The Knights Templar have been associated with all sorts of incredible activities including: having the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, a secret fleet that sailed the oceans, and an awe-inspiring self-confidence and courage that made their enemies shudder in fear.

Despite their fearsome, battle-hardened reputation, the Knights Templar were learned men, dedicated to protecting travelers and pilgrims of all religions, not just Christians. They were great statesmen, politically adept, economic traders, and they were apparently allied with the great sailor-fraternity that had created a worldwide trading empire in Phoenician times.

Despite a great deal of negative propaganda against the Templars at the time of their suppression, they are still known today as the preservers of knowledge and sacred objects. While the origins of the Knights Templar are said to go back to the building of King Solomon’s Temple by Phoenician masons from Tyre, or even the Great Pyramid and Atlantis, we trace their modern history from the Crusades period of the Middle Ages.

The Knights Templar began when a group of nine "French" knights came to Jerusalem in the year 1118 A.D. These knights petitioned the king of Jerusalem to allow them to live in the ancient Temple of Solomon, then partly a mosque and partly in ruins.

In his book The Mysteries of Chartres Cathedral the French architect Louis Charpentier claims that the Knights Templar built Chartres as a repository for ancient wisdom. This repository is equal to Stonehenge, the Temple of Solomon or the Great Pyramid of Egypt. He further claims that special knowledge about the Temple in Jerusalem was gained by the founding group of nine knights who lived at Solomon’s Temple starting in 1118 A.D.

In that year it is historically recorded that nine "French" knights presented themselves to a Christian King Baldwin II of Jerusalem, and explained that they planned to form themselves into a company with a plan for protecting pilgrims from robbers and murderers along the public highways leading to the holy city. King Baldwin II had been a prisoner of the Saracens and knew of their infighting. Factions such as the Assassins were active in Moslem politics.

They also asked to be housed within a wing of the palace, a wing that happened to be adjacent to the Dome of the Rock mosque, which was built on the site of Solomon’s Temple.

The king granted their request and the Order of the Knights of Solomon’s Temple or Knights Templar was born.

Ten years later the nine knights presented themselves to the Pope, who gave his official approval to the Knights Templar. Although only nine mysterious knights existed, a tenth joined them, who was the Count of Champagne, an important French noble.

In fact, none of the "poor" knights was apparently poor, nor were they all French. Several came from important French and Flemish families. Of the ten original knights, four have not been identified, although their names are known. Furthermore, it seems unlikely that the Knights of the Temple of Solomon were formed to protect the pilgrims to Jerusalem because such an order of knights already existed. They were the Knights Hospitallers or Knights of St. John, later to become the Knights of Malta.

It is important not to confuse the Knights Templar with the Knights of Malta, as many readers, and some historians, do. The Knights Templar are quite different from the other crusaders and were sometimes said to fight in combat against each other, even in the "Holy Land."

The Knights Hospitallers, which still exist today as the Knights of Malta, were forced to leave Malta by Napoleon, who stopped at the island on his way to Egypt. Today the Knights of Malta reside in Italy, still have their own "sovereign country" and are said to be a secret society for the Vatican.

Charles Addison, a London Lawyer, who wrote in his 1842 book The History of the Knights Templar mentions in the first few pages how it was commonly believed the Templars were at odds with the Vatican and their military arm, the Knights Hospitallers. Addison denies the rumors, but admits such rumors existed.

Charpentier likens the original band of Knights Templar to commandos who raided the ancient Temple of Solomon in order to uncover its engineering secrets and possible lost treasure such as the Ark of the Covenant, possibly hidden deep in a strange cavern system beneath the temple.

With the help of the brilliant French Abbot Bernard de Clairvaux, the nine knights, directed by the Count of Champagne, created the Knights Templar. With the money that they accumulated, a cathedral at Chartres was built. Later, other cathedrals were built around Europe and the legends of the "Master Stonemasons" became common.

