by Nancy Reagin
“Reckless he is”: Jedi such as Obi-Wan find fearlessness one of their greatest assets. (Revenge of the Sith)
Sacrificial knight: Jacques de Molay was arrested and executed on King Philip IV’s orders.
The final pattern shared by the Templars and the Jedi concerns their remarkably similar betrayal by trusted rulers. The Templars’ betrayal began in 1307 with King Philip IV of France’s plan to consolidate the Templars and the Hospitallers (a smaller order of warrior-monks) into a single crusading force under his command. His stated intention was to use this combined order to recover Outremer territories lost to Muslim forces in 1291. After the grand masters of both orders rejected the king’s plan, Philip plotted to seize the Templars’ considerable assets. The Templars had accumulated enormous wealth since their foundation and represented an irresistible target to an impoverished monarch such as Philip, who was already deeply in debt to the Order. The Templars also made a monarch such as Philip uneasy, because they were an independent military force—exempt from taxation—that could move freely within his borders.
Knights to pawns: even the greatest warriors of the Templar and Jedi Order, such as Ki-Adi-Mundi, were vulnerable to betrayal. (Revenge of the Sith)
On Friday the 13th of October, 1307, Philip’s men executed a secret warrant to arrest as heretics all of the Templars in France, including their grand master Jacques de Molay, who had served the day before as a pall bearer at the funeral of the king’s sister Catherine.63 This treachery is reminiscent of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine’s plan to destroy the Jedi Order through the issuance of Order 66: one of the contingency plans that the clones have been trained to obey during their conditioning on Kamino. This order commands the clone troopers to destroy every member of the Jedi Order, even the Jedi who have served as their comrades and commanders for the last four years.64
Both orders were also dishonored by slanderous propaganda campaigns. The Templars were charged with crimes that were deemed deeply offensive to medieval Christians: denying and spitting on the cross, homosexual acts, and worshiping profane idols.65 For their part, “the Jedi were painted as the real traitors of the Clone Wars: imperial propaganda implicated the Jedi in the creation of the clone troopers and the manipulation of the Senate.”66 Very few knights survived either massacre.
We glean two important lessons from these stories of betrayal. The first is that those who strive for virtue are especially imperiled in a world filled with deceit and villainy. As powerful as these knights were, they were outwitted by adversaries who relied on cunning, instead of courage. The second lesson is that an excess of either greed or fear can prove fatal. The Templars perished in part because of their power and wealth. They also naively trusted Pope Clement V—who initially absolved the Templars of their guilt in 1308 but then gave in to Philip’s pressure and suppressed the Order in 1312—when there was clear evidence that the king had designs on their property and was circulating scandalous rumors about them.67
Darth Sidious counts on the Jedi’s misplaced pride in their collective ability to feel the Force when he unfurls his plan for galactic domination without their notice. Only Yoda senses that the Jedi have become dangerously proud. He warns Kenobi and Windu that the arrogance they lament in Anakin Skywalker is “a flaw all too common among Jedi.” Even members of the Jedi Council as venerable as Ki-Adi-Mundi and Mace Windu are blinded by their excessive pride in the inherent moral purity of all Jedi. They refuse to accept evidence that Count Dooku is behind the plot to assassinate Senator Amidala, saying that Dooku is incapable of such treachery by virtue of having once been a Jedi.
