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The Knights Templar was a Christian monastic order formed after the first Crusade. Our fascination with this order in modern times is largely to do with their fall, which involved charges heresy and a falling away from their Christian beliefs.

This essay will be written in three sections. Section one will provide a documented account of the history of the Knights Templar. Section two will illustrate this author's belief that the Templar Knights did in fact develop a heretic understanding of divinity, providing support for this argument based on the established history. Section three will discuss the mythology surrounding the Templars, and its relevance to the modern Occultist.

SECTION 1: HISTORY

After the success of the First Crusade, pilgrims began migrating to the Holy Land. Around 1099AD, nine knights of the Crusade presented themselves to the European governors of Jerusalem as an Order dedicated to the protection of these pilgrims, the Virgin Mary, and all of Christendom. They took residence on Mt. Moriah around 1118AD, which is the historical site of the Temple of Solomon. Thus, they were known as the Templar Knights, or Knights Templar.

The Knights Templar were not unlike any order before them in that they took monistic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, literally becoming warrior monks. Their distinction was the level of power, wealth, and influence they would develop, rivaled only by the Knights Hospitalar. Bernard of Clairvaux, a noble who would later become sainted and a Christian authority rivaling the Pope, supported the Templars financially and politically. Bernard was obsessed with the Virgin Mary, seeing her as a representation of the feminine side of divinity. It was Clairvaux who financed the original Order and mission to Jerusalem, and may have given the Knights special orders in exchange for his support.

The Templars became renowned for their fierceness and courage, and began to acquire wealth through gifts of charity from noble lords and through the holdings of the nobility that joined the order. So impressive was their service that Pope Innocent II exempted them from all authority except the Pope himself. They fought alongside King Richard the Lion Hearted, eventually acquiring so much wealth that they developed a system of banking which was the forefather of modern banking. As usury (loaning money) was against the law and a violation of Christian morals, the Templars found a way to skirt around the system. By the 1300's they were a power

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