The following pages are controversial to some however there has been indepth research into these lineages and the “DESPOSYNI and “THE MOROVIANS” It is fair to say that the general populus have not been aware of these facts or have been made aware during their education. It is not that they have been kept “secret” but just not readily available.

It is only in the past decade that this information has ended up in the public domain largely thanks to modern day information processes such as the internet. However these facts have been known for eons. In particular The Church of Rome who has had a history of keeping information in the Church’s archivesout of the public domain. For example it is only recently that we learnt of the order “THE PRIORY OF SION” and the order “OPUS DEI”. These orders do exist and have for over a thousand years. The modern day Catholic Church does indeed acknowledge this, BUT only recently.

NOTE:

Opus Dei is a Catholic religious order. The Priory of Sion IS NOT a religious order.

THE PRIORY

1090 - 1188 The Ordre de Sion

 Those marked red are Ancestors of Tony Drinkwater                            

According to the "prieure documents," a conclave of Calabrian monks who left from the Belgian Abbey of Orval in 1090 helped secure the election of Godfroi de Bouillion as de facto king of Jerusalem during the First Crusade (but as is well known, he refused the title, accepting only Defender of the Holy Sepulchre), based on their belief that he was a descendant of the Merovingians, and by that fact, according to these documents, also a descendant of King David through Jesus and Merovech. In return, Godfroi secured their installation into an Abbey on Mount Sion. These documents also claim that the Ordre of Sion and the Order of the Temple (officially, the Poor Knights of the Temple of Solomon, later known as the Knights Templar, and officially recognized as such in 1118) were, until 1188, one unified organization with the same leadership.

Is there any basis to these claims? Here is what it is apparently true: there was indeed an Order of Sion based on Mt. Sion, and according to a papal bull of the 12^th century, it had monasteries and abbeys elsewhere in Palestine (in particular, Mount Carmel), in southern Italy (Calabria), and in France. There is little in the official histories linking Godfroi to this order, but he is said to have founded the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, whose relationships to these other orders (the Temple and Sion) are unclear. And the official histories do not indicate any overlap between these monks and the soldier-monks of the Knights Templar. The Order seems to have occupied its "mother" abbey, Notre Dame de Sion/St. Mary of Mt. Zion, built on the foundations of the original apostolic Cenacle or Coelaneum, up until around 1291 or so, when like many Crusader holdings, it was overwhelmed by the Moslem onslaught. It actually was in the hands of the Franciscans for several more centuries, until it finally was lost to Christian ownership and was converted to a mosque.

There is interesting links between the Order de Sion and the Carmelites. St. Berthold, the founder of the Carmelites, also originated from Calabria. Fra Lippi, a tutor of Botticelli, who is listed as a PoS GM, lived in Calabria and was known as "The Carmelite". Crotone in Calabria was the home of the Pythagorean school, and Pythagoras is said by Iamblichus to have visited Mount Carmel. Calabria was the "stomping grounds" of Joachim of Fiore and Giordano Bruno. Most interestingly, recent archaeological articles suggest the Essenes had encampments on both Mount Carmel and Mount Zion. St. Therese of Liseux turns up in a number of "PoS churches", and she took her name both from Theresa of Avila, a Discalced Carmelite and mystic, and Therese of Lidoine, a Carmelite nun who was murdered by the Revolutionary Terror in Compeigne.

The Abbey of Orval's web site says only that mysterious monks from Calabria came there in 1070, although little is known about their identity, and they were welcomed there by Count Arnould de Chiny. These "pioneers" moved out after forty years, i.e. around 1110. The legend of Orval claims that it was named by Mathilda de Tuscany, who after finding a lost ring declared the place "a Valley of Gold" (Val D'Or.) That name will turn up again... recent research also suggests that Nostradamus may have found some "Templar" materials at the Abbey of Orval.

What I have found quite interesting about this Order is their choice of real estate. According to a recent (1990) issue of Biblical Archaeology magazine, Mt. Sion seems to have been the "HQ" of the Ebionites of Jerusalem - those "Judaizing" followers of Jesus who looked to his brother James, rather than the "Apostle" Paul, for leadership. Pauline Christians, in fact, avoided the place until the Byzantine period (7^th century). It looks like some of these followers even made an abortive attempt to build a 3^rd Temple of Solomon on the site after the Great Revolt of 70 CE, using the ruins of the destroyed Herodian templeÖ an effort that seems to have come to an end with the decisive defeat of the Messiah Bar Kochba in 135 CE. This choice does not appear arbitrary: the Old Testament says that Solomon's Temple sat on Mt. Zion, which although identified with Mt. Moriah for many centuries, by the 2^nd Temple period was once again recognized as a mountain outside the existing Jerusalem city walls. I believe their choice of Mt. Sion for their Abbey displays an obvious "Ebionite" outlook on their part.