A final meaningful parallel is that the epilogue of the Templars’ sad story reads much like the prologue of the Sith’s rise to power: both tell of an evil and secret brotherhood hell-bent on revenge. According to legend, a handful of Templars survived the purge, thanks to their vast land holdings, secret dens, and global web of contacts. As centuries passed, this cabal clung to the shadows and grew into a powerful occult brotherhood driven by their lust for revenge against the French Crown and the pope. An eighteenth-century account claims that the Freemasons inherited and perverted the Templars’ mission, adding a “vow of vengeance against the kings and priests who destroyed their Order, and against all religion.”68
“No Such Thing as Luck”
Histories of the exceptional men who lived and died as Shaolin monks, samurai, and Knights Templar remind us that the Jedi are not alone in seeing that we are not really crude, material creatures who beg for good fortune and die for good when our flesh goes cold. People from our histories formed similar societies dedicated to preserving peace and fighting on behalf of innocents too weak to defend themselves. All people, on whatever world they might live, need these stories. These tales kindle the hope and courage we need to reject the corrupting allure of greed, resist the seductive power of anger, and, above all, live in the face of death and change. The Jedi are the first but not the last to look beyond the desires bound to this world to live in the light of the brighter truth that we are “luminous beings,” as Yoda instructs Luke, who partake of a common, unifying, cosmic energy, whether we name it Ashla, qi, spiritus, or the Force.69
Notes
1. Laurent Bouzereau, Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplay (New York: Ballantine Books, 1997), 34.
2. Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (New York: Princeton University Press, [1949] 1968), 3.
3. Though that won’t stop me from still trying after thirty-three years.
4. Daniel Wallace, The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force (Bellevue, WA: Becker & Meyer, 2010), 8.
5. Celibacy is enforced during most of the Jedi Order’s long history, though the Order occasionally makes exemptions to this rule, as in the case of Ki-Adi-Mundi, whose home world of Cerea is so depopulated by war that he is allowed to have a family without renouncing his membership in the Jedi Order. Similar exceptions to celibacy rules were made in the Shaolin Temple in 621 CE, when the monks were allowed to marry as a reward for their courage in battle. Also, the reformed Jedi Order under Luke Skywalker does not require celibacy.
6. Meir Shahar, The Shaolin Monastery: History, Religion, and the Chinese Martial Arts (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2008), 9.
7. Ashley Croft, The Shaolin Temple: A History and Evolution of Chinese Martial Arts, Zen Buddhism and the Shaolin Warrior Monks (London, UK: Martial Arts Publishing, 2010), 15.
8. Robin Reilly, Karate Training (Rutland, VT: Charles Tuttle, 1985), 30.
9. Croft, The Shaolin Temple, 19.
10. Bouzereau, Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplay, 180.
11. Shahar, The Shaolin Monastery, 102.
12. Croft, The Shaolin Temple, 17.
13. Shahar, The Shaolin Monastery, 122.
14. Wallace, The Jedi Path, 70
15. Croft, The Shaolin Temple, 31.
16. Ibid., 30.
17. David Chow and Richard Spangler, Kung Fu: History, Philosophy and Technique (Burbank, CA: Unique Publications, 1982), 11.
18. Croft, The Shaolin Temple, 22.
19. Ibid., 26.
20. Bouzereau, Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplay, 35.
21. Thanks to Rebecca Kemnitz MacMullan for her clear and insightful lessons on the nature of qi.
22. Waysun Liao, T’ai Chi Classics (Boston: Shambala Publications, 1990), 17.
23. Wallace, The Jedi Path, 26.
24. “The Jedi Temple,” in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, 152.
25. Croft, The Shaolin Temple, 33.
26. Japan has a history of warrior monks called sohei or yamabushi. For more on them, see Mikael Adolphson, The Teeth and the Claws of the Buddha: Monastic Warriors and Sohei in Japanese History (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2007).
27. Thomas Cleary, Code of the Samurai: A Modern Translation of the Bushido Shoshinsu (Rutland, VT: Tuttle Publishing, 1999), x.
28. Victor Harris, “Translator’s Introduction,” A Book of Five Rings (Woodstock, N
Y: Overlook Press, 1974), 2.
29. Even Darth Vader’s helmet looks a great deal like the lacquered helmets of the samurai.
30. An important point of divergence between these two communities is that Jedi, by definition, do not fight other Jedi in combat, because all Jedi serve the light side of the Force. Jedi who oppose others are called either Fallen or Dark Jedi, or, if they cross over to the dark side, the Sith. Each individual samurai, on the other hand, served his particular lord unto death and very frequently crossed blades with other samurai.
