by Lenna Gonya

Created on: December 02, 2009

Probably no group of people today have been more romanticized, criticized, and speculated about than the Knights Templar.

In 1118, Hugues de Payens, a knight from Champaign, and eight other knights, in Jerusalem, vowed that they would protect pilgrims making their way to and from the Holy City. These knights, mostly French, were honored by King Baldwin II of Jerusalem, by allowing them to make their headquarters on the site of the Temple Mount in what was once Solomon's Temple. Originally, they became known as the Poor Knights of Christ and The Temple of Solomon, and, later shortened to the Knights Templar.

They began as knights, but their devotion to the Church and the proximity to the Holy City led them to be much more. They became monk warriors, with specific codes of ethics, rules and rituals.

At first, they were neither monks, nor a sanctioned order. It was nine years after they began their volunteer work as protectors of pilgrims that the knights were given their white mantles after the Church Council at Troyes in 1129. The order, which eventually grew into the thousands, had about 300 knights by the 1170's and more than 600 by the 1180's in Jerusalem alone.

The three bulls that had been granted to the Templars by the Pope enabled them to collect money or donations, keep their spoils to continue financing the holy war, and, basically put them over the clergy in all situations. They were exempted from tithes. Besides carrying with them groups of non combatant farmers to supply their needs, and priests, they were permitted to provide all religious needs to their order and to bury their own dead. Consequently, the complete autonomy of the group led to their secrecy and their particular codes of ethics.

In spite of the strictness and danger of being a Templar Knight, thousands wanted to join the order, which became a small nation unto itself, governing, and forming the first banking system of holding and loaning funds.

In 1307, King Phillip IV of France, who, it was claimed owed vast amounts of money to the Templars, and was jealous of their power and fame, began the campaign to discredit them on charges of heresy. Even the intervention of the Pope couldn't save them, and, on October 13, 1307 large numbers of their rank were killed or imprisoned. In 1312, their possessions were turned over to the Hospitalers, a religious order that, until 1099 had primarily cared for the sick and injured, but by then became a military order as well.

Even though many were killed, many more of the knights fled to other countries, and, the question has been ever since as to where they went, what treasures they might have kept and if they still exist today.

Traditionally, they have been linked with the Masons, and, some of their imagery and customs are similar.

In 1804, a modern version of the Knights Templar was formed in Paris, non-denominational, and charity organized, they tried to revive the honor and integrity of the original group.

Since then, chapters of the Knights Templar have been reestablished in England, Wales, Scotland, and North America.


http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14493a.htm

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