initiation of the Templar Knights took place, for it was Templars who built this castle. Only the twelve Grand Masters of the Order celebrated the ceremony of initiation, under the guidance of the one Grand Master of them all.

  The Templars had as their highest ideal to become vessels of the Christ. They believed that the secret of this was to transform the very blood in their veins through their earthly and spiritual striving, so that their blood became, literally, Christ’s blood.

  This was what they understood by the Holy Grail: transformation of their own being through a lifetime of work dedicated to Christ.

  ***

  There are clear signs in Rosslyn Chapel that those who ordered the building held the memory of the Templars in deep veneration. Earl William Sinclair, Gilbert de la Haye and Earl William’s first wife, Elizabeth Douglas, were trying to build a Chapel of the Grail. It is also clear from a deep reading of the carvings in Rosslyn that the chapel was a place of initiation, and a part of the Grail tradition.

  16. Saint Margaret

  The next three stories come from historical accounts, rather than old legends, or tales of saints and wonders.

  The south aisle in Rosslyn is notable for its feminine qualities. Here we see Margaret holding a fragment of the True Cross, and William ‘the Seemly’ Sinclair together in a carving in the westernmost window. Margaret’s hair is shown following almost a crescent pattern, with braids curling upwards, as a sign of her deep spirituality. The only other figures in the chapel to have this feature are angels. Margaret was certainly a human being, rather than an angel, but after miracles were reported as happening in connection with her remains, she was canonized in 1250. Her saint’s day is June 10. Margaret was of great importance to the Sinclair family, and she remains one of their patron saints, and as such, of course, is remembered in the structure of the chapel.

  Saint Margaret, bearing a fragment of the True Cross, with William ‘the Seemly’ Sinclair.

  Ever since the ninth century, and the days of King Alfred of Wessex, England had been threatened by invasion from Denmark. Indeed, the eastern part of the island had come under Danish rule. Two hundred years later, affairs between England and Denmark were still such that the English King Edward the Atheling, fearing for his young family, had his daughter Margaret taken to Hungary, where she could be brought up in safety, and given an education worthy of a royal princess.

  Whatever she learned in Hungary, Margaret certainly developed a habit of piety that ran deep in her soul, and was a well-established part of her character by the time it was deemed safe to bring her back to England, in the reign of King Edward the Confessor.

  But now a new peril loomed. The Duke of Normandy, William, led an invading army to England, landing at Pevensey Bay, near Hastings, and quickly and efficiently overran the country.

  Margaret was forced to flee with some trusted knights, including some from her Hungarian household, and they sailed northwards. Even the elements were against them. Their ship was blown off course, and they were forced to make landfall in Fife.

  The news reached the Scottish king Malcolm Canmore that an English princess had arrived in Scotland, and was in some distress, having to flee her native country and now shipwrecked in his country. Malcolm knew about flight, as he himself had fled from Macbeth, the killer of his father, Duncan. He had taken refuge in England for some time, and then returned to defeat Macbeth, and slay him. (Shakespeare, it is true, tells the story rather differently.)

  Malcolm sent one of his most trusted knights, Sir William, ‘the Seemly’ Sinclair, to escort the princess to his royal household at Edinburgh. Margaret was known for her beauty as much as for her piety, and when Malcolm saw her, escorted by William Sinclair and the faithful Hungarian knight Ladislaus Lecelin, he was determined to make her his wife.

  Margaret had no wish to marry, and wished instead to devote her life to the study and deepening of her religion. She wished to live as chastely as a nun, but Malcolm was an insistent and patient suitor, and in the year 1070, Margaret agreed to become his wife. She was twenty-five years old.

  In Scotland at the time there was a rich and long-abiding stream of Christianity through which the Celtic spirituality expressed itself. The priests of this Celtic Christianity were called the Celi-Dé, the servants of God. Margaret admired these people greatly, and was at pains to rescue them from the zeal of those who wished to impose a single rule of worship in the land. In fact, Margaret was in favour of uniting worship in Scotland, so that all of the people could, wherever they were, find a form of service with which they were familiar, and which would unite them with other worshippers in England and abroad. Perhaps her greatest wish
was to heal the bloody rifts between England and Scotland through unity in worship. She invited English priests to help this process, but always did what she could to protect the Celi-Dé from attack, or accusations of heresy, or poor treatment of any kind. The watchword of her faith was tolerance and loving acceptance rather than rigid adherence to dogma.

