As the researchers examined the provenance of the spear, they make note of how property of the Templars was treated during the early 1300s. The reason this was of interest to them was because a Templar coin had been found near the spear’s original location.
[If you have stumbled upon this page without having context of the information below, this is part of our research into the Holy Lance of Antioch. To start your journey, click here – Destiny of the Lance.]
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Michael drops an email to the team:
Research on the Shroud (which also fills in gaps on the Lance).
This is some seriously good scholarship. Some of the best I have encountered. Saves me a ton of time. In my gut this is right. Like I thought, in between all the wars, earthquakes and fires, the holy relics brought to Antioch by Sts. Peter, Paul and Barnabase during the Fall of Jerusalem in 70, were jealously protected by the Antiochians, where the believers were first called “Christians”, where the Gentile Church started, and at that time is was a city of 500,000 and the third largest in the Roman empire after Rome and Alexandria, then buried (at least the lance was). The lance work is very interesting.
This research takes us from 33 AD to 1098 AD and the first crusade. My earlier work takes us from 1098 and to present.
Jack Markwardt. (1998). Antioch and the Shroud [incl. research on the Holy Lance]. Shroud.com.
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A few days later, the excavator, who has gone back to the dig site after more than a decade since last there, pulls up this piece of burlap, a Templar coin, and old nail. The excavator also sends a note (read below) as well.
Excavator: This single coin was evidently meant to date the items and the spear in the possession of Joan, the last Count of Toulouse, heiress of Raymond and Alfonso, and participant in the last crusade and the miraculous evacuation of Acre. Evidently (?), she carried the Holy Lance with her to the crusade, and the miraculous evacuation of Acre by an unknown sailor recorded by historians. This coin dates the package to this time. Apparently, Raymond had the Holy Nail from his capture of Jerusalem in the First Crusade.
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Team member John is quick to identify the coin. He writes the team:
http://www.ancientresource.com/lots/medieval_crusades/knights_templar_coins.html
Knights Templar France. Philip IV Le Bel, 1268-1314 AD.
Nice silver gros tournois struck 1285-1290 AD. ref: Duplessy 213; Ciani 201. 26 mm, 4.16 g. Nicely centered, crisp detail, bright silvery tone with some darker areas. Ex-Lille, France gallery. #CM2436: $499
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In the meantime, we fast forward to June 2017, almost one thousand years since the First Crusades ended, deFango examines the old letters that were found with the spear. Be careful, deFango! Don’t burn those letters. They may be important.