by Tracy R. Twyman on October 18, 2004

According to chroniclers of their early years, the Knights Templar were founded in 1188 by Hughes de Payen, a vassal of the Count of Champagne.

Hugo de Paganis, better known by the French translation Hugues de Payens or Payns (c. 1070 – 24 May 1136), was the co-founder and first Grand Master of the Knights Templar. In association with Bernard of Clairvaux, he created the Latin Rule, the code of behavior for the Order.

Baldwin I (1060s – 2 April 1118) was the first count of Edessa from 1098 to 1100 and king of Jerusalem from 1100 to his death in 1118. He was the youngest son of Eustace II, Count of Boulogne, and Ida of Lorraine and married a Norman noblewoman, Godehilde of Tosny. He received the County of Verdun in 1096, but he soon joined the crusader army of his brother Godfrey of Bouillon and became one of the most successful commanders of the First Crusade.

This occurred after they had presented themselves to Baldwin I, King of Jerusalem, whose older brother, Godfrey of Bouillon had led the crusaders to victory in the Holy Land almost twenty years previous.

Godfrey of Bouillon (French: Godefroy, Dutch: Godfried, German: Gottfried, Latin: Godefridus Bullionensis; 1060 – 18 July 1100) was a preeminent leader of the First Crusade, and the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1099 to 1100. Although initially reluctant to take the title of king, he agreed to rule as prince (princeps) under the title Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri, or Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre.

Thus, they received their name:

Guillame de Tyre, the chief chronicler of the age and an intimate associate of King Baldwin, doesn't even mention them, causing the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail to suspect that he had been silenced by the royal muzzle to cover up for the Templars' actual activities - excavating the Temple Mount.

William of Tyre (Latin: Willelmus Tyrensis; c. 1130 – 29 September 1186) was a medieval prelate and chronicler. As archbishop of Tyre, he is sometimes known as William II to distinguish him from his predecessor, William I, the Englishman, a former prior of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, who was Archbishop of Tyre from 1127 to 1135. He grew up in Jerusalem at the height of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which had been established in 1099 after the First Crusade, and he spent twenty years studying the liberal arts and canon law in the universities of Europe.

The authors speculate that when the Roman legions sacked the Temple in 70 A.D., they took only the most obvious loot, unwittingly leaving behind the most valuable treasure, chief among which would have been the Ark of the Covenant, and perhaps, the artifact which came to be known as the Holy Grail.

ROME – Library of Rickandria

The main figures involved in the Templar's foundation:

• King Baldwin
• the Count of Champagne
• Andre de Montbard
• Hughes de Payen
• Bertrand de Blanchefort

By 1127, most of the knights had returned to Europe, and in the following year, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Andre de Montbard's uncle, published a pro-Templar tract entitled In Praise of the New Knighthood.

Bernard of Clairvaux, O. Cist. (Latin: Bernardus Claraevallensis; 1090 – 20 August 1153), venerated as Saint Bernard, was an abbot, mystic, co-founder of the Knights Templar, and a major leader in the reform of the Benedictines through the nascent Cistercian Order.

At the Saint Bernard-inspired Council of Troyes, the Church officially recognized the Templars as a religious and military order dedicated to the defense of Christendom.

Council of Troyes (1129) - Wikipedia

In 1139, a former student of Saint Bernard's, Pope Innocent II, issued a papal bull stating that the Knights Templar would owe allegiance to none except the Pope himself, making them immune to the political whims of all authorities, both religious and secular.

Pope Innocent II (Latin: Innocentius II; died 24 September 1143), born Gregorio Papareschi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 14 February 1130 to his death in 1143. His election as pope was controversial and the first eight years of his reign were marked by a struggle for recognition against the supporters of Anacletus II. He reached an understanding with King Lothair III of Germany who supported him against Anacletus and whom he crowned as Holy Roman emperor. Innocent went on to preside over the Second Lateran council.

