The Holy Lance of Longinus

Otherwise known as Spear of Destiny in more modern New Age and esoteric writings, the Holy Lance of Longinus is an ancient relic linked to the crucifixion of Jesus which was first mentioned in the Gospel of St. John.

"The Jewish leaders didn't want the victims hanging there the next day, which was the Sabbath (and a very special Sabbath at that, because it was the Passover), so they asked Pilate to hasten their deaths by ordering that their legs be broken. Then their bodies could be taken down. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was dead already, so they didn't break his legs. One of the soldiers, however, pierced his side with a spear, and blood and water flowed out."
– The Gospel According to St. John, Chapter 19 verses 31- 34

While unnamed in Biblical canon, tradition originating from the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus holds that the soldier’s name was Longinus, a Roman officer also recorded remarking "In truth this man was the son of God" after the death of Jesus (Mathew 27:54 and Mark 15:39). It is said that Longinus converted to the new faith of Christianity soon after his experience and he is venerated to this day as a Saint and martyr in the Catholic, Orthodox and Armenian churches.

The first post-Biblical reference to the Lance appears in the writings of Antonius of Piacenza which was dated to around AD 570 and was repeated in other contemporary sources of pilgrims to the Holy Land. Antonius records that he saw in the Basilica of Mount Zion, Jeruselem "the crown of thorns with which Our Lord was crowned and the lance with which He was struck in the side".

After this time the Lance was presumably lost as legends tell of its rediscovery in Antioch during the first Crusade of 1098. The Crusaders had recently managed to take the city of Antioch after a costly eight month siege only to find themselves surrounded and outnumbered by Seljun Turk re-enforcements An impoverished monk by the name of Peter Bartholomew accompanying the Crusader forces had a vision of St. Andrew which led him to the ruined Cathedral of St. Peter. The vision instructed Bartholomew to dig in the ground beneath the Cathedral where the monk soon unearthed the head of an ancient spear.

News of the discovery of such a Holy Relic spread like wildfire through the besieged and starving Crusader army and many considered it a miracle and a sign from God. Emboldened by this belief the Crusaders launched a counter offensive against the Muslim forces despite being half starved and outnumbered three to one. The subsequent rout of the Seljun Turk army went down in legend and resulted in the recapture of Jerusalem and the foundation of the Crusader States in the Levant. This stunning victory in the face of desperate defeat served to encourage the later belief that any force possessing the Holy Lance could not be defeated in battle.

At some point, it is unclear if this was before or after the battle, the point of the spear was broken. The tip was taken to Constantinople and enshrined in an Icon which was sold by Baldwin of Constantinople to Louis IX of France in 1244, while the main body remained in Byzantium.

With the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 the body of the Spear was captured. However, it was returned as a gift to Pope Innocence VIII by Sultan Bayazid II as an incentive for the Pope to keep the Sultan's brother prisoner. The Pope doubted the authenticity of the spear especially as there were several other lance heads scattered around Christendom claiming to be the spear that had spilt the blood of Christ. Innocence VIII requested a detailed sketch of the spear point from France and when the drawing arrived at the Vatican he was satisfied that the two parts were both of the same blade.

During the French Revolution the Icon containing the point was moved for safety but in the upheaval of the time it was lost and its whereabouts are currently unknown. The body of the Lance has never since left Rome where it is preserved under the dome of St. Peters Basilica. The Vatican refuse to give any comment of it authenticity.

- - - - -

There are many alternative versions of the Holy Spear from Poland to Armenia. Some claim that the Spear has passed through the hands of many historical figures such as Constantine the Great, Attila the Hun and Charlemagne and attribute these leaders military prowess to the possession of the Spear of Destiny.

One of the most famous alternative Lances is known as the Hofberg Spear or the Vienna Lance. This spear head dates from a similar time to the Vatican lance, with a clear history being traced back to the Eleventh Century. From that time it passed through several hands before finding its way to the Imperial Museum of Vienna.

A modern legend tells how, as a young man, down and out in Vienna, Adolf Hitler became obsessed with the occult legends surrounding the Spear of Destiny which claimed that the Lance has phenomenal talismanic powers the would give its owner power to overcome any foe in battle. Should the Spear be lost or stolen however its former owner would surly die.

The story goes that upon arriving victorious into Vienna during the Anschluss Hitler went directly to the museum where he acquired the Lance and transported it back to Nuremberg, the spiritual capital of the Third Reich enabling him to conquer the majority of mainland Europe.