Incorporated into Chartres Cathedral are beautiful stained-glass windows, many of the colors difficult or impossible to duplicate today. Hidden within the cathedral are various ancient "cubits" of measure, plus such esoteric devices as the famous Chartres Maze and other visual tools such as sacred geometry, for personal transformation - a sort of personal alchemy of the soul. Included in the image was the quest for the Holy Grail.

When a nobleman would join their ranks, he would surrender his castle and property to the Knights who would use revenues generated from the property to purchase weapons, war-horses, armor and other military supplies. The ranks of the Knights Templar grew rapidly. Other noblemen and kings who were not members often gave them gifts of money and land. King Steven of England contributed his valuable English manor of Cressing in Essex. He also made arrangements for high-ranking members of the Knights to visit nobles of England and Scotland.

Pope Eugenius decreed that the Knights Templar and only the Knights Templar would wear a special red cross with blunt wedge-shaped arms called the cross patee on the left breasts of their white robes, so that they could be quickly recognized at any time by Christians and by other Templars on the field of battle. The white robes with red crosses became their required dress. The warrior-knights fought bravely in the Middle East, and were highly respected by their Moslem counterparts for their strategy and bravery.

In 1129 the Templar Grand Master, Hugh de Payens, led a company of 300 knights, recruited from the noblest houses of Europe, to accompany a huge train of pilgrims to Jerusalem. During this time the Templars formed part of a contingent which, allied with the Assassins of Persia, tried to take the important city of Damascus.

According to Arkon Daraul in his book A History of Secret Societies, the followers of Hasan Ibn Sabah, leader of the Assassins, were definitely in contact with the Templars and apparently the Assassins were prepared to become "Christians" should their goals be met, which they were not. At one point, a payment of 3000 gold pieces from the Syrian branch of the Assassins was made to the Templar order, apparently as some form of tribute. The exact association between the Templars and the Assassins has remained a mystery.

The Templars, it must be said on this regard, were not noted for political assassinations, as were the Assassins. Rather, the Templars fell victim to political intrigue and were either publicly executed or assassinated as was Henry Sinclair, Grand Master of the Templars, in 1401, when the Templar Fleet returned from North America.

Many Templars were of Palestinian birth, spoke perfect Arabic, and were familiar with every religious sect, cult, and magical doctrine, including the Assassins. For instance, the Grand Master Philip of Nablus (1167 A.D.) was a Syrian. The Assassins, it might be mentioned, eventually became what is known today as the Ismaili sect of Islam. Their head is the Aga Khan, and their followers reside largely in Pakistan and India, today. The Aga Khan, a hereditary leadership descended from Mohammed, maintains residences in both London and Bombay. The father of today’s Aga Khan was married to Hollywood actress Rita Hayworth.

By 1133, King Alfonso of Aragon and Navarre (northern Spain) had fought the invading Moors in 29 battles, and willed his kingdom to the Templars. However, the Templars were prevented from claiming the kingdom because of the Moorish victory over Spain.

Meanwhile, there was a parallel religious order, the Knights of St. John, founded at Amalfi, Italy, in the 11th century. They went to Jerusalem to protect and minister to the Christian pilgrims but soon extended their mission to tending to the sick and poor all over the Holy Land.

As the years went by the Knights of St. John (Knights Hospitallers) became increasingly militant and, generally speaking, fought along-side the more mystical Knights Templar and the Germanic order of the Teutonic Knights of St. Mary.

With the fall of Jerusalem in 1309, the Knights of St. John retreated first to Cyprus and then to Rhodes. As the main base for the crusaders in their struggle against the Ottoman Empire, Rhodes was a fortress, a prison, and a supply base for the ships and armies on their way to Palestine and Asia Minor.

When the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet Fatih failed to clarify the succession question of the newly powerful Ottoman Empire, in 1481, a battle between his two sons at Bursa resulted and Cem was defeated by his brother Beyazit. Cem fled to Egypt but was denied asylum by the Marmelukes who controlled that country for the Ottomans.

