Mystery of the Knights Templars

Many phenomena from the past are surrounded by mystery, but none ignites as much imagination as the Knights Templar.

The First Military Order, the Order of the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, better known as the Knights Templar, was founded in 1118 as a result of the First Crusade. The Order was founded by Hugo de Payens. According to a letter sent by the Bishop of Chartres to the Count of Champagne in 1114, where he wrote that he had heard that the Count wanted to join Christ's militia in the Holy Land as the Templars were called at the time, knowing that the founders of the order did not received new members, it is more likely that the order was founded in 1111.

Their name alludes to their historic headquarters in the Omar Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, which the knights renamed Templum Domini. Except in Palestine, the order fought in Spain and in the reconquest of Portugal.

After the bloody end of the First Crusade, Christians took control of the Holy Land. After the news spread in Europe, thousands of pilgrims and passengers set off for Jerusalem. However, the road from the interior to the ports on the coast was dangerous and robbers robbed and killed many innocent passengers.

The French knight Ig de Payen believed that the solution to this great problem could be the creation of a monastic military order that would protect travelers on their way to the Holy Land. King Baldwin II of Jerusalem supported the idea, and the new order was named the "Order of the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon."

Initially, there were only nine knights in the line who relied on donations from the church and nobles. On their coat of arms were depicted two knights on one horse fighting in the name of Christ.

Over the next few years, the order progressed so much financially and numerically that some members decided to establish some of the first European banks. In addition to great wealth, the support of the Church was also important.

In 1139, the then pope declared the institution of the Knights Templar more powerful than the law, so that the members could move freely across the borders of the states and carry out their will. It also meant that they became a great political force, which was completely contrary to their original purpose.

Most members of the upper class had at least some debt to the Templars, and one of the greatest debtors was King Philip IV of France, known by the nickname "Beautiful." The wars with England brought him into great debt, as well as efforts to overthrow the then pope. Having no way to repay the debt, he turned against the Order and in 1300 accused them of heresy and blasphemy and ordered the death penalty for key representatives. Pope Clement V of Avignon ordered the arrest of all the Templars in November 1307, but the church council in 1311 was by a majority vote against the dissolution and destruction of the Templar Order, so that in all other European countries (except France) they were acquitted and declared innocent. However, due to the pressure of Philip IV, Clement V ordered the dissolution of the order on March 22, 1312, and gave the Templar property throughout Europe to the Knights of Malta. Officially, the last master of this order - Jacques de Molay, was burned by King Philip IV as a heretic in 1314. In that way, he was spared the repayment of debts to those he was most reluctant to, while he donated all the Templar's real estate to the order of St. John.It was said that de Mole cursed Philip IV the Beautiful and the pope to die during the next year. Regardless of whether de Mole really cursed the king and the pope, the people really believed in that, since the pope died in agony a month later, while Philip IV the Beautiful passed away in November of the same year.

However, some believe that things did not go exactly like that and that the power of the Knights Templar after these events was even greater than before the fall in France.

Various written traces testify that a fleet of 18 Templar ships anchored in La Rochelle was used to escape. Of course, some members of the French failed to capture and their fate is the subject of various debates and research.

The Templars became surrounded by legends containing secrets and mysteries. Perhaps the most famous are those that speak of the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant, and the secrets of construction. Some sources say that the Templars found the Holy Grail and took it to Scotland in 1307. Other sources claim that they found the Ark of the Covenant, a chest containing sacred objects of ancient Israel, including Aaron's staff (Aaron is Moses' cousin and the first priest of Israel) and the stone tablets on which Moses received the Ten Commandments of God. There are also stories that the Templars were associated with the Priory of Zion, an organization tasked with guarding the sarcophagus in which Mary Magdalene was buried, so these secrets gave them the power to manipulate the Catholic Church and become very powerful in Europe.

The Templars are still the subject of numerous historical controversies and an inexhaustible source of inspiration for conspiracy theorists.