The largest, and most powerful of the Christian military orders, the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, originally named The Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple which is in Jerusalem is widely known as the Knights Templar. It was founded in 1118, in the aftermath of the First Crusade of 1096, to help the new Kingdom of Jerusalem maintain itself against its hostile Muslim neighbors, and to ensure the safety of the large numbers of European pilgrims who flowed towards Jerusalem after its conquest.

Organization

Knights Templar Cross

The Templars were Knights organized as a monastic order, following a rule created for them by Bernard of Clairvaux, a member of the Cistercian Order. The Templars were well connected and quickly became embroiled in the politics of the Crusades period. In time, they were endowed with several extraordinary Papal bulls (see Omne Datum Optimum) that permitted them, among other things, to levy taxes and accept tithing in the areas under their direct control, facilitating their quick rise to institutional power.

There were four divisions of brothers in the Templars:

At any time, each knight had some ten people in support positions. Some brothers were devoted solely to banking, as the Order was often trusted with precious goods by participants in the Crusades. But the majority of the Knights Templar were dedicated to warfare. It was primarily a military order directly responsible only to the Pope. Some consider the Knights Templar to be the forerunner of the modern professional army and elite special forces units. The Templars used their wealth to construct numerous fortifications throughout the Holy Land and were probably the best trained and disciplined fighting units of their day.

History

Burlington Township rocks Their popular name alludes to their historical headquarters in what they supposed to be the Temple of Jerusalem on the Temple Mount. What the Templars thought was the Jewish Temple of Jerusalem, was in fact the Dome of the Rock [Arabic: Qubbat As-Sakhrah], an Islamic shrine on the summit of Mount Moriah which they renamed Templum Domini (Temple of the Lord). The summit is sacred to Jews and Christians as the Temple Mount as well as to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. The Templum Domini became the model for many subsequent Templar churches in Europe, such as the Temple Church in London, and is represented on several Templar seals.

In addition to Palestine, the order fought in the Spanish and Portuguese Reconquista. The headquarters of the Templars in Tomar, Portugal, was in the Convento de Cristo. They were given extensive possessions and castles in frontier land. At one point, they were to inherit the kingdom of Aragon, jointly with other military orders. The Templar Knights were identifiable by their white surcoat with distinct red cross emblazoned above the heart or on the chest, as seen in many portrayals of crusading knights.

Banking

The Templars got into banking almost by accident. When members joined the order, they often donated large amounts of cash or property to the order since all had to take oaths of poverty. Combined with massive grants from the Pope, their financial power was assured from the beginning. Since the Templars kept cash in all their chapter houses and temples, it was natural that in 1135 the Order started lending money to Spanish pilgrims who wanted to travel to the Holy Land. The Knights' involvement in banking grew over time into a new basis for money, as Templars became increasingly involved in banking activities. One indication of their powerful political connections is that the Templars' involvement in usury did not lead to more controversy within the Order and the church at large. The charge was typically sidestepped, by a stipulation that the Templars retained the rights to the production of mortgaged property.

The Templars' political connections and awareness of the essentially urban and commercial nature of the Outremer communities naturally led the Order to a position of significant power, both in Europe and the Holy Land. Their success attracted the concern of many other orders and eventually that of the nobility and monarchs of Europe as well, who were at this time seeking to monopolize control of money and banking after a long chaotic period in which civil society, especially the Church and its lay orders, had dominated financial activities. The Templars' holdings were extensive both in Europe and the Middle East, including for a time the entire island of Cyprus.

Ruin

Two Templars burned at the stake, from a French 15th century manuscript

The fall of the Templars may have started over the matter of a loan. Philip IV, King of France needed cash for his wars and asked the Templars for money, who refused. The King tried to get the Pope to excommunicate the Templars for this but Pope Boniface VIII refused. Philip sent his councillor, Guillaume de Nogaret, in a plot to kidnap the Pope. Boniface VIII died only a month later from shock due to the attempt and ill treatment. The next Pope, Benedict XI, lifted the excommunication of Philip IV but refused to absolve de Nogaret. It is suspected that the Pope's death was from poisoning through an agent of Nogaret. The next Pope, Clement V, agreed to Philip IV's demands about the Templars, and later moved the papacy to Avignon. On October 13 (the unlucky Friday the 13th), 1307, what may have been all the Knights Templar in France were simultaneously arrested by agents of Philip the Fair, later to be tortured into admitting heresy in the Order. The dominant view is that Philip, who seized the treasury and broke up the monastic banking system, was jealous of the Templars' wealth and power, and sought to control it for himself. These events, and the Templars' original banking of assets for suddenly mobile depositors, were two of many shifts towards a system of military fiat to back European money, removing this power from Church orders. Seeing the fate of the Templars, the Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem and of Rhodes and of Malta were also convinced to give up banking at this time. Much of the Templar property outside of France was transferred by the Pope to the Knights Hospitaller, and many surviving Templars were also accepted into the Hospitallers.