However with the Allied counter offensive of 1944 Hitler was separated from the Spear and unable to retrieve his prize. Nuremberg fell to the advancing Allied Forces with the American General George S. Patton taking possession of the Spear. The same day Hitler committed suicide, seemingly fulfilling the warning that to lose the Lance resulted in death.

Codex Gigas: The Devil's Bible

Over the centuries the book has been given many names, Svartboken, Gigas Librorum, Fan’s Book, but it’s two most common are the Codex Gigas and the Devil’s Bible.

The Bible is the largest extant medieval manuscript in the world. It is nearly one metre in height from top to bottom, half a metre wide and is so heavy that it takes two men to lift it. Its 624 pages are made out of donkey skin and it is estimated that it would have taken 140 animals to acquire.

The origin of the Bible is shrouded in medieval myth but it is known at least that it was created sometime in the middle of the twelfth by a Benedictine monk from the small Bohemian monastery of Podlažice.

According to legend the manuscript was created by a single monk as penitence for breaking his vows. His sin is no where mentioned, but whatever it may have been it warranted the punishment of being walled up alive in his cell and left to starve for his deed.

The monk pleaded to escape this fate and in a fit of desperation and to atone for his trespasses he promised to write the most wonderful book that the world had ever seen to bring glory to the monastery and to God. This book would contain the entire Bible as well as all other human knowledge and, what is more, he would do it all in one night.

By midnight the adrenalin coursing through his blood had cooled and it was clear that such a task was truly impossible. Searching for options and alternatives the monk found no solution to escape; save one. The legend tells how the monk prayed fervently for salvation however he did not petition God, Jesus or the saints. Instead he prayed to the fallen angel Lucifer; the devil.

In exchange for his eternal soul Satan enabled the monk somehow to pen the manuscript in the hours before dawn. The book, and the legend surrounding it, takes its name from a drawing of the Devil, a half man, half beast figure with cloven hoofs and a forked tongue, located in its pages which the monk supposedly drew in gratitude to his Saviour. This ichnographic depiction is unprecedented and unrepeated in mediaeval manuscripts.

As well as the complete Old and New Testaments of the Bible the manuscript contains information on thirteen other texts of differing character. These include Isidore of Seille’s Encyclopedia Etymologiae, Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews, Cosmas of Prague’s Chronicle of Bohemia as well as medicinal and religious treaties containing information on how to drive out sickness, cast out daemons and spells on how to catch a thief.

The monk’s history vanishes there. No one knows if his atonement gift was accepted and he rejoined his monastic brothers or if his Devil’s bargain failed to spare him from his fate or one more gruesome. The book’s tale continues however. Shortly after the Bible’s completion the monastery at Podlažice faced financial ruin and its prized possession was sold to a larger Order on the outskirts of Prague. The new home however soon found itself beset by misfortune and the book was returned. The monastery at Podlažice was destroyed during the Hussite War of the fifteenth centaury but the Codex escaped this fate and found its way to another monastery.

Despite the dark tales of it origin however the book was never condemned by the Inquisition, prevalent at that time in the Holy Roman Empire. On the contrary scholars travelled from afar to glimpse the manuscript. During this time eight pages from the manuscript were removed. Their whereabouts remains a mystery to this day. Eventually the Codex attracted the attention of the Emperor himself.

The Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II was obsessed by occult and esoteric texts and acquired the Codex Gigas for himself. He was a man driven by his lifelong quest to uncover the secret of Alchemy and the fabled Philosophers Stone and many of the greatest alchemists and astrologers of the time including John Dee and Edward Kelley visited his court in Prague.

Soon after his acquisition of the Devil’s Bible however Rudolf became erratic and paranoid until he was eventually declared unfit to rule and stripped of his kingship. Only a few years later Swedish forces sacked Prague and plundered the royal palaces during the Thirty Years War. The Codex was taken from the Royal Library and taken back to Sweden as booty where it remains to this day.

The book has been the source of the extensive study over the years and continues to fascinate. Research showed that it was penned by a single hand and such a task would have taken twenty, even thirty years. And what became of those missing pages? Are they still in existence today, and if so what secrets do they contain? Perhaps we will never know.

Introduction

"At any rate it seems that I am wiser than he is to this small extent,
that I do not think I know what I do not know."

The purpose of this collection is not to convert or preach. Nor is it my intention to debunks or disprove any of the ideas, concepts, stories and tales relayed in these pages. Some of them may be true, some based on truth while others have their foundation in lies whose purpose we cannot hope to guess. My goal here is merely to collect and collate and let those who read herein arrive at their own conclusion on these matters.

Rephaim Noir
15th April 2010