Knights Templar | History of The Knights Templar

More than 700 years after the dissolution of the Knights Templar (1119-1312). The famous medieval “warrior-monks” still exerts a powerful fascination on the popular imagination. It is associated with occult practices, Freemasonry, or the various ‘Da Vinci codes. The Templars have long since entered the realm of legend. However, who were the members of the Catholic Church’s first religious military order? And what are the historical facts that underpin the Templar myth?

The “poor soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon” were also known as “The Knights Templar” or “Order of the Temple.” Although numerous religious and military orders existed in the medieval West, none significantly impacted the popular imagination as the Knights Templar. Over time, the facts have been mixed with numerous legends, with the Templars coming to be associated with the Knights of the Round Table. And also the seekers of the Holy Grail or Freemasonry.

This romanticized image of the warrior monks, thanks to the many novels and Hollywood films inspired by Templar history, was also facilitated by the destruction of the Order’s archives in 1571 when the Ottomans occupied Cyprus. However, based on existing evidence, both written and archaeological, historians have managed to reconstruct much of the real story of the Templars, which is almost as fascinating as the popular myth.

In 1119 a group of 9 knights was formed in Jerusalem to protect Christian pilgrims outside the city. These Templars were men dedicated to celibacy, poverty, and military work where knightly favors were strictly forbidden.

While the Knights Templar group was formed in early 1119, later in 1200, they became known as the defenders of a mysterious object called the Holy Grail. Later, in 1307, agents of King Philip IV arrested them and confiscated all Templar property in France.

They were given the name Knights Templar and thus became world famous for their courage. In 1139, Pope Innocent II issued an order making the Knights Templar powerful, which allowed them to cross borders and be excluded from paying taxes.

Read also: Where Is the Holy Grail?

Who started The Knights Templar?

After Jerusalem was conquered in July 1099, following the First Crusade, many pilgrims made their way to the places they called the Holy Land. Even though the city was under control, the remaining crucial states were not. And there were large numbers of pilgrims slaughtered. Sometimes by the hundreds on the road from Jaffa on the coast to the Holy Land.

The Knights Templar was one of the most famous military orders of monks that originated on the initiative of the Frenchman Hugo de Payens in 1119. The order comprised several military warrior monks and chaplain monks. And service monks could be recognized by their robes: a white cloak with a distinctive red cross.

Around 1119, the French knight Hugues de Payens and his relative Godfrey de Saint-Omer proposed the creation of a monastic order to protect pilgrims. King Baldwin II accepted this request and offered them the Temple Mount in the Al Aqsa Mosque as their headquarters. The Crusaders called the Al Aqsa Mosque the Temple of Solomon. And from this, the order derived its name ‘The Poor Soldiers of Christ. And the Temple of Solomon or Knights Templar’.

After several defeats, even after losing the decisive battle of Hattin, Jerusalem was lost to Saladin in 1187. In 1299 the Crusaders occupied the city briefly until, in 1244, the Muslims reoccupied the town. Which was never again controlled by Christians until 1917, when the British took it from the Ottomans.

According to historical sources, Fulk de Villaret and Hugues de Payens were the most famous Knights Templar. Several accusations followed over time, and the new pope, Clement V, sent letters to Jacques de Molay, the Templar grand master, and Fulk de Villaret. To discuss a possible merger of the two orders. Neither agreed to the idea. On 13 October 1307, Philip ordered Molay and other French Templars arrested simultaneously.

The Knights Templar were accused of many heresies and even tortured and held under pressure to obtain confessions of blasphemy. Pope Clement issued the “bull Pastoralis Praeeminentiae” on 22 November 1307, asking all European Christian monarchs to arrest the Templars and confiscate their spheres.

What is Freemasonry?

There are many legends about the origins of Freemasonry, some of which involve the priests of ancient Egypt and others the Knights Templar. Many myths place the formation of the organization in the age of the Tower of Babel and the building of the Temple in Jerusalem by King Solomon.

The Freemasons is an initiatory order whose members are twinned by common moral, spiritual and social ideals and aims through the conforming initiation of an everyday ritual and an oath sworn on one of the holy books of the great religions.