  Having experienced herself at first hand the wildness of the weather around Scottish shores, she instituted the Queen’s Ferry, across the Forth, to help pilgrims on their way to Saint Andrews, to worship at the shrine of the saint, so that they did not have to brave the open sea, or the long and rough way over land. North Queensferry and South Queensferry remain today, in the shadow of the great Forth Bridges, as a testament to Queen Margaret’s generosity to pilgrims.

  All the indications are that Margaret was a loving wife to Malcolm, presenting him with eight children, three of whom became kings later. Still, she found time to found hostels for travellers, to extend regular and generous charity to the poor, to feed orphans, taking the youngest on her lap to do so. Similarly, it was her regular practice to wash the feet of the poor. Apart from her regular self-imposed duties of charity, she founded hospitals, monasteries and churches, while her more secular work included bringing a taste of European manners, customs and ceremony to the Scottish court. Her influence was much appreciated in this sphere, and the Scottish court gained a wide reputation for its culture under her aegis.

  One of the places that Margaret made sure was brought into a state of good repair was the monastery at Iona. This was the island from where Saint Columba had started his ministry, and it had long been the burial place of the kings of Scotland. Margaret was sensitive to its importance in the Scottish psyche.

  Perhaps it was a feeling of duty to Margaret that inspired Malcolm to lead five, possibly more, invasions into England. The only English prince to survive the Norman invasion was Edgar the Atheling, Margaret’s brother, and it is clear that Malcolm was keen to see Edgar on the throne of England.

  During the last of these invasions, Malcolm and his eldest son were ambushed and killed at Alnwick in Northumberland. Margaret had been undergoing a series of punishing fasts at this time, and lay sick in bed when her second son Edmund came to bring her the news. It was too great a blow for her to survive.

  As she lay on her deathbed, she held tightly in her hands something that she had brought with her from Hungary: a fragment of the True Cross, itself formed into a crucifix. She had founded Dunfermline Abbey with the view to building a house for this sacred relic, and now felt the need of whatever comfort it could afford her in her last hours.

  Three days after the death of Malcolm, Margaret died, in the year 1093. She was forty-seven years old.

  Three of her sons followed Malcolm on to the throne of Scotland: Edgar, Alexander and David. It was this same David who greeted Hugh de Payens and the first Templars when they arrived in Scotland. This marked the beginning of a long and important relationship between the Knights Templar and Scotland; a relationship honoured in Rosslyn Chapel.

  17. The Rise and Fall of the Templars

  Dr Tim Wallace-Murphy says in The Templar Legacy and the Masonic Inheritance in Rosslyn Chapel that there are five signs by which we can recognize a Templar church: a dove in flight with an olive branch in its beak; a five-pointed star; a floriated cross; the Agnus Dei, or Lamb of God, and finally the Veil of Veronica, showing the face of Christ. These are all present in Rosslyn, and a strong, obstinate tradition links the chapel with the Templars. To the left of the North Door, inside the chapel, is a carving showing the Crucifixion.

  The Crucifixion — or the execution of Jacques de Molay?

  Some maintain that the Crucifixion scene is a double reference: the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Golgotha, and at the same time, a representation of the execution of Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Templar Knights. What links it to the central event of the Christian calendar are the carvings close at hand of other scenes connected with the Crucifixion; the women sorrowing, shown on the capital of a pillar opposite, and a carving showing the stone rolled away from the mouth of the tomb. But in the Crucifixion scene, the cross is alone, the two thieves are missing; the cross is not elevated above the people, but the victim’s feet are as close to the ground as the others; the cross itself is T-shaped, rather than the shape familiar to us from so many other representations. This last could, of course, be a result of wilful damage. However, it seems a strange place for such an important event to be placed: up beside the corner of the North Door.