As their fame grew, so did their ranks, and thus, their property holdings.

The sons of European nobility swelled their membership, and the vast amounts of money and property donated by the new recruits swelled their territory and their coffers, for new recruits, as per their vow of poverty, were required to relinquish all property upon admittance to the order.

Soon they stood at the helm of a huge, international empire over which they held complete independent sovereignty.

During Christendom's Second Crusade, the Templars accompanied France's King Louis VII into battle and played a decisive role in preventing the war from becoming a total disaster.

Louis VII (1120 – 18 September 1180), called the Younger or the Young (French: le Jeune) to differentiate him from his father Louis VI, was King of France from 1137 to 1180. His first marriage was to Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine, one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe. The marriage temporarily extended the Capetian lands to the Pyrenees.

Second Crusade - Wikipedia

Over the next century, they secured their important role in international politics by utilizing their influence upon a number of:

• kings
• nobles
• ecclesiastic authorities

The Grand Master of the Temple even stood by England's King John as he signed the Magna Carta.

John (24 December 1166 – 19 October 1216) was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. He lost the Duchy of Normandy and most of his other French lands to King Philip II of France, resulting in the collapse of the Angevin Empire and contributing to the subsequent growth in power of the French Capetian dynasty during the 13th century. The baronial revolt at the end of John's reign led to the sealing of Magna Carta, a document considered an early step in the evolution of the constitution of the United Kingdom.

At times, it appeared that the Templars possessed the power to make or break a monarch's career according to their desire.

Their political influence spread in direct proportion to their huge banking operation.

In fact, the modern institution of banking, in which money can be deposited in one location and withdrawn in another, is a Templar invention, along with the "cheque", likely named after the "chequerboard" pattern that was one of the Templars' most well-recognized motifs.

"The Templars thus became the primary money changers of the age, and the Paris preceptory became the center of European finance."

The Templars' enterprises made them the conduits of new forms of:

• art
• science
• craft

They had access to new advances in:

• agriculture
• armaments
• surveying
• mapmaking

Like the Templars, they took oaths of secrecy, conducted strange ceremonies, and were obliged to fight with the same fanatical bravery.

But when their relationship with the Muslims began to deteriorate, the Templars' foothold in Jerusalem began to slip.

King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem died in 1185.

King Baldwin IV (1161–1185), known as the Leper King, was the king of Jerusalem from 1174 until his death in 1185. He was admired by his contemporaries and later historians for his willpower and dedication to the Latin Kingdom in the face of debilitating leprosy. Choosing competent advisers, Baldwin ruled a thriving crusader state and succeeded in protecting it from the Muslim ruler Saladin.

In the battle over the succession that resulted, the current Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Gerard de Ridefort, was said to have betrayed some oath made to the deceased king, initiating a near-civil war amongst the Europeans living in the Holy Land.

Gérard de Ridefort, also called Gerard de Ridefort (died 4 October 1189), was Grand Master of the Knights Templar from the end of 1184 and until his death in 1189.

The authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail suggest that at this point, the Knights Templar turned their attention towards a new ambition:

It was also the realm of the Cathar heretics, who, as it turned out, were closely associated with the Knights Templar as well.

The Cathars – Library of Rickandria

It has been written that one of the Templars' founders was a Cathar, and that their fourth Grand Master, Bertrand de Blanchefort, was from a "Cathar family."

Bertrand de Blanchefort (or Blanquefort), (c. 1109 – 13 January 1169) was the sixth Grand Master of the Knights Templar, from 1156 until his death in 1169. He is known as a great reformer of the order.

So too were many of the order's dignitaries.

"In the Languedoc, Temple officials were more frequently Cathar than Catholic", and, "The Grand Master at the time... declared there was in fact only one true crusade - the crusade against the Saracens."