However, it seems like several monks had vacated from this Abbey prior to its emptying in 1291, and it does appear that quite a few went back to Orleans, France with King Louis in the 12^th century. Others went to southern Italy (Calabria was the home of the heresies of Joachim of Fiore - a very unorthodox territory). The Order of Sion did not apparently cease to exist, though, even after losing its "mother" abbey in Jerusalem, and according to one perhaps less than totally reliable authority, Gerard de Sede, it continued on for quite some time, until being absorbed by the Jesuits in the 17^th century. Prior to this dissolution, though, the "prieure documents" claim Sion and the Templars underwent a separation, at an event called the 'cutting of the elm' at Gisors in 1188. The "prieure documents" claim Sion's first independent "grand master", Jean de Gisors, was elected at this time: Sion and the Temple were no longer under the same leadership, and each went its own way.

This event, like so many others, appears to be based on some historical events, but perhaps shrouded with the clouds of myth. We know that there was indeed an ancient elm tree at the fortress of Gisors, often used as a neutral meeting point for the monarchs of England and France. And, indeed, there was a "parting of the ways" that occurred there, but it was not a division between Sion and the Templars. In January of 1188, the kings of England and France agreed to a truce at this elm tree, so that they could launch yet another common Crusade to the Holy Land. But in August, further meetings at the tree resulted in the collapse of this truce. One side became agitated over the fact that the other was hogging all the shade from the tree, the French and English skirmished, and finally it was cut down after a bloody battle. There is no evidence that Jean de Gisors was there or the Templars, but it seems hard to see why either would be uninvolved with a struggle that occurred in their physical and moral backyards.

Thomas a Beckett met with papal legates at the tree of Gisors, after his "excommunication" of some opponents (including a Hugh St. Clair) at Vezelay. Beckett appears to have been an important figure for Jean de Gisors, who dedicated several buildings to him. He was "martyred" on December 28th, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, for refusing to back down over his stance on the separation of sacerdotal and royal authority. Gisors also has a weird "parallel legend" to RlC: whereas RlC's daemon guardian must be defeated at noon (probably on the summer solstice), Gisor's "treasure" is guarded by a daemon who can only be passed at midnight on December 24th (the winter solstice).

1188 - 1307: The Rise and Fall of the Templars

Although the Order de Sion and the Knights Templar parted ways, at least according to the "prieure documents", in 1188, they still seem to have had some sort of interconnection, and some artefacts, knowledge, documents, etc. relating to the current 'mystery' seem to have remained in the Templars' possession. Thus, a great deal of investigation into the PoS/RlC mystery seems to revolve around the mysteries of the Templars. Did they possess some type of treasure? Were they heretics, dabbling in Ebionism, Johannism, or Essenism? Did they have some kind of "hands off" pact with the Cathars of southern France? Did they continue to survive in some kind of clandestine fashion after the order's "official" dissolution?

Again, here is what can be known. During their short but meteoric career, the Knights Templar became known for more than just their skill as soldiers or their piety. They became bankers, diplomats, and power-brokers. An elite few even became scholars, attempting to translate Hebrew Old Testament texts (such as the Book of Maccabees) into the vernacular. Charges of heresy and disloyalty dogged them for a long time, even as early as the early 12^th century. Some of this undoubtedly arose from envy: as the bankers of Europe, the Temple acquired quite a formidable stash of gold. As it turns out, while northern Templars pursued the Albigensian Crusade with relish, gleefully slaughtering the Cathar heretics in the name of the Pope, southern Templars seem to have been more reluctant to take up arms against their neighbors. Scholars have argued whether this might have had to do with political loyalties (to the kingdom of Aragon) or family ties, but in any case, it does seem somewhat puzzling.

In 1307, on the rather inauspicious date of Friday, October 13^th, King Philip the Fair ordered the arrest of the Templars on the charges of heresy. Historians conclude he was mostly after their wealth, having already seized the assets of the Jews in his realm a year earlier. Legal inquiries ensued, and Grand Master Jacques de Molay was thrown in prison. In 1312, during the Council of Vienne, the Pope (who was in Philip's "pocket"), dissolved the Templars as a religious order. Finally, in 1314, after refusing to renounce his claim of innocence, Jacques de Molay was burned at the stake in Paris as a relapsed heretic. Outside of France, Templars endured different levels of treatment - in some countries, they were hardly bothered at all, while in France they suffered torture, harassment, and vigorous persecution. Also, outside of France, the charges were more widely viewed with disbelief. The King and Pope did not outlast deMolay by long, dying several months after him.

As for their orthodoxy, the only real evidence that the Templars were anything less than pious, dumb, and loyal Catholic knights is their testimony at their trial. And, sadly, most of this testimony has to be ruled out, since most of it was obtained under torture. While under the hot irons of the inquisitors, the Templars admitted to intercourse with demons, worshipping black cat familiars, sodomy, and black magic, charges that no scholar takes seriously. In truth, these type of charges are a familiar litany that often turns up when a persecuted group was tortured by the inquisition - they show up during the witch-trials of two centuries later, and of trials of other Gnostic heretics centuries before. Thus, they probably reflect more of the demon-obsessed mind of the inquisitors than anything else.

