Almost 900 years after their founding, the Knights Templar remain an organisation steeped in myth and legend. Their influence is felt in popular culture - in films such as the Indiana Jones series, in TV shows such as The Saint (with it’s hero Simon Templar) or in the slew of paperback books researching the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant or the bloodline of the Merovingian kings. So who were this order of Knights and why does their influence remain? This is one of those subjects where research tends to throw up more questions than answers, but it is a fascinating area of study.

Who Were The Knights Templar?

The Knights Templar were a monastic military order formed in Jerusalem in 1118 at the end of the First Crusade. Their purpose was to protect Christian pilgrims on route to the Holy Land. A contemporary account reveals:

"Certain noblemen of knightly rank, devoted to God, professed a wish to live in chastity, obedience and without property in perpetuity, binding themselves in the hands of the lord patriarch to the service of Christ in the manner of secular canons. Among these, the first and most important were the venerable men, Hughes de Payens and Godefroi de Saint-Omer. Since they did not have a church, nor a settled place to live, the king (of Jerusalem, Baldwin II) conceded a temporary dwelling to them in his palace, which he had below the Temple of the Lord, to the south side....The first element of their profession enjoined on them for the remission of their sins by the lord patriarch and the other bishops, was that they should protect the roads and routes to the utmost of their ability against the ambushes of thieves and attackers, especially in regard to the safety of pilgrims." - William, Archbishop of Tyre

Never before had a group of secular knights banded together and taken the monastic vows - in this sense the Templars were the first of the Warrior Monks. The Templars fought along side King Richard I (the Lion Heart) and other Crusaders in the battles for the Holy Lands. Originally they were a small group of nine knights. However the Templars quickly gained fame - largely due to the backing of Bernard of Clairvaux and his In Praise of the New Knighthood. Bernard at that time was often called the Second Pope and was seens as the chief spokesman of Christendom. He was also the person responsible for helping to draw up the Order's rules of conduct.

The Templars began in poverty, relying on alms from travelling pilgrims. This would change, however, and the Order would go on to have the backing of the Holy See and the collective European monarchies. Within two centuries they had become powerful enough to defy all but the Papal throne.Feared as warriors, respected for their charity and sought out for their wealth, there is no doubt that the Templar knights were key players of the monastic fighting Orders.

Due to their vast wealth and surplus of materials the Templars essentially invented banking as we know it. The church forbade the lending of money for interest, which they called usury. The Templars, changed the manner in which loans were paid and were able to skirt the issue and even finance kings. This made them very influential in European political circles, a situation helped by the fact that Pope Innocent II exempted the Templars from all authority except the Pope. In addition to their estates and their cash reserves, the Knights Templar were also rich in relics - the remains of people or things which had featured in the New Testament. The Templars are said to have had in their possession the Crown of Thorns, taken from the head of Christ. They also had the body of the martyred Saint Euphemia of Chalcedon (thought to have divine healing powers). They had a cross made from a bath supposedly used by Jesus, a bronze cross made out of the bowl Jesus had used to wash his disciples’ feet at the Last Supper, and a sizeable collection of other relics besides. The most treasured relic was the Holy Grail itself - the cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper. This they were said to have discovered buried beneath the old Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem.

In the early 13th century the German poet Wolfram von Eschenbach visited Outremer especially to lean more about the Order. It was true, he claimed - the Templars did indeed own the Holy Grail. The truth of such claims will probably always remain in mystery since all Templar affairs were conducted in great secrecy. Any member of the Order who revealed the proceedings of Templar meetings was punished by expulsion. Members were forbidden to keep copies of the Templar statutes and the Rule of the Order, in case they fell into the wrong hands. Was this no more than an application of the principle that ‘careless talk costs lives’? Or were they guarding some more sinister secret?

The Downfall of the Templars

It was their wealth and fear of their power that led to the downfall of the Templars at the hands of the Pope and the King of France. By 1314, "The Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon" ceased to exist, at least officially. The King of France, Philip the Fair used the secret rituals and meetings of the Templars as an excuse to crush them. The real reason was that he felt threatened by their power and immunity and also desperately needed funds, to support his war against England's Edward I. On October Friday 13th, 1307, King Philip had all the Templars arrested on the grounds of heresy, since this was the only charge that would allow the seizing of their money and assets (hence the current superstition of Friday 13th being an unlucky day). The Templars were tortured and confessions were given to a range of heretical activities, such as the worship of Baphomet and “unnatural practices”.

