FINAL WARNING: The Curtain Falls
Temple treasure. In 70 AD when Rome ransacked Jerusalem, carrying
its treasure back to Rome, it was believed that they may have gotten all
of the Temple wealth, including the Ark of the Covenant. In 410, when
the Visigoths invaded Rome, they carried away, “the treasures of
Solomon, the King of the Hebrews, a sight most worthy to be seen, for
they were adorned in the most part with emerald’s and in the olden
time they had been taken from Jerusalem by the Romans.”Or, could the treasure discovered by Sauniere been the treasure
plundered from the Temple grounds by the Knights Templar.Many of the Crusaders who went to Palestine to fight against the
Moslem invaders were French Catholics, and by 1061, they had
conquered Jerusalem, and put Godefroi de Bouillon (1061-1100), Duke
of Lower Lorraine, on the throne of Jerusalem. Known as the ‘Guardian
of the Holy Sepulcher,’ he claimed to be of the lineage of David, and
between 1090 and 1099, organized a secret society called the Prieuré
de Sion (Order of Sion). His aims were to possess the wealth of the
world, including the Temple treasure, and to establish world
government which would be controlled by a Merovingian king in
Jerusalem.Though deposed in the 8th century, the Merovingian dynasty and
bloodline continued, and was perpetuated with Dagobert II, and his
son, Sigisbert IV. Through alliances and intermarriages, this line
continued through Godefroi. This bloodline was known as a “royal
tradition ... founded on the rock of Sion,” which was considered to be
equal to other European dynasties.Their headquarters was at the Abbey of Notre Dame du Mont de Sion,
in southern Jerusalem on Mount Sion, where the ruins of a Byzantine
basilica from the 4th century stood, which was called the Mother of All
Churches. It was Godefroi’s younger brother, Baudouin I, who became
the first king of Jerusalem; it was the Prieuré de Sion that created the
Knights Templar as its military arm.In 1118, Hugues de Payen, a nobleman from Champagne, and Godefroi
de St. Omer, a French Knight, along with seven other Knights, founded
the Order of the Knights Templar (Order of the Poor Knights of Christ
and the Temple of Solomon). They swore to live according to the rules