Even as it has continued to expand its ranks, Freemasonry has guarded its origin secrets, despite much information appearing in published books and articles. In 1720 Masonic lodges were established in France under the auspices of the United Grand Lodge of England. These formed a Grand Lodge in Paris different from the Scottish lodges formed after Charles I Stuart fled England.

The situation became increasingly complicated, and after two hundred years of existence, the Templars became part of everyday social and economic life in Europe. The organization was widely represented locally, with thousands of offices in Europe. The Templars ran several businesses, worked on farms or vineyards, or used the Order as a bank to deposit their wealth.

The Knights Templar Order of about nine members survived on donations, and their emblem was even represented by two knights riding the same horse, a symbol of poverty.

The Knights Templar settled in Limassol, Cyprus, and kept a granary here on a small island Arwad, near the scab. In 1302 they also lost that island, the last place in the Holy Land.

About nine knights survived on donations; even their emblem was represented by two knights riding the same horse, a symbol of poverty. But poverty did not last for long, as the Order had strong support in the person of Bernard of Clairvaux, a leading cleric. He wrote to the Council of Troyes, and the Church recognized the Order. With this formal act, the Templars received money and land to support the struggle in the Holy Land.

The Knights Templar fought most of the Crusades. In the mid-12th century, the Crusades lost strength because they did not consistently achieve their intended purpose. The Knights Templar often found themselves in conflict with the other two outstanding Christian orders: the Hospitaller Knights and the Teutonic Knights, and these struggles ended up weakening Christian positions.

Members of the Order were influential and created a solid economic infrastructure throughout Christendom. They first introduced financial procedures, which began the banking system. Also, they built several fortifications in Europe and the Holy Land. They answered only to the pope.

The elite of the Knights Templar Order had 13 members (brothers). Whose primary goal was to establish the Merovingian dynasty over Europe and beyond. A key figure in the history of the Order was Bertrand de Blanchefort. Who became Grand Master of the Knights between 1156 and 1169.

The Knights Templar has remained in the Bible and history as a bloody and criminal order with roots in the Crusader period. Enjoying supremacy for almost two centuries but later fell into disgrace and humiliation by other bloody and criminal groups. Namely, those led by Philip the Fair and the Pope of Rome himself. From this order derived the later dark orders known as the Teutonic Knights. The Knights of St. John, the Knights of Malta, the Jesuit Knights, the Jacobite Knights, and the Knights of the Rosy Cross (Rosicrucians).

In 1128 the first group of Templar brothers met with Pope Honorius II. The Knights were recognized by the religious leaders of the time (the Church in Rome accepted the order). Even though the Knights were known to be usually godless villains, heinous predators, murderers, people who did not keep their word, and adulterers. Bertrand de Blanchefort called the Knights Templar under his wing “legal executors of Christ.” Obtaining the right granted by the Vatican to bear arms permanently. In addition, the pope absolved the temple brothers of murder.

The Templar rulers were the forerunners of today’s attempts at tyrannical globalization, planning for Europe to become the kind of state in which all nations. All their kings and rulers would be members of a union of states. The Knights Templar in the lower strata of the organization had no idea of the far-reaching plans that their master conspirators had hatched – the unification of the whole of Europe under centralized rule.

According to historians, the Knights Templar were Christians. Followers and defenders of Jesus Christ. Step by step, the Templars also increased their financial power and control over 200 years. They tried history to gain total control over transactions through the banking system so that the nations would become dependent on access to resources through and under the strict supervision of the members of the Order.

With the help of international banks, they tried to become more powerful than national governments. However, federal governments with widespread support and public backing emerged everywhere in Europe. And so this medieval attempt at globalization failed and became history.

knights templar

History of The Knights Templar

Only during the first crusade orchestrated by Godefroy with three allies (Boemund of Taranto, Tancred of Taranto, Raymond IV of Toulouse). 70,000 Muslims were slaughtered when the crusaders entered Jerusalem. According to the time records, the slaughter was so great that the men left alive were bleeding to death.