For by 1306, the Templars had made a most powerful enemy:

Philip IV (April–June 1268 – 29 November 1314), called Philip the Fair (French: Philippe le Bel), was King of France from 1285 to 1314. By virtue of his marriage with Joan I of Navarre, he was also King of Navarre as Philip I from 1284 to 1305, as well as Count of Champagne. Although Philip was known to be handsome, hence the epithet le Bel, his rigid, autocratic, imposing, and inflexible personality gained him (from friend and foe alike) other nicknames, such as the Iron King (French: le Roi de fer). His fierce opponent Bernard Saisset, bishop of Pamiers, said of him: "He is neither man nor beast. He is a statue."

And the only other power he knew of that held the amount of international clout needed to execute the plan was the only power that held command over the Templars:

the Papacy.

But manipulating the Papacy was nothing new to King Philip the Fair.

Pope Boniface VIII (Latin: Bonifatius PP. VIII; born Benedetto Caetani; c. 1230 – 11 October 1303) was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 24 December 1294 until his death in 1303. The Caetani family was of baronial origin, with connections to the papacy. He succeeded Pope Celestine V, who had abdicated from the papal throne. Boniface spent his early career abroad in diplomatic roles.

He had already, as most historians will attest, played a guiding role in the kidnapping of Pope Boniface VIII and the poisoning of Pope Benedict XI.

Pope Benedict XI (Latin: Benedictus PP. XI; 1240 – 7 July 1304), born Nicola Boccasini (Niccolò of Treviso), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 22 October 1303 to his death, in 7 July 1304.

The current pope, Clement V, owed his very throne to Philip, who had been responsible for his election.

Pope Clement V (Latin: Clemens Quintus; c. 1264 – 20 April 1314), born Raymond Bertrand de Got (also occasionally spelled de Guoth and de Goth), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 5 June 1305 to his death, in April 1314. He is remembered for suppressing the order of the Knights Templar and allowing the execution of many of its members. A Frenchman by birth, Clement moved the Papacy from Rome to Avignon, ushering in the period known as the Avignon Papacy.

Even as the son of Ida de Blanchefort, from the same family as the Templars' fourth Grand Master, Clement V still could not resist pressure from Philip the Fair.

Philip wanted to persecute the Templars for heresy.

The drama which unfolded thereafter gave rise to numerous legends, including the superstition surrounding "Friday the 13th."

The order's current Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, had just had all of the order's books burnt for no apparent reason.

Jacques de Molay (French: [də mɔlɛ]; c. 1240–1250 – 11 or 18 March 1314[2]), also spelled "Molai", was the 23rd and last grand master of the Knights Templar, leading the order sometime before 20 April 1292 until it was dissolved by order of Pope Clement V in 1312. Though little is known of his actual life and deeds except for his last years as Grand Master, he is one of the best-known Templars.

And one Templar who left the order had been told by the treasurer that this was a "wise" move, as danger for the order lurked around the corner.

Also, a memo had been given to all of the Templar preceptories in France warning their members not to divulge any information to anyone about the order's customs and rituals.

The Templars who were arrested went without struggle, as if they had been instructed to submit.

However, not all Templars were arrested.

It is known that a group of them, all closely associated with the treasurer, escaped, taking with them, presumably, all the wealth and treasure they could carry.

According to the legends, the Templars loaded the loot onto wagons, which they then transported to the coast, where eighteen ships awaited them at the Templar naval base at La Rochelle.

A list of charges drawn up by the Inquisition on August 12th, 1308 reads:

• Item, that in each province they had idols, namely heads.
• Item, that they adored these idols.
• Item, that they said that the head could save them.
• Item, that it could make riches.
• Item, that it could make the trees flower.
• Item, that it made the land germinate.
• Item, that they surrounded or touched each head of the aforesaid idol with small cords, which they wore around themselves next to the shirt or the flesh.

They were also accused, among other things, of:

• homosexual rites
• of baby sacrifice
• of committing abortions

"Set not much faith in this, for it is far too young."

This was the source for the 19th century occultist Eliphas Levi's well-known depiction of Baphomet, now incorporated into the Waite tarot deck as "the Devil."

