It sounds like the stuff of fiction but there is growing real-life controversy surrounding the new Pope. It involves not only the Knights Templar but also another authentic historical organisation whose name is so steeped in mystery and legend that most people do not believe that they ever existed: the Bavarian Illuminati.

It has emerged that just weeks before he was elected Pope, choosing the name Benedict XVI, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was in discussion with a number of individuals and organisations in connection with an investigation into the Knights Templar and the Illuminati. Could this flurry of activity have been a desperate bid to move forward with an investigation into the Knights Templar before Ratzinger was elected Pope? Did the Cardinal know he was going to be the next pope before the official Conclave even began? Cardinal Ratzinger immediately took centre stage in the ceremonies following the death of his predecessor Pope John Paul II. The Conclave then convened and duly elected Ratzinger as the new Pope. So could the decision have been made in advance of the Conclave? Cardinal Ratzinger was the chief of the Congregation of the Doctrine for the Faith, which used to be called the Holy Inquisition. As Grand Inquisitor and the Pope's chief theological policeman, Ratzinger certainly wielded enormous influence within the Catholic Church.

The Holy Inquisition under Pope Clement V was instrumental, along with King Phillip IV of France, in torturing and killing the leaders of the Knights Templar, starting on Friday 13th October 1307. The Templars were officially disbanded by the Church in 1312 and are understood to have continued in secret as a separate organisation in areas where there was great sympathy for them. Vatican documents recently revealed that the Pope held a secret trial in which the Templars were found to be innocent and yet the persecution continued.

In the latest of a series of strange events in England, reporter Raymond Brown of the Hertfordshire Mercury, who has covered the Knights Templar extensively, received a mysterious anonymous phone call about the new Pope, urging the reporter to set out on an investigation of his own. The caller made seven cryptic, numbered points that have sparked renewed interest in the mysteries surrounding the new Pope, the Knights Templar and the Illuminati. The points were more or less as follows:

1) We have just seen the first conclave of the new millennium.

2) The new Pope knew he was going to be elected before it happened.

3) The new Pope grew up in Bavaria, the home of the Illuminati.

4) The new pope was the Grand Inquisitor of the Holy Inquisition, which fought the Templars and the Illuminati.

5) In his first speech as Pope, Benedict XVI made an interesting reference to the "vineyard."

6) The new pope has been investigating the Knights Templar and the Illuminati in Hertford.

7) Just before he was elected the new Pope contacted several groups and individuals, including Dr Alan Thomson, Acting Head of History at Hertfordshire University and Alison Tinniswood, Historic Environment Record Officer of the Environment Department of Hertfordshire County Council, about the Knights Templar in Hertfordshire.

Hertfordshire Mercury Newspaper: Friday 29th April 2005, Page 28.

www.herts-essex-news.co.uk/mercury/


The symbolic number seven seems to be significant in relation to the Knights Templar (along with the number 13.) There are seven points above. The persecution began in 1307. Next year the 13th of October 2006 falls on a Friday - Friday the 13th of October, the 699th anniversary of the persecution. In the following year the 13th of October 2007 will fall exactly seven centuries after the persecution of the Knights Templar began. (Perhaps this explains why strange events are starting to take place.)

England appears to be the hub of the mysterious modern Templar activity. The post-separation Templars are believed to have a base underground in Hertfordshire, just outside England's capital. There are many tunnels and caves in the area that have been linked to the Knights Templar. The English flag is the red George cross on a white background. Its origin is the red cross of the Templars upon the white Templar mantle. England's patron saint is Saint George, the patron saint of Crusaders and the arms of the City of London include the Templars' red cross and a red sword - legacies of the capital's Templar history.

Just four days after the election of Pope Benedict XVI, on Saturday 23rd April 2005, England and the Church celebrated St George's Day. The new Pope was then inaugurated on Sunday 24th April, the day after St George's Day. The Pope's chosen name, Benedict, may also be significant from a Templar point of view. The Templar rule was based on the Rule of St Benedict and their motto is also thought to have been Benedictine in origin.

The media mostly reported that Joseph Ratzinger grew up in Germany. But in fact he is Bavarian. He was born and raised in the home of the Bavarian Illuminati and he is said to have a quiet private interest in the controversial secret society, which was founded there by Adam Weishaupt (who was born a Jew, raised a Jesuit and ended his life as an anti-clerical reformer) in 1776. The Elector of Bavaria issued edicts for the suppression of the Bavarian Illuminati on June 22 1784, which were repeated in March and August 1785, but the historical record shows that the Illuminati had already infiltrated numerous Masonic Lodges and it is said that by this time their influence had spread all over the world. It has been suggested by conspiracy theorists that the influence of the Illuminati is strongest within the Masonic Knights Templar, where they still form a secret society within a secret society.

Does the Holy Inquisition still pursue the Knights Templar after seven centuries? Could a powerful secret society have infiltrated the Catholic Church, in the same way that, as historians acknowledge, the Illuminati infiltrated Freemasonry? The answers to these questions may remain a mystery. But the questions themselves may linger forever.