Cem took the irreversible step of fleeing to Rhodes where he appealed to the archenemies of the Ottomans, the Knights Hospitallers, or Knights of St. John. With his brother now in the hands of the crusader army, Beyazit knew he was in trouble and the Ottoman Empire had to respond quickly.

Beyazit shrewdly contacted the Knights of St. John and negotiated a contract to pay 45,000 ducats of gold annually - a huge sum at the time - in return for the imprisonment of his brother on Rhodes and later in the English Tower at the castle in Bodrum, on the Turkish mainland.

The Knights eventually handed their valuable prisoner over to the Vatican, where Cem was made an interesting offer: to lead a crusader army to recapture Istanbul (Constantinople).

To stop this final threat from his wayward brother Beyazit spared no expense paying to the Vatican 120,000 gold ducats and a number of sacred relics from Jerusalem including the famous Spear of Destiny. This was also known as the Lance of Longinus and was reportedly the Spearhead of the Roman centurion Longinus that was used to pierce the side of Jesus while on the cross. Another artifact offered was the sponge of the last refreshment. This was the vinegar-like sponge used to wet Jesus’ lips while on the cross

According to the legend of the lance,

"Whosoever possesses this Holy Lance and understands the powers it serves, holds in his hand the destiny of the world for good or evil."

Adolf Hitler believed in this power and removed the lance from the Vienna museum when the Nazis took over Austria.

With this hefty payment, the Pope abandoned Cem and the plans for him to lead an army against Istanbul. Cem died alone at the Terracina prison in 1495. Rumor had it that he was eventually poisoned. Today Cem is but a footnote in history, a victim of the diplomatic maneuvers that brought the Spear of Destiny to the West

The Knights stayed on Rhodes for 213 years, transforming the city into a mighty fortress with 12-meter thick walls. They withstood two Muslim offenses in 1444 and 1480, but in 1522 the Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent staged a massive attack with 200,000 troops.

A mere 600 Knights with 1,000 mercenaries and 6,000 Rhodians eventually surrendered after a long siege. In 1529 Charles V, grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, offered Malta to the Knights of St. John as their permanent base and they began to build fortifications around the Grand Harbor. In 1565 the Ottoman fleet arrived at Malta and immediately attacked the fortifications.

With 181 ships carrying a complement of over 30,000 men, the fleet bombarded the fortress with over 7,000 rounds of ammunition every day for over a month and finally took St. Elmo. But the Turkish marines had suffered many casualties and could not take the other heavily defended forts that were around the bay and inside the island. News of reinforcements coming from Sicily caused the Turks to retreat from the island and the Great Siege was over.

The Knights of St. John changed their name to the Knights of Malta and were said to be fanatically loyal to the Vatican, and the Pope apparently used them as his personal crusaders and soldiers. Other Orders such as the Knights Templar and the Teutonic Knights were far more independent, and if anything, were trying their best to subvert the church that was centered on Rome. In fact it was sometimes said that the Knights Templar and the Knights of St. John (later to be known as the Knights of Malta) sometimes fought in combat against each other. The Knights Templar were sworn to fight the Vatican while the Knights of Malta became the Pope’s private army.

The Knights then turned to the Russian Tsar Paul I who offered to found an Orthodox League of the Knights of St. James. This deal with the Russian Tsar particularly enraged Napoleon.

Napoleon sailed to Malta and made anchor just outside the Grand Harbor in June of 1798. When he was refused entry by the Knights of St. John, he began to bombard the fortress. After two days of shelling the French landed and gave the knights four days to leave, thus ending their 268-year presence on the island.

The Pope restored the office of the Grand Master in 1879 and the Knights of St. John still exist today. They are known as the Knights of Malta, though they no longer reside in Malta at all, but have offices in various cities in Europe. Even though they have no actual territory, they are still recognized as a separate state by 40 or more countries around the world, similar to the recognition of the Vatican.
 

The Present Day Knights?

What of the Knights Templar today? While Masonry apparently sprang from the Templars, are there other surviving groups?