Éliphas Lévi Zahed, born Alphonse Louis Constant (8 February 1810 – 31 May 1875), was a French esotericist, poet, and writer. Initially pursuing an ecclesiastical career in the Catholic Church, he abandoned the priesthood in his mid-twenties and became a ceremonial magician. At the age of 40, he began professing knowledge of the occult. He wrote over 20 books on magic, Kabbalah, alchemical studies, and occultism.

This popular image, sometimes referred to as "the Sabbatic Goat", was made to embody symbols of conflicting dualities.

Thus, the beast bears the breasts of a woman and the sex organs of a man.

This symbol was later used by Anton LaVey's Church of Satan.

Anton Szandor LaVey (born Howard Stanton Levey; April 11, 1930 – October 29, 1997) was an American author, musician, and LaVeyan Satanist. He was the founder of the Church of Satan, the philosophy of LaVeyan Satanism, and the concept of Satanism. He authored several books, including The Satanic Bible, The Satanic Rituals, The Satanic Witch, The Devil's Notebook, and Satan Speaks! In addition, he released three albums, including The Satanic Mass, Satan Takes a Holiday, and Strange Music. He played a minor on-screen role and served as technical advisor for the 1975 film The Devil's Rain and served as host and narrator for Nick Bougas' 1989 mondo film Death Scenes.

Church of Satan: Anton Szandor LaVey – Library of Rickandria

Yet there was another idolatrous head found during the raid on the Templar's Paris preceptory which presents an intriguing possibility about Baphomet.

According to the written account, it was,

"a great head of gilded silver, most beautiful, and consisting of the image of a woman. 

Inside were two head-bones wrapped in a cloth of white linen, with another red cloth around it.

A label was attached, on which was written the legend 'Caput 58 M.'"

Given the evidence that the Templars knew of and believed in the Grail family, descendants of Christ, and Mary Magdalen, it is theorized that this idol contains the relics of Magdalen herself.

Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to His crucifixion and resurrection. She is mentioned by name twelve times in the canonical gospels, more than most of the apostles and more than any other woman in the gospels, other than Jesus's family. Mary's epithet Magdalene may be a toponymic surname, meaning that she came from the town of Magdala, a fishing town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in Roman Judea.

After all, as Boyd Rice has suggested, 5 + 8 = 13, and M is the 13th letter of the alphabet, so "58 M" could be a code signifying the name "Mary Magdalen."

Most likely, Scotland, which provided a haven for renegade Templars from all over Europe.

Scotland was at war with England at the time, so pressure from King Edward would have been useless, and Scottish people at that time didn't care much what the Pope thought of them either.

Escaped Templars played an integral role in the history of Scotland, where the order was never officially dissolved.

They are said to have fought by the side of Robert the Bruce during 1314's Battle of Bannockburn.

Robert I (11 July 1274 – 7 June 1329), popularly known as Robert the Bruce (Scottish Gaelic: Raibeart am Brusach), was King of Scots from 1306 to his death in 1329. Robert led Scotland during the First War of Scottish Independence against England. He fought successfully during his reign to restore Scotland to an independent kingdom and is regarded in Scotland as a national hero.

Battle of Bannockburn - Wikipedia

James II and VII (14 October 1633 O.S. – 16 September 1701) was King of England and Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He was the last Catholic monarch of England, Scotland, and Ireland. His reign is now remembered primarily for conflicts over religious tolerance, but it also involved struggles over the principles of absolutism and the divine right of kings. His deposition ended a century of political and civil strife in England by confirming the primacy of the English Parliament over the Crown.

Triad Claw Symbolism – Library of Rickandria

They purportedly survived in Scotland at least until 1689, when, during the Battle of Killiecrankie (part of a revolt against the deposition of Scottish Stuart king James II by William of Orange), an ancient Templar device was found on the body of John Claverhouse, Viscount of Dundee.

