Is there any evidence that Jacques DeMolay, a Knights Templar, is considered the second coming of Christ and that it is his bodies impression on the Shroud of Turin.
Probably not.
Jacques DeMolay and Guy of Auvergne were burned at the stake by Philip the Fair. His remains are (I beleive) entombed in Paris. AFAIK, there are no accounts of the things of which you speak.
I don’t know who would have taken custody of the remains after the burning, as the Templars had been outlawed and the surviving members had been driven underground. Given the political climate at the time, I don’t think the Templars would have been willing to come forward and claim the body, even though it was their Grand Master.
Where did you hear this theory? I’m a senior DeMolay and Master Mason and have read quite a bit on these subjects. Do you have a cite for this?
Zappo
Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas make this claim in The Hiram Key. It’s a pretty flimsy conjecture. They describe DeMolay’s death as a parody of the crucifixion and then go on to say “We were able to reconstruct the circumstances of the interrogation of DeMolay because one important piece of evidence survives to this day. The Qumranian/Masonic style shroud that was taken from the Paris temple of the KLNights Templar and used to wrap the damaged figure of the Grand Master travelled with De Molay to the home of Geoffrey de Charney, where it was washed, folded up, and placed in a drawer. Exactly 50 years later, in 1357, this fourteen-foot-long piece of linen was taken out of store and put on public display…”
Uh, to continue…
“De Molay’s steaming body had been lifted down from his cross and left in a cold, damp underground dungeon where the injured man’s morbid fluids – sweat mixed with blood high in lactic acid – had run freely around the body, staining the cloth where contact was firmest.”
They also say that carbon dating places the age of the linen at around 1260, and “…given that the Shroud had probably been in use for a few years, that puts it right on target.”
The only other “evidence” they give is the “remarkably clear” resemblance to De Molay.
It looks just about as much like Ivan Pavlov.
Jeez, rereading the original post, I should make it clear that Knight & Lomas DO NOT suggest that de Molay was the second coming of Christ, only that the Turin Shroud is a relic related to de Molay. I’ve never heard anyone suggest that de Molay “was” Christ.
FWIW: If you try to make a reasonable duplicate of the “shroud” by, say, putting something like charcoal on a three dimensional figure (like yourself) and covering said figure with a sheet, the results suck. The image is distorted. But if you try the same experimant with a bas-relief, the results are very much like this “relic”.
I, too, have read the The Second Messiah and The Hiram Key and was greatly confused by what was conjecture and what was obscure historical record.
What is a bas-relief?
Like this St Clement.
One thing to consider is that Jaques DeMolay, was an old man when executed. I think in his 70’s. Although the passion play degree of this order depicts him as youthful. The shroud should be able to reveal hints of age to whomever it covered.
I too was a DeMolay. I played the senior inquisitor in this initiation degree play.
FWIW:
Laying a cloth on a real 3-dimensional body will not produce an image like that shown on the shroud. The image will be distorted quite noticably because of the “projection” or whatever it is properly called. You can produce an image of this type (shroud type) by using a bas-relief with a cloth over it.
This is one that you CAN try at home, kids. But if you get powdered paint or charcoal all over mom’s good bedsheets, don’t blame me.
As much as we’d like to have sacred relics, this shroud is el-fake-o. Been there, done that, but no t-shirt.
Sorry about the double post. Our net connection was hiccuping due to all the comm problems associated with the terrorist deal. Moderator: you can delete as you like.
Arrgh. The demo I saw done relative to the shroud used a relief much lower than the St. Clement. Your St. Clement is high relief, almost to the point of being a free-standing statue (pretty unusual in Eastern Orthodox art, BTW). The image on a coin is a very low relief of a kind, except that the faces are normally in profile instead of full face.