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Just below the street, along an alley in a quiet English market town, is an extraordinary survival from the time of the Crusades – a small cave richly carved in saints, knights, warrior monks, crucifixion scenes and folkloric figures more
...a treasurehouse of ancient religious and secular carvings, linked to the Knights Templar. It is one of Britain’s most precious yet least-known medieval sites.
The Royston Cave, a beehive-shaped chamber, extends some 30ft beneath the centre of the Hertfordshire town – tucked away beneath a betting shop. Hewn out of a 180ft thick seam of chalk, the extraordinary medieval survival was uncovered by accident in 1742 during building work. Inside, depictions of biblical scenes and portraits of Christian martyrs were found cut into the chalk walls. than 700 years ago.
“Royston Cave features the only carving in the world to depict the bloodline of Jesus.
The Knights Templar have been credited with carving the Cave as there are many similarities between it and some of their other structures. They built mostly round churches, as in the Temple Church, London, and ‘it’s vertical bell-shape is similar to structures found in Palestine and Czechoslovakia’ (Lord 2004: 81), also, ‘The images as a whole have some similarities with other known Templar carvings at the castle of Chinon and Lincoln’ , and The Templars, including Jacques de Molay, the Grand Master, were imprisoned in the Tower de Coudray, Chateaux de Chinon, France on suppression of the Order, and a panel of graffiti including this symbol [Hebraic quaph] is attributed to these prisoners
This is a possible link to the two sites and the Knights Templar. There is also the Templar symbol of the two knights on a horse depicted in the Cave, but whether this was carved by a Templar or not will probably never be known. But what is widely known is that the Templars built underground passages and used them.
according to lore, Lawrence was able to spirit this away to Huesca, in present day Aragon, with a letter and a supposed inventory, where it lay hidden and unregarded for centuries. When Augustine connects Lawrence with a chalice, it is the chalice of the Mass:
For in that Church, you see, as you have regularly been told, he performed the office of deacon; it was there that he administered the sacred chalice of Christ’s blood.
Holy Chalice
According to lore, Lawrence was able to spirit this away to Huesca, in present day Aragon, with a letter and a supposed inventory, where it lay hidden and unregarded for centuries. When Augustine connects Lawrence with a chalice, it is the chalice of the Mass:
For in that Church, you see, as you have regularly been told, he performed the office of deacon; it was there that he administered the sacred chalice of Christ’s blood.
—[citation needed]
According to Catholic tradition the Holy Grail is a relic that was sent by St Lawrence to his parents in northern Aragon. He entrusted this sacred chalice to a friend whom he knew would travel back to Huesca, remaining in the monastery of San Juan de la Peña, core of spiritual strength for the emerging kingdom of Aragon. While the Holy Chalice's exact journey through the centuries is disputed, it is generally accepted by Catholics that the Chalice was sent by his family to this monastery for preservation and veneration. Historical records indicate that this chalice has been venerated and preserved by a number of monks and monasteries through the ages. Today the Holy Grail is venerated in a special chapel in the Catholic Cathedral of Valencia, Spain.
Wikipedia: Laurence of Rome
Originally posted by Kantzveldt
The supposed Templar cave at Royston in England
It has recently been speculated that it was used by the Knights Templar, who founded nearby Baldock, but this is unlikely, despite its enormous popular appeal. It is more likely that it originated as a cell for anchorites from the nearby Augustinian Priory, although a recent suggestion is that it was the town's earliest prison, perhaps dating from the late fifteenth century
However, as the image has been repaired in modern times, this cannot be confirmed. In 1953, the architectural historian, Nikolaus Pevsner, wrote that the date of the carvings "is hard to guess. They have been called Anglo-Saxon, but are more probably of various dates between the C14 and C17 (the work of unskilled men)".[2] This would place the carvings after the time of the Templars; certainly the figures in armour are wearing full plate, which would date them to a century after the Templars' demise.
Next, Sylvia Beamon set about finding parallels for the carvings at Royston. She found that after the arrest of Templar knights in 1308, a group held in the Donjon du Coudray at the Château at Chinon (Indre et Loire, France) is said to have carved figures on the limestone walls of their prison. She claims close similarities between these graffiti and the carvings at Royston. However, they are far from impressive, as a comparison of the two shows; any similarity is perhaps more likely to be a result of the dates of the two sets of carvings rather than their origin in the symbols of a specific religious order.
he Knights Templar had considerable possessions in the County of Nairn, or Moray, in 1296. The following extract is taken from The History of Nairn: "...There is a writ extant granted in their [the Knights Templar] favour at Berwick, addressed to the Sheriff of Invernairn to put them in possession of their lands, they having made submission to Edward I. This was no doubt done. From the deed of conveyance of the Temple lands in the North from Lord Torphichen, the last Master of the Order, it appears that the following were the lands held here "Those two roods of arable land lying within the territory of the Burgh of Nairn, in that part thereof called [blank] possessed by John Rose, burgess of Nairn, and his sub-tenants; those two roods of arable temple land and house lying within the said territory of Nairn, possessed by Hew Rose of Kilravock and his sub-tenants; all and haill those our temple lands called the lands of Pitfundie lying in the said Sheriffdom of Nairn, betwixt the strype that conies from the lands of Brodie on the east, the fludder or myre upon the south side of the common muir called the Hardmuir Map on the south side, the lands of Penick Map and wood of Lochloy Map on the west, and the Euchcarse of Culbyn on the north, for the most part possessed by the lairds of Brodie, and their sub-tenants." They had also lands at Ardersier Map, which are designated in old charters as Temple Land, Temple Cruik, Temple Bank, Bogschand. They lay partly in the vicinity of the town of Ardersier, between Connage Map and the sea, and between Flemington and the sea. A charter granted at Nairn refers to the locus trialis at Ardersier, doubtless an ancient place of trial by "wager of battle." The Temple lands of Ardersier were held by Davidsons and Mackays as portioners.