William III (William Henry; Dutch: Willem Hendrik; 4 November 1650 – 8 March 1702), also known as William of Orange, was the sovereign Prince of Orange from birth, Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from the 1670s, and King of England, Ireland, and Scotland from 1689 until his death in 1702. He ruled Great Britain and Ireland with his wife, Queen Mary II, and their joint reign is known as that of William and Mary.

In the province of Lorraine, which was then part of Germany (and now part of France), the region's duke exonerated all Templars of heresy, instructing them to array themselves in the clothes of common people and blend in with the populace.

The Templars were openly defiant in both Germany and Spain, where they were proclaimed innocent by their judges, and went on to live normal lives in other orders, such as the Teutonic Order, or the Knights Hospitaller.

This order was devoted specifically to sailing and sponsored a number of history's most well-known explorers.

D. Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira (/ˌvæsku də ˈɡɑːmə, - ˈɡæmə/ VAS-koo də GA(H)M-ə; European Portuguese: [ˈvaʃku ðɐ ˈɣɐmɐ]; c. 1460s – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and nobleman who was the first European to reach India by sea.

Vasco de Gama was a member of the order, and Prince Henry the Navigator, speculated as having been among the few to explore (albeit secretly) the New World prior to Christopher Columbus, was a Grand Master.

Dom Henrique of Portugal, Duke of Viseu (4 March 1394 – 13 November 1460), better known as Prince Henry the Navigator (Portuguese: Infante Dom Henrique, o Navegador), was a central figure in the early days of the Portuguese Empire and in the 15th-century European maritime discoveries and maritime expansion. Through his administrative direction, he is regarded as the main initiator of what would be known as the Age of Discovery. Henry was the fourth child of King John I of Portugal, who founded the House of Aviz.

Most importantly, however, Christopher Columbus himself was the son-in-law of a Knight of Christ and may have used his relative's maps to navigate his way to America, where his ships sailed under flags bearing the order's insignia, the red equilateral cross.

Christopher Columbus is not Who you Thought, and neither is anything else – Library of Rickandria

The Templars also reputedly used their influence in the Teutonic Order to exact a measure of revenge against the Catholic Church, when they decided to support the Protestant Reformation of Martin Luther.

Martin Luther OSA (/ˈluːθər/ LOO-thər; German: [ˈmaʁtiːn ˈlʊtɐ] ⓘ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, professor, and Augustinian friar. Luther was the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation, and his theological beliefs form the basis of Lutheranism. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in Western and Christian history.

Revenge was something that was definitely on the minds of escaped Templars, especially in regard to what happened to their last known Grand Master, Jacques de Molay.

Although he had confessed to the charges, he later repudiated them, claiming that the confession had been made during torture, and was therefore not valid.

He was thus consigned, in March of 1314, to be slow roasted upon an open fire in a public square.

In 1789, the dying curse of de Molay re-emerged in the actions of French Freemasons, heirs to the traditions (and perhaps the secrets) of the Knights Templar.

Decoding Rosicrucianism & Freemasonry Using the Unified Field – Library of Rickandria

These Freemasons were responsible for orchestrating the French Revolution against both the Catholic Church, and the current political state.

King Philip's descendant, Louis XVI, was beheaded before a cheering crowd.

Louis XVI (Louis Auguste; French: [lwi sɛːz]; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. Marie Antoinette was the wife of Louis XVI.

"Jacques de Molay, thou art avenged!"

As mentioned, their secrets and traditions were taken up by the Order of Freemasons, a secret society, derived partially from medieval stonemasons' guilds, which has included many of:

• Europe's
• England's
• America's

Even the inner order of the S.S., known as the Black Sun, was patterned after the Templars.

Reich of The Black Sun - 11 (bibliotecapleyades.net)

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky[a] (née Hahn von Rottenstern; 12 August [O.S. 31 July] 1831 – 8 May 1891), often known as Madame Blavatsky, was a Russian and American mystic and author who co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875. She gained an international following as the primary founder of Theosophy as a belief system.