The "Knights Templar of Aquarius" existed in the 1940s and 50s in England, based in Canfield Gardens, London, and the Island of Jersey. The head of the order was an Englishman named H.C. Randall-Stevens. Randall-Stevens wrote several curious books, including one entitled The Chronicles of Osiris, and another entitled Atlantis to the Latter Days, which was published in 1954. In this rare book Randall-Stevens discusses various topics including Atlantis, the Great Pyramid, King Solomon’s Temple and the Knights Templar.

Recent conspiracy literature has painted a dark portrait of modern day Masons, often putting the blame of an Orwellian nightmare New World Order squarely on the shoulders of a Masonic conspiracy. Murderous renegade Masonic groups like the infamous P-2 organization in Italy have made world headlines. The fact that many influential businessmen are also Masons is also seen as part of the exclusive club of the puppet-masters.

My own opinion is that, while the Masons were a powerful political group 200 years ago, their significance in modern power struggles is probably overrated. Furthermore, their doctrines are highly misunderstood, especially by fundamentalist Christians.

Knights Templar of their day, and the Revolutionary War Masons of their day, were free-thinkers who rebelled against any artificial thought controls or economic controls forced upon them by the controllers. The Knights Templar lost their final battle and escaped en masse to Scotland and possibly the New World. The Revolutionary War Masons of British/Scottish descent and the Rosicrucians of German and Dutch descent succeeded in defeating the British Crown and fending off encroachment from the Vatican (in the form of royal Spain) at the same time.

Power struggles, between religious, racial and political factions have occurred since the beginning of history. History records that the Knights Templar, and later the Masons, stood for philosophical and political freedom. It is difficult to believe that the founding fathers of America, virtually all members of secret societies linked to the Knights Templar, were trying to set up a nation that was meant to be led into a New World Order police state. Rather, they were attempting to set up a nation with special safeguards against such a possibility.

The checks and balances, guarantees of freedoms and inalienable rights are part of the plan for a true "Nation Under God" - a utopian society where all citizens live in peace and freedom.

Yet, let us not be fooled. There is Christ and there is the Anti-Christ. There is the Buddha and there is the Anti-Buddha, and there is the Novus Ordo Seclorum, and there is the Anti-Novus Ordo Seclorum. All prophecies remind us that a golden age once existed in the past, and a new golden age is soon to come in the future.

What shall we call this new era of light?

According to arcane lore, from many prophets as well as the Templars, earth changes will destroy many lands, including Europe, while new lands will rise in the Atlantic and Pacific. New countries, created by new pioneers, will settle these new lands. These same people will be escaping the devastation happening in their own countries.

The Fall of the Templars

After the Holy Land was lost and it became clear that it would not be regained, the real power of the Templars became evident because it was not being focused abroad. The owned almost as much land in France as the king did, which rather annoyed him. In England, King John (buried in Worcester, where I live) pawned the crown jewels to them for six years because he was broke.

 

This type of financial power, coupled with a highly disciplined and effective army of warrior-monks on an international level, caused some tinges of jealousy, greed and fear in certain European nobles. Notably King Philip IV of France.

 

This king has the added feeling of humiliation after being rejected when he asked to join the order. He eventually managed to engineer a candidate of his choosing to the position of Pope (Clement V) who then owed the king a favor. Philip plotted the mass arrest of the Templars and tried to get the Pope to add his weight to the proceedings - he was very reluctant but Philip began a public character assassination campaign against him until he crumbled into submission and supported the dissolution of the Templars.

 

On Friday 13th, at dawn, all Templars in France were seized and arrested. Envelopes containing orders were opened simultaneously by French Sheriffs which gave them the element of surprise in the endeavour. The property of the Templars was mostly turned over to the Hospitallers but the great "Treasure of the Templars" managed to evade the dawn strike. It is now known how their rumored secret source of wealth disappeared and, equally mysteriously, the entire naval fleet of the Templars (which was considerable) disappeared.