31. Cleary, Code of the Samurai, 6.
32. Miyamoto Musashi, A Book of Five Rings, Victor Harris, trans. (Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 1974).
33. Takuan Soho, The Unfettered Mind, William Scott Wilson, trans. (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2002), 15.
34. Bouzereau, Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplay, 34.
35. Stephen Sansweet, Pablo Hidalgo, et al., “The Jedi Code,” in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, vol. 2 (New York: Ballantine, 2008), 146.
36. Cleary, Code of the Samurai.
37. Although the samurai were formally abolished in the nineteenth century, their spirit lives on in many of the Japanese martial arts. The samurai’s devotion to his master continues in the close and formal relationship between a master or senior student (sempai) and the student or junior (kohai).
38. Rielly, Karate Training, 61.
39. Tsunetomo Yamamoto, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai, William Scott Wilson, trans. (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1979), 18.
40. Wallace, The Jedi Path, 99.
41. Soho, The Unfettered Mind, 55.
42. Bouzereau, Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplay, 59.
43. Soho, The Unfettered Mind, 55.
44. All dates in the Star Wars universe are measured in years before the Battle of Yavin (BBY) or after it (ABY).
45. Bouzereau, Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplay, 115.
46. Eugen Herrigel, Zen in the Art of Archery, R. F. C. Hull, trans. (New York: Vintage Books, 1971), 35.
47. Michael Haag, The Templars: The History and the Myth (New York: Harper Collins, 2009), 145.
48. Barbara Frale, The Templars: The Secret History Revealed (Dunboyne, Ireland: Maverick House, 2009), 62.
49. Haag, The Templars, 96.
50. The Order of Knights of the Hospital of St. John, or the Hospitallers, was founded in 1099 and took up arms in 1118 under their master Raymond de Le Puy.
51. Robert Payne, The Dream and the Tomb: A History of the Crusades (New York: Stein and Day, 1984), 125.
52. Haag, The Templars, 101.
53. Ibid.
54. Ibid., 121.
55. Interestingly, some of the Jedi who fight in the Mandalorian Wars are called the Revanchists or the Jedi Crusaders.
56. Frale, The Templars, 58.
57. Ibid., 65.
58. We see an excellent example of this tension in Jedi Battlemaster Skarch Vaunk’s caution regarding Form VII Lightsaber Combat: Juyo or “the Ferocity Form.” Juyo is highly effective in the hands of a Master such as Mace Windu, for it harnesses the power of the Jedi’s passion. Yet it is also a controversial form that is taught only to select Jedi because it risks drawing the Jedi to the dark side. See Wallace, The Jedi Path, 135–136.
59. Haag, The Templars, 103.
60. As the wise Chancellor Palpatine would say, this hair-splitting logic might be easier to swallow if you take a broader view.
61. Frale, The Templars, 67.
62. Ibid.
63. Haag, The Templars, 217.
64. Another fascinating historical parallel involves the clone troopers of Star Wars and the Mamelukes: slaves primarily from Turkey, Russia, and Greece who served as the elite core of the Egyptian army. The Mamelukes, similar to the clones, were outsiders who were bred to fight for a society that denied them freedom and whose rewards they could not enjoy.
65. Malcolm Barber, The Trial of the Templars (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 202.
66. “Jedi Order,” in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, vol. 2, 150.
67. Frale, The Templars, 186.
68. Abbé Augustin Barruel, Memoirs (1797), as quoted in Haag, The Templars, 266.
69. I would like to thank my good friend Kevin Decker for his invaluable and knowledgeable critiques that greatly improved the quality of this chapter.
Chapter 4
“A House Divided”
The Causes and Costs of Civil War
Paul Horvath and Mark Higbee
“I will not let this Republic that has stood for a thousand years be split in two.”