The history of the Knights Templar begins with Hugues de Payens, a French nobleman. They officially founded the Order of the Knights Templar in 1118, along with eight other crusaders. Another secret order was always behind these men. It was launched at the monastery of Notre-Dame du Mont in 1099 by Godefroy de Bouillon. Duke of Lorraine, leader of the first crusade orchestrated by the Vatican against the Muslims in Jerusalem. The Grand Master of this order was Hugues de Payens, the later founder of the Order of Knights Templar.

As Raymond de Aguiler writes, the Christian invaders were knee-deep in blood. The Crusades continued for another two centuries (seven more Crusades followed) in Turkey, Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, in the wake of which millions of people died in the most merciful circumstances, the Muslims being systematically slaughtered by the French, English, Germans, and Italians who called themselves Christians and marched under the command of the Pope and the Knights Templar.

Masonic Knights Templar

Freemasonry is an initiatory order with well-established rules, rituals, organization, and symbolism. Although much is known about Freemasonry, its beginnings and origins are the most mysterious chapter for some controversial organizations.

The Knights Templar initiated Freemasonry so that the Masonic Knights Templar would have been the bridge between Europe and Asia, the biblical realms with their ancient secrets, and the guilds of architects and stonecutters of medieval Europe. The Templars would have coagulated all these elements into European Freemasonry from a particular mythological perspective.

Freemasonry is a well-known initiatory order and the most widespread initiatory brotherhood in the world. Almost everyone has heard of Freemasonry and some of its very famous members. Even the symbols and some of the rituals of this order are known. There is also the secret side of this organization, a side that has come to stir the imagination of many. Freemasonry is regarded with both goodwills by some and suspicion by others.

The curse of the Templars

Hazard of history or fulfillment of the Templar curse, the branch of the Valois dynasty will also disappear without descendants, like the Bourbons, as none of the sons of Louis XVI, Louis XVII, and Charles X reigned.

“Pope Clement, unjust judge, and cruel executioner, Knight Guillaume de Nogaret, King Philip, before one year, you will be guilty before the tribunal of God. Damn you and your descendants!” Jacques de Molay uttered this curse on his way to the ordeal. Ominous and foreboding words: forty-two days later, Clement V dies, then Guillaume de Nogaret, no doubt poisoned.

Philip the Handsome, accidentally wounded while hunting a few months later, dies on 29 December 1314. Although his three sons reigned, none of them had descendants, so the branch of the direct Capetians died.

Primary Takeaways

Masonic organizations are found in the form of autonomous obediences such as “Grand Lodges.” Or “Grand Orient” of 7-50 people each. According to the comprehensive dictionary, The New Encyclopedia Britannica, Freemasonry is the largest secret society in the world. And is best known for its 19th-century spread to the Ottoman Empire.
The true origins of Freemasonry became known at that time when Andrew Michael Ramsey. The teacher of Prince Charles Edward’s sons delivered a speech to the Freemasons in Paris. Which he called the Ramsey Address. He declared, “Our Order has formed an indissoluble union with the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem.”
Hund admitted that he was carrying on the traditions of the Knights Templar, which had been forced in the early 14th century by the regime of Philip the Fair. King of France, to self-exile to Scotland. At that time, members of this order proclaimed themselves ‘Knights Templar.’

Conclusion

After its brutal disappearance, the most powerful order of knights became the most mysterious. Even today, the Templars continue to fascinate, between the search for the Grail, esotericism, and treasure. “Sons of God, it is important that you help our brothers in the East without delay. A people from Persia, the Turks, invaded their country. Therefore, I urge you and implore you to help the Christians and to repel this person who brings misfortune far from our territories. [Be] henceforth knights of Christ.” With these words, in 1098, Pope Urban II launched the adventure of the First Crusade. The following year, Jerusalem was conquered by the Muslims, a fragile conquest that had to be consolidated.

In 1118, Hugues de Payens, a knight from Champagne. And eight of his companions set out in 1118 to devote their lives to protecting pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land. Having received from Baldwin II, King of Jerusalem. The mosque of al-Aqsa, built on the site of the Temple of Solomon, these “Poor Knights of Christ.” Received the support of Bernard of Clairvaux before the regulations of this “militia of God.” The Council approved Troyes in 1128.