  The High Priest’s Prayer, Gospel of John, Chapter 17.

  A little farther along, in the corner between an architrave and the north wall is a carving in relief of a man with a dog on a leash. This is said to represent the Pope, Clement V as a blind man, being led by Philippe le Bel, the King of France, whose rage against the Templars brought about the destruction of the Order.*

  Another notable carving in the northern side of the chapel is in the lower right hand corner of a window, where we see the figure of a bearded man holding an open book, and pointing to a particular page. The book is the Bible, or at least the Gospel of John, and the page indicated is the seventeenth chapter; the so-called High Priestly Prayer. This chapter was an important part of Templar initiation practice.

  Who were the Templars, these men, who were on the one hand so revered, and on the other so reviled and hated?

  The origins of the Templars

  In the year 1118, nine knights arrived in Jerusalem from France. Chief among them were Hugh de Payens and Godfrey of Omer. They made their way to the palace of the King of Jerusalem, for in those days, the Holy Land was governed by European Crusader forces. These nine men were already united in a spiritual sect dedicated to the Holy Grail. It was their wish to found a new order, both monastic and military. They would live like monks but train as soldiers, and their first avowed task would be to guard the pilgrim routes to the Holy Land. They became known as the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon. For nine years they remained in Jerusalem, living in comparative poverty. Hugh de Payens and Godfrey of Omer had only one warhorse between them, which they shared. This became symbolic of their ideals, and was acknowledged in their seal, which shows two men on one horse, signifying the vow of poverty, and the sharing among them of what worldly goods they had.

  The Agnus Dei.

  During those first nine years, they sought permission to excavate under the site of the Temple of Solomon, from where they took away two trunk loads of things, but no-one knows exactly what. Some believe these things to have been placed deep in the crypt beneath Rosslyn, but no clear proof of this has ever been found.

  From these fairly humble and industrious beginnings, the Knights of the Temple, or Templars, were brought in under the protection of the Church, through the agency of Bernard de Clairvaux, a Cistercian abbot, who understood and championed their ideals. Pope Honorius confirmed the Order, and decreed that they should wear a white tunic, to which Pope Eugenius III later added the red cross over the breast. They took as their patroness Mary the Mother of Christ, and they held the Archangel Michael in special reverence. Beneath their armour and mail, next to the skin, they wore a red cord, symbolizing that they strove to overcome the demands of the organs of appetite that lay below the cord. It was also a constant reminder that every drop of their blood belonged to Christ. Here we see their relationship to the Holy Grail. The Templar ideal was to strive to change through their prayer and inner resolve, the very blood in their veins, so that it became Christ’s blood. To strengthen this resolve, they took vows of poverty and chastity and strove in their initiation practices to put aside their own wishes and ambitions and try to realize the Christ within themselves. They, too, were Sons of the Widow; men who acknowledged the widowed Soul of the World, and did all they could to welcome the Bridegroom into the world.

  As soon as they had been recognized by the Church, Hugh de Payens and his company rode across Europe, seeking interviews
with kings and noblemen, to draw support to their cause. In Scotland they found their strongest, most enthusiastic support. King David I, youngest son of Malcolm Canmore and Queen Margaret, received them with all honours, and made the Templars ‘guardians over his morals by day and by night’. The first secular building that was erected by the Templars in Europe was the Commandery at Balantrodoch, a little village some eight miles from Edinburgh, and near to Roslin. The village was so associated with the Templar order that its name changed to Temple, though hardly a stone of the original Templar buildings remains visible today, apart from the corner of an outlying wall.

  Pope Clement V as blind man led by the dog, King Philippe IV of France.

  The growth of the Templar Order

  The Templars became known for their fighting skill and their extraordinary bravery. They would not surrender in a fight or retreat, even if outnumbered three to one. Notwithstanding all their martial skill however, they were unequal to the task of overcoming the Saracen forces under Saladin. Those who were captured met their execution silently and without complaint, though at the Battle of Acre, they fought, famously, to the last man, without surrender.