Yet, there is a hidden "subtext" which suggests that, although many of the charges were trumped up in a Stalinesque (or Kafkaesque) kangaroo court (which we will return to later), heresy was already brewing among the Templars. For one thing, many Templars made a rather confusing confession. They claim they went through initiations by their superiors in which they were told to worship G-d the Father, but were also to spit on the cross and deny the Trinity. This is not the type of thing normally confessed to under torture by someone trying to tell their confessor what they wanted to hear, so the torture would end. After all, why not just say they had gone over to the Devil's side, rather than simply declaring that they had adopted a non-Trinitarian (perhaps "Ebionite"?) Christianity? Many people think the Templars incapable of heresy because they were unintellectual fighting men. However, the heresies of the Middle Ages often spread primarily among illiterate peasants.

A number of Templars outside of France, including some in England, were never tortured, yet made similar confessions. Indeed, many claim that the main heresiarch within the order was Roncelin de Fos, a 13^th century Templar who was of Cathar ancestry. At some point, Roncelin began forming clandestine "cells" within the order, spreading his heretical teachings and initiations. Apparently, the leadership was unaware of this internal 'virus,' which may be why De Molay went to the grave honestly protesting his innocence - he truly had no knowledge of heresy within the order. There is also the possibility that some rather innocent deviations on the part of the Templars were simply misunderstood as "heresy" by their inquisitors and blown out of proportion. Whatever the case may be, charges suggesting the Templars were heretics went back to the 1140s - while, interestingly, their 'companion' order, the Knights Hospitaller of St. John, never faced similar chargesÖ but the only remotely heretical artefact the inquisitors ever found was a silver woman's head in a Templar perceptory marked "Caput LVIIIm".

If the Templars ever had a "treasure" other than a great stack of florins, history doesn't record it. Certainly, there are a number of Masonic ritual degrees (like the Holy Royal Arch) that suggest that they conducted some exploration on the Temple Mount, and either found some scrolls or the Ark of the Covenant itself. Other sources, like Ian Wilson, claim they had the "Mandylion" or Shroud of Turin prior to its display at Lirey in the 1350s. And, of course, there are always the persistent rumors that they held secret negotiations with the Hashisheen or Assassins led by the Old Man of the Mountain, Hassan-I-Sabah, or the Druzes of Lebanon, and from them obtained some esoteric materials. Although sources seem to disagree as to whether this treasure was spiritual, material, or documentary, this has not stopped people from looking for it, at Rosslyn Chapel, Gisors, Rennes-les-Chateau, Stenay, and elsewhere.

Equally in dispute has been the fate of the Templars after their 1312 dissolution. In many countries, they were simply folded into "new" military orders which consisted of the same people under a different name - for example, the Knights of Christ in Portugal. In England and in many countries, some went on to join their former friendly rivals, the Hospitallers. This may have been a good decision, considering the number of assets of the Templars turned over to their rivals. In France, most of the knights hung up their swords and retired to non-military monasteries, although a few went "rogue" and became mercenaries, pirates, or freebooters. However, there have always been the persistent rumors that the Templar order "survived" in some clandestine form after its own dissolution. For example, the Charter of Larmenius says that before de Molay died, he appointed a "clandestine" Grand Master to continue the order in defiance of the Pope's bull. Many of the "neo-Templar" orders of today claim they are the continuation of this 'survival', often with little or no proof. And, of course, there are those who say the Freemasons are the heirs of the Knights Templar.

Whatever the "PoS" is or was, it seems to have some interest in the Templar legacy, because in their documents they indicate some interest in Templar "materials" supposedly left behind at Gisors, where many Templars were imprisoned or detained. Assuming there is any validity to the "prieure documents" account, Sion and the Temple would have maintained some type of contact with each other, and the OdS would probably have some awareness of the disposition of their "sibling" order's people, property, and materiel.

The Desposyni

 Jesus had brothers and sisters, as reported in Mark^[2] 6:3^[3] and Matthew 13:55-56.^[4] The Gospels name four brothers, but only James is known to history. After Jesus' death, James, "the Lord's brother",^[5] was the head of the congregation in Jerusalem^[2] and Jesus' relatives seem to have held positions of authority in the surrounding area.^[6] As the doctrine of Perpetual virginity of Mary developed, predominantly in the East, Christians began to regard the siblings of Jesus as children of Joseph by an earlier marriage, and Jerome went on to argue that the 'brothers' and 'sisters' referred to were actually cousins.^[7] The terms "brother" and "sister" as used in this context are open to different interpretations.^[8] The most natural conclusion from what is written in the New Testament is that Jesus' siblings were children of Mary and Joseph, as accepted by some members of the early Christian church, later called the Antidicomarianites; but when Helvidius proposed this idea in the fourth century, Jerome, who seems to have expressed the general opinion of the Church, maintained that Mary remained always a virgin, and held that those who were called the brothers and sisters of Jesus were children of Clopas, a brother-in-law of Mary.^[9] The "brothers" and "sisters" of Jesus have thus been interpreted as children of Joseph by a previous marriage, as Mary's sister's children, or as Joseph's sister's children.^[9] Critical scholars say that the doctrine of perpetual virginity has long obscured the recognition that Jesus had siblings.^[10]

Desposyni Ancestors of TONY DRINKWATER

All of the below in chronological descent are direct  ancestors  of Tony Drinkwater