Knights Templar, members of a medieval religious and military order officially named the Order of the Poor Knights of Christ. They were popularly
known as the Knights of the Temple of Solomon, or Knights Templar, because their first quarters in Jerusalem adjoined a building known at the time as
Solomon's Temple. The order developed from a small military band formed in Jerusalem in 1119 by two French knights, Hugh des Payens and Godfrey of
Saint-Omer; its aim was to protect pilgrims visiting Palestine after the First Crusade. Military in purpose from its inception, the order differed in
that respect from the other two great 12th-century religious societies, the Knights of St John of Jerusalem and the Teutonic Knights, which began as
charitable institutions.
The Knights Templar obtained papal sanction for their order, and in 1128 at the ecclesiastical Council of Troyes they were given an austere rule
closely patterned on that of the monastic order of Cistercians. The Knights Templar were headed by a grand master, under whom were three ranks:
knights, chaplains, and sergeants. The knights were the dominant members, and they alone were allowed to wear the distinctive dress of the order, a
white mantle with a large red Latin cross on the back. The headquarters of the Knights Templar remained at Jerusalem until the fall of the city to the
Muslims in 1187; it was later located successively at Antioch, Acre, Caesarea, and in Cyprus.
Because the Knights Templar regularly transmitted money and supplies from Europe to Palestine, they developed an efficient banking system, on which
the rulers and nobility of Europe came to rely. The knights gradually became bankers for a large part of Europe and amassed great wealth. After the
last Crusades had failed and interest had waned in an aggressive policy against the Muslims, the Knights Templar were no longer needed to guard
Palestine. Their immense riches and power had aroused the envy of secular as well as ecclesiastical powers, and in 1307 the impoverished Philip IV of
France, with the aid of Pope Clement V, arranged for the arrest of the French grand master Jacques de Molay on charges of sacrilege and Satanism.
Molay and the leading officers of the order confessed under torture, and all of them were eventually burned at the stake. The order was suppressed in
1312 by Clement V and its property assigned to the rival Knights Hospitaller, although most of it was in fact seized by Philip and by King Edward II,
who disbanded the order in England.
Knights Templar now are members of the
York Rite of the Masonic system.
"Knights Templar," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2005
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