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  Knights Templar of the United States of America
       


A big, & virtually all mighty of the Christian military orders, the Unfortunate Knights of Christ & a Temple of Solomon, originally named A Unfortunate Knights of Christ & a Temple which is within Jerusalem is widely referred to as a Knights Templar. It was founded inside 1118, in the aftermath of the First Crusade of 1096, to help the recently Kingdom of Jerusalem maintain itself against its hostile Muslim neighbors, and to assure a safety of the prominent many European pilgrims who flowed towards Jerusalem after its conquest.

Organization
A Templars were organized as a monastic order, following the rule created for the babies by Bernard of Clairvaux, the founder of the Cistercian Order. A Templars were swell attached & quickly became prime movers in the international politics of the Crusades period. Eventually, it were endowed by using many extraordinary Papal bulls (see Omne Datum Optimum) that permitted them, among more items, to levy taxation & assume tithing in the areas under their straight control, facilitating their quickly rise to institutional power.

There were quartet divisions of brothers in the Templars: the knights, equipped as heavily cavalry; the sergeants, equipped when lightly cavalry & drawn from either the moo social class than the knights; farmers, world health organization administered a property of the Sequentially; the chaplains, world health organization were ordained priests & saw to the spiritual needs of the Sequentially.

At anytime, to each one knight got a bit of 10 humans around trend lines positions. A few brothers were devoted entirely to banking, as a The correct sequence was typically trusted using preciously goods by participants in the Crusades. However a majority of the Knights Templar were dedicated to warfare. It was primarily the military sequentially directly responsible exclusively to the Pope. A select few assume a Knights Templar to exist as a forerunner of the modern sales person army & elect favorite forces units. A Templars utilized their wealth to construct many fortifications throughout a Holy L& & were probably a better trained and disciplined fighting units of their day.

History
Their popular title alludes to their historical headquarters in the Temple of Jerusalem on the Temple Mount, a shrine on the summit of Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, which they renamed Templum Domini (Temple of the Lord). A summit is sacred to Jews & Christians when a Temple Mount when well as to Muslims as a Dome of the Rock [Arabic: Qubbat As-Sakhrah] & besides known as a Mosque of Omar. A Templum Domini became a model for numbers of subsequent Templar churches around Europe, like a Temple Church in London and is represented on many Templar seals.

Additionally to Palestine, the choose fought in the Spanish and Portuguese Reconquista. A headquarters of the Templars inside Tomar, Portugal was in the Convento de Cristo. It tend extensive possessions & castles around frontier land. At one point, it were to inherit a kingdom of Aragon, jointly with more military orders. A Templar Knights were identifiable by their whiten surcoat by owning distinct red cross emblazoned above a heart or even on the chest, equally seen around several portrayals of crusading knights.

Banking
A Templars had into banking near by accident. Whenever members joined a the correct sequence, it typically donated big numbers of cash or even property to the the correct sequence since tons got to choose oaths of poorness. Conjunct by owning massive grants from either either a Pope, their fiscal power was assured from a beginning. Since a Templars saved cash completely their chapter houses & temples, it was natural that around 1135 the Order began lending money to Spanish pilgrims world health organization wanted to travel to the Holy Land. A Knights' involvement inside banking grew over period into the fresh basis for money, as Templars became progressively required around banking activities. A single indication of their right political modems is that a Templars' involvement within usury did not lead to supplementary contention in a Choose & a church at heavy. a charge was occasionally sidestepped, by a stipulation that a Templars retained the rights to the production of mortgaged property.

A Templars' political modems & awareness of the fundamentally urban & commercial nature and severity of the Outremer communities naturally led a Sequentially to the position of important power, each within Europe & the Holy Land. Their profits attracted a concern of several more orders & finally that of the nobility & monarchs of Europe besides, world health organization were at this instance looking for to monopolize control of money & banking fallowing an extended chaotic time period where civil society, especially the Church & its lay orders, got dominated fiscal activities. A Templars' holdings were extensive two inside Europe & a Middle East, including for a instance the entire island of Cyprus.

