Knights Templar

Who Were the Knights Templar?

During the height of the Crusades, a distressing number of Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land were robbed or murdered as they crossed Muslim-held territories, inspiring French knight Hugues de Payens to create a protective order known as the Knights Templar.

Initially criticized by conservative religious leaders, that all changed in 1129, when prominent French abbot, Bernard of Clairvaux gave his endorsement to the group’s legitimacy, followed ten years later by Pope Innocent the 2nd, who issued a Papal Bull that gave the Templars tax-free status, beholden to no one’s authority except the Pope.

Over the years following Rome’s Papal Bull, the Knights Templar developed a dominant network of banks that allowed Christian pilgrims to deposit money in their home countries before withdrawing funds in the Holy Land after their safe passage into the Middle East. Known for their signature style of dress, featuring a white habit and a simple red cross, members established austere codes of conduct outlined in The Rule of the Templars, swearing oaths of poverty, chastity and obedience to Christ.

Knights Templar Banks, Castles and Fleets

As the order spread throughout Christian Europe, Templars built castles and a large fleet of ships—at one point owning the island of Cyprus—while building one of the largest financial lending empires in Western Europe. Known for their skills as warriors, who were forbidden from retreating in battle unless substantially outnumbered, the Templars often defeated Islamic armies far larger than their own numbers, while their emboldened fighting style soon became a role model of sorts for other military orders.

While many believe the spirit of the Knights Templar lives on in other fraternal orders of today, their downfall came after the Fall of Acre in 1291, when Muslim armies retook Jerusalem from Christian Crusaders, and when King Philip the 4th of France resolved to bring down the Templars after the group denied the king additional loans in 1303, four years later, scores of Templars were arrested in Paris, subjected to brutal torture until many made coerced confessions such as heresy, homosexuality and devil-worshipping, leading to the deaths of dozens of Templars when they were burned at the stake several years later.

Pressured by King Philip, Pope Clement the 5th reluctantly dissolved the Templars in 1312, and while the Catholic Church decreed that the Templar’s vast monetary wealth be given to a rival order known as the Knights Hospitaller, many academics believe the funds were siphoned off by King Philip and English King Edward the 2nd, making the Knights Templar, a legendary order that still mystifies historians to this day.