Many kings and nobles supported the Knights at that time, and only dissolved the order in their fiefs when so commanded by Pope Clement V. Robert the Bruce, the King of Scots, had already been excommunicated for other reasons, and was therefore not disposed to pay heed to Papal commands. In Portugal the order's name was changed to the Order of Christ, and was believed to have contributed to the first naval discoveries of the Portuguese. Prince Henry the Navigator led the Portuguese order for 20 years until the time of his death. In Spain, where the king of Aragon was also against giving the heritage of the Templars to Hospitallers (as commanded by Clement V), the Order of Montesa took Templar assets.

Claims of heresy

The manuscript illustration (c. 1350) alludes to the accusation of sodomy against the templars.

Debate continues as to whether the accusation of religious heresy had merit by the standards of the time. Under torture, some Templars admitted to homosexual acts, and to the worship of heads and a mystery known as Baphomet. Their leaders later denied these admissions, and for that were executed. Some scholars discount these as forced admissions, typical during the Inquisition.

Others argue that these accusations were in reality due to a misunderstanding of arcane rituals held behind closed doors which had their origins in the Crusaders' bitter struggle against the Saracens. These included denying Christ and spitting on the Cross three times, as well as kissing other men's buttocks. According to some scholars, and recently recovered Vatican documents, these acts were intended to simulate the kind of humiliation and torture that a Crusader might be subjected to if captured by the Saracens. According to this line of reasoning, they were taught how to commit apostasy with the mind only and not with the heart.

As for the accusations of head-worship and Templars trying to syncretize Christianity with Islam, some scholars argue that the former referred to rituals involving the alleged relics of Saint Euphemia, one of Saint Ursula's eleven maidens, Hughes de Payens, and John the Baptist rather than pagan idols. The latter they ascribe to the chaplains creating the term Baphomet through the Atbash cipher to mystify the term Sophia (Greek for "wisdom"). Although gaining currency, this is a controversial interpretation since the more accepted interpretation is that Baphomet was an Old French bastardization of the word Mohammed.

Conspiracy theories related to the suppression of the Knights Templar often go far beyond the suggested motive of seizing property and consolidating geopolitical power. At the same time, it is the Catholic Church's position that the persecution was unjust, that there was nothing wrong with the Templars, and that the Pope at the time was manipulated into suppressing them. The church's response at the time corroborates this position. The papal process started by Pope Clement V, to investigate both the Order as a whole and its members individually found virtually no knights guilty of heresy outside of France. Fifty-four knights were executed in France by French authorities as relapsed heretics after denying their original testimonies before the papal commission; these executions were motivated by Philip's desire to prevent any more Templars from having similar courageous ideas. It failed miserably, as many others testified against the charges of heresy in the ensuing papal investigation.

In the end, the only three accused of heresy directly by the papal commission were Jacques de Molay and his two immediate subordinates; they were to renounce their heresy publicly, when de Molay regained his courage and proclaimed the order's and his innocence, along with one of his companions. The two were arrested by French authorities as relapsed heretics and burned at the stake in 1314. The papal commission found that the Order as a whole was not heretical, despite evidence of isolated incidences of heresy; and in fact were in support of the maintanence of the Order. Clement V, however, facing growing public opinion against the order, felt that the only choice was to suppress (ie, withdraw papal approval for) the order.

An obvious point in favour of indicating Clement V by no means co-operated willingly with Philip was the passing of the majority of the Order's wealth and lands to the Hospitaller order (although some Templar lands were held by Philip and other European nobility for many years) in contradiction to Philip's wishes that their wealth in France be appropriated by him.

A widely-known legend has it that as he burned at the stake Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, cursed King Philip and Pope Clement V to meet eternal justice within the year. Pope Clement V died only one month later and Philip IV seven months after that. Commentators were extremely pleased with such a development and often featured this story in their chronicles.

Self-styled orders and claims of descent

The Templars play strongly in both the ritual and foundation of various branches of modern Freemasonry. The Scottish Rite, which was formed in France in the 18th Century, includes references to the Templars in many of its ritual degrees — primarily the section known as "Council of Kadosh" (degrees 19–30) and the final two degrees (31 and 32), known as the "Consistory".

Frank S. Land was serving in the DeMolay Council of Kadosh in post-World War I Kansas City, Missouri when he developed the idea for a fraternity for boys. Thus was born another modern Masonic organization related to the Templars in 1919 — the Order of DeMolay. While the organization was not directly descended from the Templars, its namesake Jacques de Molay, the last of the Grand Masters, is firmly entrenched in many of its rituals.

The Commandery of Knights Templar is the third major branch of the York Rite and open only to Christians. York Rite and Chivalric Masonry claim to be inspired by the Templars, but are not direct descendants of them. Here also, the Templars are firmly enshrined in the orders and rituals.

Some historians and authors have tried to draw a link from Freemasonry and its many branches to the Templars, with some Masonic organizations claiming a direct descent from them. This alleged link remains a point of debate. John J. Robinson makes a case for the Templar/Freemason connection in his book "Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry."

The Order of the Solar Temple was an example of a "neo-Templar" group, founded by Luc Jouret and Joseph Di Mambro in 1984, that fraudulently claimed descent from the original Knights Templar. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Masons Carl Kellner and Franz Hartmann based their Ordo Templi Orientis, or "Oriental Templar Order" (often abbreviated "OTO") drawing upon Templar lore and from the highest degrees of Freemasonry. They borrowed symbolism extensively from Rosicrucianism, Illuminism, and Eastern mysticism. Kellner and Hartmann were later joined by high ranking Mason Theodor Reuss and occultist Aleister Crowley, who jointly drew the movement away from Masonic and Templar rites and deeply into the occult.

Although there are several self-styled orders that claim to be descended from, or revivals of, the Templar Order, an ecumenical Christian society based on the principles of chivalry, which styles itself as the Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem, (SMOTJ) was founded in 1804, with the support of Napoleon. It is dedicated to charitable works and antiquarian research. This "order," though not a genuine Order of Chivalry, operates on the basis of the traditions of the medieval Knights Templar. In 2001, the United Nations appointed the SMOTJ group as a non-governmental organization (NGO), which does not necessarily contribute to recognition as an Order of Chivalry. To be an Order of Chivalry in reality, an organization must be established as an Order by the country in which it is headquartered, with the head of State as its sovereign. SMOTJ has neither qualification. It is also important to note that SMOTJ is not connected in any way with any organization or aspect of Freemasonry.

Legends

The rapid succession of the last direct Capetian kings of France between 1314 and 1328, the three sons of Philip IV the Fair, led many to believe that the dynasty had been cursed – thus the name of "cursed Kings" (rois maudits). It is said that Jacques de Molay, the last master of the order, cursed King Philip while lying on his execution pyre.

The Knights Templar later became surrounded by legends concerning secrets and mysteries handed down to the select from ancient times. Perhaps most well known are those concerning the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant, and secrets of building. Some sources say the Holy Grail, or Sangreal, was found by the order and taken to Scotland during the scourging of the order in 1307, and that it remains buried beneath Rosslyn Chapel. Some say that the order also found the Ark of the Covenant, the chest which contained sacred objects of ancient Israel, including Aaron's rod and the tablets of stone inscribed by God with the Ten Commandments.

These legends are connected with the long occupation by the order of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Some sources record that they discovered secrets of the Master Masons who had built the original and second temples secreted there, along with knowledge that the Ark had been moved to Ethiopia before the destruction of the first temple. Allusion to this is made in engravings on the Cathedral at Chartres (considered along with the Cathedrals at Amiens and Reims to be one of the best examples of gothic architecture), great influence over the building of which was had by St. Bernard of Clairvaux, who was also influential in the formation of the order. Further links to both the search by the order for the Ark and to its discovery of ancient secrets of building are suggested by the existence of the monolithic Church of St George in Lalibela in Ethiopia, which stands to this day and whose construction is incorrectly attributed to the Knights Templar. There is also an underground church dated to the same period in Aubeterre in France.

During the 14th century, England under King Edward II was at war with Scotland. In 1314 he engaged the Scots in battle at Bannockburn. A persistent tale would have it that the Scots won the battle largely due to the intervention of the Knights Templar on the side of their King Robert the Bruce. In reality, none of the contemporary or near contemporary accounts of the Battle of Bannockburn mention the Knights Templar at all, and it is certain that if the outlawed Templars had intervened on the side of the Scots, the chroniclers would have mentioned it. The tale is connected to Freemasonry and dates no earlier than the mid eighteenth century.

Templars are also listed among the crew of Henry Sinclair's (Earl of the Orkneys) legendary voyage from Scotland to North America in 1398. There is growing speculation surrounding relics that would indicate the possibility that the Knights Templar possessed the charts of pre-Columbian voyages to America. Christopher Columbus' navigators were members of the extant Portuguese Templar Order, and the Templar cross was featured prominently on the sails of his ships in 1492.

Fringe researchers and aficionados of esotericism have claimed that the order stored secret knowledge, linking them to the Rosicrucians, the Priory of Sion, the Rex Deus, the Cathars, the Hermetics, the Gnostics, the Essenes, and, ultimately, lost relics or teachings of Jesus such as the Shroud of Turin or a "Judas Testament."