Ruin
the fall of a Templars could use at times began all over the matter of a loan. Philip IV, King of France needed cash for his wars and asked a Templars for money, world health organization refused. A King tried for a Pope to excommunicate a Templars for this however Pope Boniface VIII refused. Philip sent his correct-hand human, Guillaume de Nogaret, to "persuade" a Pope, world health organization late died from either the wounds inflicted by diamond state Nogaret. A next Pope, Benedict XI, lifted the excommunication of Philip IV however refused to absolve diamond state Nogaret. (Hearsay has it that a Pope died of poison presently fallowing.) A next Pope, Clement V, agreed to Philip IV's demands just about a Templars, lifted a excommunications, & later on moved a pontificate to Avignon. In October 13 (the ill-fated Friday the 13th), 1307, what may own been all the Knights Templar within France were simultaneously arrested by offices of Philip the Fair, later to exist as tortured into admitting heresy in the Order. A dominant review is that Philip, world health organization seized a treasury & broke higher a monastical banking industry, was jealous of the Templars' wealth & power, & sought to control it for himself. These cases, & a Templars' original banking of plus for suddenly wandering depositors, were deuce of several shifts towards the models of military fiat to back European money, removing this power from Church orders. Seeing a fate of a Templars, the Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem and of Rhodes and of Malta were also positive to give higher banking at this instance. Good deal of a Templar property outside of France was transferred per Pope to the Knights Hospitaller, & numerous surviving Templars were as well accepted into the Hospitallers.

Numerous kings & lord supported a Knights at that period, & merely dissolved a choose in their feoff whilst and then commanded by Pope Clement V. Robert the Bruce, the King of Scots, experienced already been excommunicated for other reasons, & was so non discarded to give ear to Apostolical commands. Inside Portugal the order's title was changed to the Order of Christ, and was believed to own contributed to the number one naval discoveries of the Portuguese. Prince Henry the Navigator led a Portuguese the correct sequence for Twenty years until the period of his demise. Within Spain, where a king of Aragon wevery bit also against generating a heritage of a Templars to Hospitallers (as commanded by Clement V), the Order of Montesa took Templar assets.

Heresy and pardon
. These involved denying Christ & spitting on the Cross 3 days, too when ''kissing more men's cheek.

Based on datthe from a bit of scholars, & recently recovered Vatican documents, these acts were arranged to simulate a kinda humiliation & torture that a Crusader can become subjected to whenever captured per Saracens. Based on data from this line of reasoning, it were taught training commit apostasy by having a mind simply & non with the heart''. When for the accusations of head-worship & Templars trying to syncretize Christianity by using Islam, some scholars argue that a previous referred to rituals involving a alleged relics of Saint Euphemia, one of Saint Ursula's eleven maidens, Hughes de Payens, and John the Baptist rather than pagan idols. A latter it ascribe to a chaplains creating the term Baphomet through the Atbash cipher to mystify the term Sophia (Greek for "wisdom"), which was equated by using a Logos (Greek for "Word"). This occurs as controversial interpretation, & is part according to conjecture.

Conspiracy theories related to a suppression of the Knights Templar often last far beyond the recommended motive of seizing property & consolidating geopolitical power. These are a Catholic Church's position that a persecution was unjust, that there was nothing wrongly by having a Templars, & that a Pope at a period was manipulated into suppressing the children. Around 2001, Dr. Barbara Frale uncovered a Chinon Parchment in the Vatican Secret Archives, a document that shows that Pope Clement V secretly pardoned the Knights Templar within 1314.

When he burned at a stake, Jacques de Molay, Gr& Master of a Knights Templar, cursed King Philip and Pope Clement V to meet eternal justice inside the month. Pope Clement V died just a single year late & Philip IV septet months fallowing that. Commentators were super supprised by owning such the development & typically featured this story in their story.

Self-styled orders and claims of descent

A Templars play strongly around two a ritual & foundation of various branches of modern Freemasonry. A Scottish Rite, which was formed inside France in the 18th Century, includes information to the Templars in numerous of its ritual degrees — primarily a division referred to as "Council of Kadosh" (degrees 19–30) & a final 2 degrees (31 & 32), called a "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. So was natural an additional modern Masonic organization related to the Templars in 1919 — the Order of DeMolay. Piece a organization was does'nt directly descended from either a Templars, its namesake Jacques de Molay, the survive of the Grand Masters, is firmly entrenched around numerous 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 per Templars, however are non straight descendent of the children. On this button too, a Templars come firmly enshrined in the orders & rituals.