Other, more innocuous occult figures have embraced the teachings of the Templars as well, such as H.P. Blavatsky and Rudolf Steiner.

Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a literary critic and published works including The Philosophy of Freedom. At the beginning of the twentieth century he founded an esoteric spiritual movement, anthroposophy, with roots in German idealist philosophy and theosophy. His teachings are influenced by Christian Gnosticism (for heresiologists it is little doubt that these are neognosticism). Many of his ideas are pseudoscientific. He was also prone to pseudohistory.

Then, of course, there are the numerous neo-Templar orders that proliferate throughout the Western world, mostly social clubs for middle-aged men, all of whom claim a direct pedigree derived from the original order.

The Templar Conspiracy

One of the facts that seems to have been distorted is the date of the Templars' foundation:

1118.

But it is known that by 1126 they had added four new members, so either the date of their foundation is wrong, or the bit about them admitting no new members for nine years is wrong.

If the last piece of information is correct, then they would have actually been founded in 1111 or 1112.

And there just so happens to be much evidence supporting that.

Hugh (c. 1074 – c. 1130) was a French noble who was the first Count of Champagne. He was known for donating the valley that was used as the site for the Clairvaux Abbey and going on several pilgrimages to the Holy Land. During his second visit, Hugh de Paynes, a knight in his service, stayed in Jerusalem and established the Knights Templar. Hugh later gave up his wealth and lands to join the Templar Order.

For instance, in 1114, the Count of Champagne is known to have received a letter from the Bishop of Chartres regarding his intention to join "The militia of Christ", a nickname for the Templar order.

Ivo of Chartres, Can.Reg., also Ives, Yves, or Yvo; Latin: Ivo Carnutensis; c. 1040 – 23 December 1115), was a French canon regular and abbot who then served as the Bishop of Chartres from 1090 until his death. He was an important authority in Catholic canon law during the Investiture Crisis of that era. He is honored as a saint in the Catholic Church.

Saint Bernard was also the nephew of one of the Templars' original nine knights:

It was also the reason why King Baldwin II gave them quarters on the Temple Mount, and why they kept so few members for the first nine years - so that it would be easier to protect the secret.

Baldwin II, also known as Baldwin of Bourcq or Bourg (French: Baudouin; c. 1075 – 21 August 1131), was Count of Edessa from 1100 to 1118, and King of Jerusalem from 1118 until his death. He accompanied his cousins Godfrey of Bouillon and Baldwin of Boulogne to the Holy Land during the First Crusade. He succeeded Baldwin of Boulogne as the second count of Edessa when he left the county for Jerusalem following his brother's death. He was captured at the Battle of Harran in 1104. He was held first by Sökmen of Mardin, then by Jikirmish of Mosul, and finally by Jawali Saqawa. During his captivity, Tancred, the Crusader ruler of the Principality of Antioch, and Tancred's cousin, Richard of Salerno, governed Edessa as Baldwin's regents.

The suggestion seems to be that the conspiracy officially began in 1104, during a meeting between the Count of Champagne and a number of nobles from the Brienne, Chaumont, and Joinville families, as well as the "liege lord" of Andre de Montbard.

"the most significant of all Templar Grand Masters"

"These workers were supposedly subjected to a rigid, virtually military discipline.

They were forbidden to fraternize in any way with the local population and were kept strictly segregated from the surrounding community."

According to Cesar d'Arcons, an engineer hired to write up a report on the region's mineral deposits sometime later, these Templar-employed German miners were not actually mining anything but were excavating a subterranean crypt.

Is This The Holy Mountain : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Whatever it was for which they were digging, they continued to take great pains to preserve the secret for many decades.

By the end of the next century, the Templars had been invited by the lord of Bezu and Rennes-le-Chateau to dispatch a special contingent of Templars from Rousillon to Bezu, where they built a lookout post at the top of the mountain.

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