—Chancellor Palpatine, Attack of the Clones
The Star Wars saga may appear to be just entertainment—great storytelling, stunning visual effects, and terrific adventure on an epic scale. Yet the galaxy we see there also reflects humanity’s real history of conflict and economic exploitation more than many fans may realize. The films center on two galactic civil wars, just as American history pivots on the Civil War. Both plot lines turn on the course of civil wars and their causes and consequences. Furthermore, brutal economic exploitation and political division are imbedded in the Star Wars galaxy, just as they exist in much of our history. Different civil wars have had quite different causes: some were fought over political rivalry, religious disputes, and economic conflict. Some resulted in the overthrow of oppressive leaders. Others demonstrated deep divides on policy and politics. All were devastating to the people who lived through them.
Separatists, Revolutionaries, and Those Loyal to the Empire
Take the wars that led to the creation of Imperial Rome. In the last decades of the Roman Republic, powerful nobles vied to control the government and the wealth that implied, going head-to-head in a series of costly civil wars. Julius Caesar vied with Pompey the Great before emerging as the ruler of Rome. His nephew Octavian tangled with Mark Antony and Cleopatra in another civil war that spanned the Mediterranean and cost thousands of lives. When he emerged victorious, Rome celebrated a “Pax Romana” with his assumption of absolute rule that was just as hollow as the “peace, freedom, justice, and security” that Anakin believes Palpatine will provide by eliminating the Republic.
In the seventeenth century, a different type of civil war broke out in Britain between forces loyal to England’s Parliament and supporters of King Charles I. This British Civil War had economic and political causes complicated by religious disputes between Puritans and the king’s traditional church. From 1642 to 1649, the war raged and the people suffered horribly, often at the hands of their nearest and dearest, as neighbor turned against neighbor. When the king was defeated, his execution didn’t bring the democratic republic that some parliamentary supporters had envisioned. Ironically, the victorious parliamentary leader, Oliver Cromwell, wielded more absolute power than King Charles had ever enjoyed: a feat that Palpatine would have applauded.
This 1643 woodcut made light of the real divide separating families and neighbors during the British Civil War.
The Tory’s Day of Judgment: Patriots prepare to tar and feather a Loyalist during the American Revolution.
Political revolutions sometimes share the attributes of a civil war. The American Revolution deeply divided communities in some of the thirteen colonies, as pro-revolutionary Patriots struggled for local control with the so-called Loyalists, who wanted to stay under the rule of the “mother country.” Before the war’s outbreak, Patriots tarred and feathered dozens of Loyalists, pouring pitch-black liquid pine tar over their victims, then coating the tar with feathers and parading them around the town in humiliation and disgrace. A Virginia shoemaker was tarred and feathered just before the Revolution for “King-worship,” while a Connecticut mother was threatened with tarring and feathering in 1776 because she named her newborn son for a British general.1 Patriots forced Loyalists to sign “loyalty oaths” to the Revolution; if they refused, the Loyalists were jailed and their property was confiscated. Loyalists formed pro-British mi
litias in areas where the British army was operating, often engaging in pitched battles with pro-revolutionary forces, especially in the South. When the Patriots won and the British were forced to withdraw, tens of thousands of Loyalists left the new United States and emigrated to Canada so that they could remain under the rule of the British Crown.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 began a multiparty civil war that lasted almost six years. The ruling tsar was deposed by the leadership of the Russian parliament, supported by a population that was weary of the losses inflicted by Russia’s involvement in World War I. The provisional democratic government that replaced the tsar was itself overthrown by the Bolsheviks—led by Vladimir Lenin—eight months later. This kicked off a bloody, multiparty civil war, as the Bolshevik Red Army fought not only the anti-Bolshevik White Army, but also regional and nationalist insurgent groups seeking to break away from what became the Soviet Union, along with foreign armed forces that tried to intervene. As in other civil wars, civilians paid the heaviest costs: both the Whites and the Reds carried out massacres and summary executions of groups they suspected of supporting the other side, and constant warfare combined with drought to produce mass famines and epidemics. After the Whites lost, hundreds of thousands of their supporters fled Russia, just as the American colonial Loyalists had fled to Canada after their side lost the Revolution.2