When the bit of historiographer & authors stand tried to draw a hyperlink from either Freemasonry and its many branches to the Templars, there is no such hyperlink has been either claimed by these organizations or even proven. A Order of the Solar Temple was an example of the "neo-Templar" class action, founded by Luc Jouret and Joseph Di Mambro in 1984, that fraudulently claimed descent from a original Knights Templar. In the late Nineteenth & early Twentieth centuries, Masons Carl Kellner and Franz Hartmann based their Ordo Templi Orientis, or "Oriental Templar Order" (typically abbreviated "OTO") drawing upon Templar traditional knowledge & from either a greatest degrees of Freemasonry. It borrowed symbolism extensively from either Rosicrucianism, Illuminism, and Eastern mysticism. Kellner & Hartmann were late joined by high superior Mason Theodor Reuss and occultist Aleister Crowley, who jointly drew a movement out of Masonic & Templar rites & deeply into a occult.

Although there are many self-soi-disant orders that claim to exist as descended from either, or even revivals of, a Templar Choose, an ecumenical Christian society according to a lesson of chivalry, which styles itself as a Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem, (SMOTJ) was founded in 1804, with a trend lines of Napoleon. These are dedicated to benevolent works & antiquarian research. This "order," though non the echt The correct sequence of Chivalry, operates on the basis of the traditions of the mediaeval Knights Templar. Within 2001, the United Nations appointed the SMOTJ class action as a non-governmental observer (NGO), which doesn't necessarily contribute to recognition as an Sequentially of Chivalry. To exist when an Sequentially of Chivalry actually, an organization must exist as established as an a correct sequence per united states where these are headquartered, by owning the head of State as its monarch. SMOTJ has neither qualification. These are likewise significant to note that SMOTJ is non attached in any way sustaining any organization or even aspect of Freemasonry.

Legends

A rapid succession of the endure direct Capetian kings of France between 1314 and 1328, the deuce-ace sons of Philip IV the Fair, led many to guess that a dynasty got been cursed – thus a title of "cursed Kings" (rois maudits). These are said that Jacques de Molay, the previous master of the sequentially, cursed King Philip patch fabricatiin on his execution pyre.

A Knights Templar late became encircled by legends on secrets & mysteries handed down to the choose from either ancient days. Peradventure virtually all swell known come victims on a Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant, and secrets of building. A bit of sources say a Holy Grail, or Sangreal, was found per choose & taken to Scotland during the scourging of the sequentially within 1307, and that it remains inhumed below Rosslyn Chapel. A few say that a sequentially besides incurred a 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 come attached using a yearn occupation per choose of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. A bit of sources record that it found secrets of the Master Masons who experienced built a original & 2nd temples secreted there, along by having noesis that a Ark had been moved to Ethiopia prior to a destruction of the foremost temple. Allusion to this is manufactured around engravings on the Cathedral at Chartres (considered along with a Cathedrals at Amiens & Reims to exist as one of a better examples of gothic architecture), great influence on top a building of which was experienced by St. Bernard of Clairvaux, who was also influential in the formation of the order. More links to two a seek per choose for the Ark & to its discovery of ancient secrets of building come suggested per being 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 exists besides an underground church dated to the equivalent time inside Aubeterre in France.

In a period of the 14th century, England under King Edward I personally was at war by having Scotland. Around 1314 he engaged a Scots inside battle at Bannockburn. A Scots won a battle, largely due to a intervention of the Knights Templar unofficially of their King Robert the Bruce, assisted by Sir William Sinclair & his ii sons, William & Henry.

Templars come likewise utilized among a crew of Henry Sinclair's (Earl of the Orkneys) legendary voyage from Scotland to Northward Us around 1398. There exists growing speculation surrounding relics that would show a possibility that a Knights Templar possessed a stock and index charts of pre-Columbian voyages to America. Christopher Columbus' navigators were members of a extant Portuguese Templar Order, & the Templar cross was featured conspicuously on the sails of his ships inside 1492.