The trial, though highly corrupt, revealed the truth behind some of the rumors of heresy in the order which Philip had used to legitimize this attack. In France the Templars were promised leniency if they confessed to charges of heresy, sodomy and obscenity, and promised death if they refused.

 

The full trial did not begin there until April 1310,

"and by May 54 men had refused to withdraw their repudiation if initial confessions and were handed over to the secular authorities to be burned at the stake."

Templars travelled far and wide over their territories and it is reasonable to assume that many French Templars were abroad at the time of the arrests. Nowhere were they so harshly treated as in France. In Scotland and particularly in Portugal there was no serious effort to suppress the order.

 

In Portugal they became the Knights of Christ and in Scotland they are thought to have fought at the Battle of Bannockburn and to have been the source of certain Masonic traditions.Anyway .... in October 1307 King Philip of France send a letter to Edward II in England (who had only been king for a couple of months and who was Philip's future son-in-law) asking him to arrest the Templars in the same way as he had done.

 

Edward refused. In fact, he sent several letters to other European monarchs asking them to ignore the charges against the Templars, saying that they were inspired by greed and jealousy. Pope Clement V ended up having to tell Edward to begin proceedings against the order. On 20th December Edward wrote a letter to all his Sheriffs, as the French king had dome, and on 9th, 10th and 11th January 1308, the English Templars were placed in safe custody.

On their arrest an inventory of their property was done. In England this showed that many once prosperous Templar manors and preceptories had fallen into serious disrepair. In some instances this could be attributed to the Templars doing a runner. It was several months after the arrests in France that the English were arrested - plenty of time to arrange a "holiday". In many cases, however, the property was dilapidated through old age and some people regard this as evidence of the order's weakness in its latter stages.

 

The loss of the Holy Land and the realisation that another Crusade was not likely would have depleted morale somewhat, and it is not exactly fuel to the fire of enthusiasm in a new recruit. They weren't attracting as many new members and they had nothing to work for because their military activities were over (other than their "securicor" activities as pawnbrokers and bankers).

 

The final battles in the Holy Land left many disabled and injured knights as well as all those who died, so all of this is bound to have placed an enormous strain on the order and helps explain the state of decay on some of their properties.



The Charges and the Trials

On Tuesday, 21 October 1309 the trial began in England. It was held in London with the Bishop of London, two Papal Inquisitors (probably Dominicans of the "inquisition" fame), the Pope's Chaplain and three public notaries.

 

Internationally there were many different confessions, but here are the principal heresies quoted from John J Robinson's book:

The confessions stated that in their initiations they had been required to bestow the Osculum Infame, or "kiss of shame", on the prior, on his mouth .. or on his navel .. or below his spine. They had been required to spit on the cross. Denying Christ, the Templars had worshipped a head, or a head with three faces, or a head with four feet, or a head with just two feet. It was a metal head, or a wooden head, or a human skull set in a reliquary. (A couple of Templars confessed that the head was named Baphomet).

 

Some confessed that they had also worshipped an idol in the form of a cat, which was red, or grey, or black, or mottled. Sometimes the idol worship required kissing the cat below the tail. Sometimes the cat was greased with the fat from roasted babies.

 

The Templars were forced to eat food which contained the ashes of dead Templars, a form of witchcraft that passed on the courage of the fallen knights. Some said they had to wear a cord next to their skin after the cord had touched the idol."

At the Paris Temple,

"a silver head was found with small bones inside, which appeared to have been made to house holy relics".

This is one of the few pieces of material evidence to support the Templar association with heads. In England a Templar named Henry de la Wolde confessed to kissing on the mouth at initiations, but to no other parts of the body. And preceptor Simon Streche said that he thought receptions everywhere were the same as in the "chief convent", meaning the Paris Temple where a head was found.

 

A knight named Robert de Hamilton, when asked about the use of idols attached to the girdles that the Templars wore over their vests, said that the use of the girdle was honorable and called it the Girdle of Nazareth, and said,

".... it was touched on a certain column" and that they all carry what girdle they wished.

