KNIGHTS TEMPLAR

Knights Templar

Knights Templar

The Templar Knights were a monastic order, formed near the end of the First Crusade to protect Christian pilgrims on the route to the Holy Land, they were also called the Poor Knights of Christ, the Temple of Solomon, and la Milice du Christ. This was the first time a group of secular knights banded together and took the monastic vows. In this intellect they were the earliest of the Warrior Monks. The Templars fought along side King Richard I (Richard The Lion Hearted) and other Crusaders in the battles for the Holy Lands(Haag 2008).

In two centuries, they became powerful enough to defy all but the Papal throne. The fear they instilled on the battlefield their wealth and their generosity with it were the main reason for the monastic fighting orders later on. Despite the fact that the church had banned loaning money for interest, the Templar Knights, being the crafty sort as they were, received the loans in a different manner and were able to finance even kings. They would get there customers to pay them back with items and other things worth the same as the coin they were owed.

After Pope Innocent II granted the Templars immunity from all authority except that of the Papal throne, they became very powerful and influential within Europe's political circles. This enabled them to do as they pleased as long as they stayed within Christian rules, and as a result, their loaning of money increased greatly and it is for this reason that historians believe them to have invented banking(Butler Dafoe 1998).

It was either because of this wealth or their seemingly limitless powers that the Templars were eventually destroyed. The King of France enlisted the help of Pope Urban II to dissolve the Order. In addition to removing a potentially dangerous adversary, the King received all of their funds. So from 1307-1314 the trial of the Knights Templar was held and at the end, the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ were nothing more than a memory(Martin 2005).

The King of France, Philip the Fair used the secretive nature and mysterious rituals of the Order to destroy the knights. However the true reason for disbanding the knights was the threat of their powers and immunity and their ever growing funds. Philip desperately needed the money for his war on England and King Edward I so in 1307, he disbanded the knights.

On October 13th, 1307, King Philip had all the Templars placed in prison on the grounds of profanation, since this was the single charge that could permit the seizing of their money and assets. The Templars were tormented and as a consequence, outlandish confessions were given. These confessions included:

Trampling and spitting on the cross

Homosexuality and Sodomy

Worshipping of the Baphomet (A goat like creature, related to Satanists)

Philip managed to decapitate the Order and sent a message to all other Christian leaders to disban the remnants of the knights. On March 19th, 1314 the final Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay ...