It was on March First, 1160, that Dom Gualdim Pais, Grand-Master of the Portuguese Knights of the Order of Templars, began the construction of the main Oratory of the  Charola,  in Tomar, in the central of Portugal.

The Order of Templars had helped and continued to help very much the first King of Portugal, Dom Afonso Henriques, not only on the defense but also on the conquest of territories from the Moors. Because of the Templar’s help, the Portuguese King gave them large extensions  of land and castles between river Mondego (Coimbra) and river Tejo (Lisbon).

The armory of a Templar consisted of the his arms, a large mantle with the  Red Cross  and also his horse.

“If the horse died and the Templar Knight had no means to get one, the Order was responsible to furnish him another horse, until he was able to acquire one of his own, without loosing his rank within the Order of Templars”. 

Another fundamental aspect of being a Templar was that the Templars mounted the same horse in pairs, as we can see in the Emblem or the  icon  of the Order of Templars: 

Icon or Emblem of the Order of Christ

SIGILLUM  MILITVM  XPISTI    MILITARY  SIGN  OF  CHRIST

Because of this horsemanship ritual  of  the Templar Order and later the Order of Christ – two riders on the same horse – the Knights attended mass on horseback, contiguous to the Charola. 

We should note that when the Charola was built no buildings existed around it,  such as stairs, etc.

With this information we understand better why the EIGHT  arches of the Charola were so high. This was to permit the Knights to see clearly the main Oratory and also the saint statues placed on the altars between the arches of the Charola! 

The Knights attend the mass on horseback because they had to be always ready to  fight  because of the constant threat from the Moors.

Today the Untied States of America is in constant alert because of the threat of the Moors!…

It  seems that for more than 500 years NOTHING  has changed concerning the Moors’s  threat and attacks to the Christian World --> catholic and Protestant  of  the Western World!

The Portuguese were the first to kick out the Moors from Portugal,  by conquering Algarve in 1249, during the kingdom of Afonso III. Spain got rid of the Moors – 243 years later --  only in 1492,  when Granada was conquered.  The Americans today should ask the Portuguese how to fight and win over the Moors…  With the Moors you cannot just  be on defense. You have to attack them! You cannot win a football game just on defense, you have to attack! 

From Templars to the Order of Christ

 In 1312, the King of France, Philip the Handsome, by using a conspiracy abolished  the Order of Templars in France and took from them all their possessions.  He also convinced   Pope Clement V, to abolish all the  Orders of Templars  throughout Europe, by issuing   the  Papal Bull “Regrans in Coelis”,  in 1314.

But in Portugal, King Dom Dinis, with a diplomatic maneuver convinced Pope John XXII  to issue a Papal Bull  “Ad ea Exquibis”, dated March 1319, to transform the Order of Templars  into the Order of Christ, but maintaining the same Knights, the same lands and  the same castles,  but moving their headquarters to the fort of  Castro Marim, in Algarve,  to be closer to Granada were the Moors still existed and  this way preventing them from reconquering  the Portuguese territory. 

But in 1356 the Order of Christ returned to the mother headquarters in Tomar.

From the various negotiations between the Kings of Portugal and the various Popes, resulted  an  advantage that  the Masters of  the various  Portuguese Orders, started to be named by the Pope with the condition that  the Mastership had to be given to a member of the Real Family.   The first such Mastership was given to Prince Henry and the Governor and Administrator of the Order of Christ.

Prince Henry even built an addition to the Charola for his living quarters. The ruins of this building can be seen today in complex of the Convent of Tomar. 

It was from the coffers of the Order of Christ, which was the richest in Portugal, that Prince Henry got the money to build the first caravels for the discoveries and also to pay the scholars that composed his School of Navigation, in Sagres.

Even though the School of Navigation was the Prince Henry himself – where he was, there was the School – similar to the Philosophical Schools in Athens, Greece,  of Plato and Aristotle --  Prince Henry died in 1460, nearby the School in Sagres, the southwest most part of Portugal. 

Unfortunately, today, there are in Portugal, some so called historians, that have said that the School of Sagres did not existed!  These individuals have received  as salaries,  during all their lives,  moneys from the Portuguese Government.  They want to be famous by being negative!...  They must be atheists and communists!   But communism has been flushed down the toilet a long time ago!…

We should note also that the Order of Christ, during the command of Prince Henry, became the most powerful Religious Military Order in The Kingdom of Portugal. This Order became a favorite of the Popes because the  Knights of the Order of Christ became the Navigators who spread the Christian Faith in the African continent and in the Atlantic Islands, therefore  serving as the Crusaders  of the Occident which pleased  the Papacy very much.

General Panorama of the Crusades to the Orient of Holly Land:

1095 –First Crusade resulted in the  conquest of the Jerusalem,   or Holly Land.

 The other Crusades were not  as successful and Jerusalem was reconquered  by the Moors.

General Panorama of the Crusades to the Occident – the Portuguese Discoveries which spread the Faith and enlarge the Portuguese  Empire.

Even before the independence of Portugal in 1139, the Templars were already established in Braga, North of Portugal.

In 1147 – The conquest of Lisbon for King Afonso Henriques was indeed the  first  Crusade of the Occident by the Portuguese Templars.

This campaign of the Crusades to the Occident continued with  the Portuguese discoveries and Christianization of  the natives along Africa, Brazil, Americas and Far East.

The Papacy started to pay much more attention to the Crusades of   the Occident because they were much more promising than the Crusades to the Orient.

This resulted in a better understanding between the Kings of Portugal and the Papacy.

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