Da Vinci code conspirators? The real Knights Templar are the Rotary Club in fancy dress
The Sunday Herald goes in search of the Holy Grail .... and finds an ancient order at Rosslyn chapel
By Alan Crawford
Chevalier Hugh Brawley takes out a red and gold Maltese cross from his dinner suit jacket pocket, as the afternoon sun throws long shadows in the grounds around Rosslyn Chapel.
“Ach, you’ll find folk who’ll tell you there’s all kind of mysteries involved,” he says with a self-deprecating chuckle. “There’s no hocus pocus here.”
To outside eyes, Brawley, originally from the Calton, in Glasgow, makes an unlikely Knight Templar. Not much over five feet tall, engagingly cheery and a Catholic to boot, he fails to fit the profile of a shady Templar secretly committed to perpetrating some grandiose international conspiracy involving the Pope, the Holy Grail and world domination. A real-life character from the Da Vinci Code, he is not.
Brawley bustles around the chapel, now closed to the general public, in preparation for the arrival of more senior members of the Knights Templar from France, the US, elsewhere in Scotland and England.
The occasion yesterday, which the Sunday Herald was strangely alerted to by an anonymous caller, was the investiture at Rosslyn, outside Edinburgh, of a handful of squires, or junior members, of the Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem, a modern branch of Templars founded with the support of Napoleon in 1804 and dedicated to charitable works and antiquarian research.
Evening vespers were sung and a ceremony performed in the iconic chapel by a select band of around 12 or 15 men and women.
Some wore robes, or mantles, of white with a red cross, a few swords were visible going into the chapel, and the setting sun provided the perfect atmosphere for the unorthodox scene.
Dan Brown’s multimillion bestseller has probably done more to turn on the average member of the public to the Templars than anything before it – and that includes Umberto Eco’s superior Foucault’s Pendulum. And with a blockbuster film starring Tom Hanks about to hit cinemas, that fascination is only going to escalate yet further.
But not everyone is happy. Last week the Roman Catholic Church in Italy spoke out against what it said were “shameful and unfounded lies” in the Da Vinci Code. Responding to the book’s plot that claims the Church suppressed the “truth” that Jesus had a child with Mary Magdalene, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Archbishop of Genoa, told an Italian newspaper: “It astonishes and worries me that so many people believe these lies.”
Members of the Knights Templar, while not as dismayed, are not too enamoured either. Alistair Oattes, Grand Prior, or head, of the Order in Scotland, said the boom in “esoterica” such as the Da Vinci Code had to be put in perspective.
“Dan Brown seems to have managed to link into this and make his characters believable. It’s nice people are gaining an insight and interest in it, but you have got to look at things in a more practical way. That’s just not what we are about ,” he said. “We are all trying to strive for the betterment of the human condition.”
The Order does not make a fuss of its charitable works, but it is a registered charity, a member of the International Peace Bureau and has been awarded special consultative status by the United Nations Social Council.
“We’re like a modern inter national rotary club. It’s about doing the best we can and being decent human beings. That’s the mystery,” said Brawley.
That means organising two 747s of aid into Sri Lanka to help with the aftermath of the tsunami, getting medical supplies into Baghdad hospitals, helping South Africa cope with the Aids epidemic and marshalling money to help war-torn Somalia. Medecins Sans Frontiers, the French medical chairty, is a beneficiary of the Order’s funds.
All this takes time and money, so Knights Templar tend to be reasonably wealthy and in a position to drop everything and help organise aid.
The Order has “Grand Priories”, or branches, in England, Wales and Scotland, in France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Greece, the US, Canada and in Johannesburg.
It is democratic, open to both sexes and apolitical, Brawley says. “Religious background doesn’t come into it.” Christian love, humanity and helping others are its watchwords.
By comparison, the Da Vinci Code is mere whimsy.
Brawley added: “I’ve read some stuff linked into the Da Vinci thing and think what a load of crap. But that’s just my personal view.”
Brigadier General Pat Rea, formerly of the US army, now Grand Commander of the OSMTH, to give the Sovereign Military Order its Latin acronym, prefers to focus on the Order’s history and good works.
“We’re here having a meeting. I’m the international head of the Order and I’m meeting with a number of Priories in Scotland. And when you’re in Edinburgh, you have to come to Rosslyn.”
Rosslyn Chapel, in case you’re one of the dwindling band who haven’t read the book yet, is a 15th Century church designed by William Sinclair of the St Clair family in France.
Sinclair was a notable Templar and the chapel is adorned with mysterious figures and intricate carvings associated by some with freemasonry, by others as a route map to the location of the Holy Grail, but by everyone with the Templars.
Scotland, too, is rich in association with the Templars. They were first established in Scotland by King David I in the 13th century and some believe they fought with Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn against the English armies of Edward II. Unusually, Scotland has more then one Templar Priory.
“There’s very little question that historically the Templars were active not just here at Rosslyn but throughout this valley,” expained Rea. “Templars who read their history know there are three locations of greatest importance after Jerusalem: France, Portugal and Scotland.”
Brawley holds open the door to the chapel grounds to let us leave as the sun sets behind the Pentland hills.
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