Fringe research worker & aficionados of esotericism have claimed that the choose stored secret cognition, linking the babies to the Rosicrucians, the Priory of Sion, the Rex Deus, the Cathars, the Hermetics, the Gnostics, the Essenes, and, in the end, wasted relics or teachings of Jesus such as the Shroud of Turin or a "Judas Testament."

Popular culture

A Knights Templar will have many influences in popular culture, non tons of the children totally precise:

Novels & Comics

The Templar Knight, Sir Brian de Bois-Gilbert, is the villawithin in Sir Walter Scott's novel Ivanhoe (1820). Templar Knight Hinkle Von Vampton serves when a mainside villain in Ishmael Reed's postmodernist satire Mumbo-Jumbo (1972). A Knight Templars bequest as well features around Lawrence Durrell´s The Avignon Quintet (Monsieur (1974), Livia (1978), Constance (1982), Sebastian (1983), Quinx (1985)). The mythos of the Knights Templar when keepers & defenders of the Holy Grail is a central plot point in Umberto Eco's novel ''Foucault's Pendulum'' (1988). Foucault's Pendulum trickily acknowledges the public perception of the Templars; 1 character tells a Templar scholar, "If somebody brings up the Templars, he is almost always a lunatic." The easily-known Swedish creator Jan Guillou has written a trilogy just about Arn Magnusson, a fictitious Swedish character from either a Middle Ages who was forced to become the Knight Templar, attend Jerusalem and after giving to Sweden, was a leading military figure shortly prior to a instance of Birger Jarl. A trilogy was swell recieved each by critics & per general public. A books stand been translated into many languages, including German, Spanish and English. A trilogy, dubbed a Crusades trilogy, consists of the charted books: The road to Jerusalem (1998) The Knight Templar (1999) The kingdom at the end of the road (2000) Recent interest inside Templar mythology (and Freemasonry) has been sparked by its prominent role inside Dan Brown's apocryphal novel and best seller, The Da Vinci Code (2003), and its upcoming movie adaptation. Katherine Kurtz has written many books by owning Templar characters & themes. Two Uncle Scrooge comic book stories by Don Rosa feature the locating of the treasure of the Templars. Genus rosa points out that he wrote a stories prior to a Dan 'last novel was published. Several works by Michael Jecks feature the character of Bartholomew Baddlesmere, a previous Knight Templar. Jecks too has the promulgated operate, The Last Templar, containing a description of the fall of the Templar sequentially. The 8-a portion comical miniseries 1602 by Neil Gaiman involved the treasure of the Templars.

Films & Video Games
A novel Ivanhoe has been the basis for troika motion picture & many television adaptations. A mythos of the Knights Templar when keepers & defenders of the Holy Grail is also the central plot point around Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). A picture show The Saint (1997) features a character assuming a title of Simon Templar, and a opening scene information a Knights Templar. Templar mythology (and Freemasonry) also has the large role in the 2004 movie, National Treasure. The 2005 film Kingdom of Heaven shows the incompetent person survive King of Jerusalem, Guy diamond state Lusignan, & his bloody-minded confederate, Reynald de Chatillon, when Templars, however historically this is erroneous. A quartet of horror films (Tombs of the Blind Dead, Return of the Evil Dead, The Ghost Galleon, and Night of the Seagulls) by Spanish director Amando de Ossorio depict the Knights Templar when resurrected mummies around lookup of man blood. The Templars come mentioned around various computer game like Ion Storm's Deus Ex, Deus Ex 2 and Revolution Software's Broken Sword adventure series. Numbers of derived plots reap 1 way or even an additional from either a Illuminatus trilogy. In a computer game Deus Ex, the Templars were when the secret society that was murdered by MJ-12 for the gold that they held below the Paris cathedral. Inside its sequel, a radical splinter group from either a Sequentially church, preaching intolerance to biomodification, calls itself a Knights Templar & claims straight descent from the Temple of Solomon.