An interesting piece of evidence against them was a Franciscan who said that,

"... about 20 years ago the Grand Preceptor had some relics that he wanted to show the Brothers at Wetherby. At dead of night there was shouting in the chapel, and the Franciscan got up and looked through the keyhole, and saw a great light. The next day he asked a Brother about the night's events and the Brother told him to go on his way and never speak of it for fear of his life".

An interesting quote in Crusader Castles, by Hugh Kennedy, is a report by Imad-al-Din of what he thought of the Templar castle of La Feve after it had been conquered in 1187 by Saladin, the Saracen leader.

 

He says,

"It was a place where they met and received people, a place where they guarded their horses, a place where the torrents of their men flowed, a meeting place of their brethren, the residence of their devil and the place of their crosses, where their masses assembled and their fire was kindled."

What are we to make of these?

 

The reference to idols attached to girdles probably relates to a sacred cord which the Templars are supposed to have kept next to their flesh. This may have been something adopted into the Templars from the [GNOSTIC] Cathars who lived in the Languedoc region of France.

 

They were "heretics" according to the Pope and the Albigensian Crusade ordered by him and carried out largely by the Teutonic Knights slaughtered most of them. What about Baphomet? The worship of an idol in the shape of a head was one of the most persistent accusations leveled against them. Intelligence gained by royal spies who had infiltrated the order prior to the raids also reported the name Baphomet.

 

In The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln, the possible meaning of this name is explored. Early examiners of the issue often thought that Baphomet was a corruption of Muhammad. The authors mentioned above point out that if Baphomet was merely God of Allah, why bother renaming him Baphomet? The name could also be a corruption of abufihamet which means "Father of Understanding" of "Father of Wisdom".

 

If this is the case, the Templars had adopted Sufism into their rituals. Montague Summers suggested, that the name was a combination of two Greek words (baphe and metis) and meant 'absorption into wisdom.'

Hugh Schonfield had a different idea for the origin of the name Baphomet as published in Appendix A - The Essenes and the Templars from the book The Essene Odyssey by himself.

The Essenes, to avoid persecution and because they were a secret sect, employed the uses of ciphers and codes to hide the identities of important names. One such cipher, known to bible scholars and translators of the Dead Sea Scrolls, is the Atbash Cipher. To use the cipher you swap the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet for the last, second for second to last, third for third to last and so on. This means that Aleph=Tau, Bet=Shin, hence the name Atbash.

Essene knowledge got passed on to the Gnostics, and Gnostics then passed it on to the Cathars. The Knights Templar was at one time enrolling many Cathar nobles as new recruits. It is likely that among the knowledge passed to the Templars from the Cathars, would have been the knowledge of the Essene ciphers, including Atbash.

Hugh Schonfield obviously thought so, since he didn't hesitate in applying the Atbash cipher to what he saw as the "obviously artificial name Baphomet". So Hugh wrote out the name Baphomet in Hebrew, applied the Cipher and revealed the word Sophia! Baphomet was the Greek goddess of wisdom!

The Inquisition had thought that Baphomet was the bearded male head that the Templars prostrated themselves before and which spoke to them and gave them occult powers. Sophia, however, is obviously female and Hugh was not surprised to note that Inquisition records also show that in Templar hands was,

"a casket surmounted by a great head of gilded silver, most beautiful, and constituting the image of a woman."

But what of the male head? This was Adam Kadmon, and the head was denominated in Hebrew as Chokmah, i.e. Wisdom.

Even before the discovery of Baphomet's true name, the feminine side of this deity had begun to manifest. Most modern depictions of Baphomet show him with a goats head, breasts (two, four or even six), wings (angelic or demonic), a phallus (usually a very big one), and hooved legs.

 

So Baphomet had already emerged as androgynous, even before the discovery of his being the blending of Adam Kadmon (essentially a god, although Jews and derivative monotheists wouldn't see it that way) and the Goddess Sophia due to an Inquisition error.

NOTE:
After the fall of Knights Templar, they came into existence with a new name called

"Freemasons"