On March 19th, 1314 the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay was burned at the stake. At the stake he repudiated his earlier confessions as the result of torture. It is also said that De Molay cursed King Philip and Pope Clement, as he burned, asking both men to join him within a year. Whether he actually uttered the curse or if it is simply an apocryphal tale, it is true that Clement died only one month later and Philip IV seven months after that.

One side issue of note is the Turin Shroud. Once thought to bear the likeness of Christ, carbon dating has shown that the cloth of the shroud dates to no earlier than the late 13th century (interestingly, the RC church revealed these carbon dating results on October 13th, 1989, the same day the Templars were arrested ). One school of thought is that the Shroud actually bears the image of Jacques de Molay.

While the fate of the Order of the Temple will always be a matter of dispute, the Templar legend has survived. In literature and film they are portrayed as heroic Christians warriors fighting against evil and alien forces. More serious works of history have also perpetuated the Templar legend. Jacques de Molay’s curse against the French king and the Pope was resurrected at the time of the French Revolution - the execution of King Louis XVI, the Last king ever to rule over France, was seen by many as the final fulfilment of Molay’s curse.

Elsewhere in Europe, where many Templars escaped persecution, the Order adjusted its position. The Portuguese Templars simply changed their name and became the Knights of Christ, later famous for their explorations in Africa and the West Indies. King Henry the Navigator was a Grand Master of the Order, and explorers like Vasco da Gama were members. Christopher Columbus’ father-in-law was a Grand Master, and Columbus sailed across the Atlantic with the Templar cross emblazoned on his sails. The Order of Christ survived until the 1830’s. Similarly in Germany, Spain and other parts of Europe where the Templar purge was less successful, there is plenty of evidence that they just joined other Orders - the Hospitallers or Teutonic Knights in Germany, or one of the local military Orders in Spain. Other orders still survive today, in one form or another - for examples the Hospitallers are still with us as the Knights of Malta and St. John’s Ambulance Brigade.

More mysterious is the fate of the English, Scottish and Irish Templars. A case has been made, by Baigent and Leigh in The Temple and the Lodge that a great many of them fled north to Scotland. The Scottish king, Robert the Bruce, was especially lenient towards the Templars and never formally dissolved the Scottish Temple at all. He was also in desperate need of skilled knights for his campaigns against the England. But if Scotland was the final destination of these knights, along with their fleet and possibly their treasure, what became of them? At the end of the 16th century, there were still over 500 locations in Scotland registered as Templar property. Baignet and Leigh claim that they may have helped to found Freemasonry, the semi-secret organisation, which permeates society at all levels today. They argue that Masonry has a distinct Templar approach in its rites and rituals. Having said that the Freemasons were not formally founded until the middle of the 17th century and how much “reverse engineering” of influence and history has gone on is open to debate.

The Templar Legacy

There are more tangible relics of the Knights that are still with us today. The order built a huge number of chapels and preceptories. Cambridge has the "Round Church", a Templar chapel dating back to the Middle Ages. Similar buildings can be found elsewhere, such as the New Temple Church in London. Even the small village that I live in has a Templar lodge tucked away in nearby woodland. Perhaps the most famous site in the UK is Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland. Founded by the St Clair (Sinclair) family, some claim it is a repository of Templar lore embodied in the Christian carvings and symbolic masonry of the building. The strength of the Templar connection may be open to debate, but there is no doubt that the chapel is a place worthy of investigation.This article can only skim the surface of this subject. If you are interested in further research, typing in Knights Templar on any of the main web search engines will reveal page after page of sites. From there you can also link in to many other topics, such as sacred geometry, the history of the early church, legends of the Holy Grail, sacred sites in England and much more.

Some speculate that are people alive today in possession of the Templar heritage and secret traditions. Is this true and do their treasures still exist somewhere? Was it in fact a real treasure - money and valuables - or was it merely a metaphorical treasure, a ‘great secret’ of some kind? Were the Templars truly Christian knights or a heretic order devoted only to wealth and power? These are questions which have intrigued historians and laymen alike for almost 900 years. They are unlikely to be answered - the real truth about the Knights Templar will probably remain forever one of the great mysteries