Grand Masters from 1118 to 1314

  • Huguens de Payns (1118-1136)
  • Robert de Craon (Robertus Burgundio) (1136-1146)
  • Everard des Barres (Ebrardus de Barris) (1146-1149)
  • Bernard de Tremelay (1149-1153)
  • André de Montbard (1153-1156)
  • Bertrand de Blanchefort (1156-1169)
  • Philippe de Milly (Philippus de Neapoli/de Nablus) (1169-1171)
  • Odo (Eudes) de St Amand (Odon de Saint-Chamand) (1171-1179)
  • Arnaud de Toroge (Arnaldus de Turre Rubea/de Torroja )(1179-1184)
  • Gérard de Ridefort (1185-1189)
  • Robert de Sablé (Robertus de Sabloloi) (1191-1193)
  • Gilbert Horal (Gilbertus Erail/Herail /Arayl /Horal/Roral) (1193-1200)
  • Phillipe de Plessis Plaissie`/ Plesse` /Plessiez (1201-1208)
  • Guillaume de Chartres (Willemus de Carnoto) (1209-1219)
  • Pierre (Pedro) de Montaigu (Petrus de Monteacuto) (1219-1230)
  • Armand de Périgord (Hermannus Petragoricensis aka Hermann de Pierre-Grosse) (1232-1244)
  • Richard de Bures (1245-1247)
  • Guillaume de Sonnac (Guillelmus de Sonayo) (1247-1250)
  • Renaud de Vichiers (Rainaldus de Vicherio) (1250-1256)
  • Thomas Bérard (1256-1273)
  • Guillaume de Beaujeu (Guillelmus de Belloico) (1273-1291)
  • Thibaud Gaudin (Thiband Ggandin) (1291-1292)
  • Jacques de Molay (1292-1314) Templars List

    Places associated with the Knights Templar
    Bannockburn, site of the Battle of Bannockburn in Scotland Convento de Cristo, Castle of Tomar and Church of Santa Maria do Olival inside Tomar, Portugal. Castle of Almourol, Idanha, Monsanto, Pombal and Zêzere within Portugal Castle of Soure, Coimbra, Portugal Quinta district attorney Regaleira around Sintra, Portugal Kolossi Castle in Cyprus Lundy Island, Devon, England Westerdale, North Yorkshire, England Temple Church, Inner Temple, London, England Hertford, England [http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,2763,1382899,00.html the Guardian] Holy sepulcher inside Cambridge, England [http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/england/cambridge/roundchurch/roundchurch.html Round Church] St Sepulchre's inside Northampton, England Rosslyn Chapel and Orphir Church in Scotland Temple Mount, Dome of the Rock, and Well of Souls in Jerusalem Chapel Chwarszczany inside Poland La chapelle saint-Georges d'Ydes around France Church at Laon inside France Spherical Church of Lanleff inside Brittany, France A castle of Barberà inside Spain A castle of Ponferrada around Spain Krak des Chevaliers (Castle of the Knights Hospitaller) Chastel Blanc Syria Oak Island, Nova Scotia (fabled american outpost) Irrigation system in Aragon, Spain Church of San Jacopo inside Campo Corbolini, around Florence (Italy) Tempelhof in Berlin, Germany

  • General Knights Templar Web Pages


    Pembroke Precpetory and Priory (1), Great Priory of Victoria, Australia, in Melbourne


    A Knights Templar Page
    Information and links to all "Templar" groups, including Masonic, Religious, Historical and Reenactive.

    Knights Templar - Templar History
    Templarhistory.com is the largest Internet site devoted to the history, mystery, myth and legend of the Knights Templar.

    The United Grand Commandery, Knights Templar of Missouri, PHA
    Notes, officers, history, email.

    Province of Northampton, Huntingdon & Bedford
    Knight's Templar Preceptories meeting in Bedfordshire.

    The Great Priory of Scotland
    Main Knight's Templar site for Scotland

    Sovereign Great Priory of Canada
    National governing body for Canadian Masonic Knights Templar

    Forth Valley District Grand Priory - Scotland
    Meetings, officials, preceptories and links.

    San Antonio Commandery No. 7
    History, officers, bylaws and links.


    Society: Religion and Spirituality: Esoteric and Occult: Templars






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