the title of most powerful secret society ever might have to go to the knights templar during the crusades they were an arm of the pope and had lots of wealth living by a code called the rule they rose to prominence over the course of several centuries and became a true force to be reckoned with the origins of the knights templar are incredibly humble and frankly not even all that mysterious basically they came about because of the crusades the topic of the crusades on the other hand is a long conversation but the important part as relates
to the templars is that jerusalem was taken from muslim hands by christian armies around the year 1099. on the surface that seemed great for christendom pilgrims from europe could take the journey to go and visit the holy city but the reality wasn't quite as straightforward the journey from mainland europe to jerusalem was a dangerous undertaking and it wasn't uncommon for pilgrims to be robbed or even killed as they passed through muslim controlled areas it was a problem that the french nobleman hugh depanol wanted to solve somewhere around 1118 or 1119 he created a group sworn
to protect the christian pilgrims he coined his new brotherhood the poor fellow soldiers of christ and the temple of solomon later known as the knights templar or just templars thus one of history's most intriguing and powerful orders was born part of what allowed the templars to become as powerful and successful as they were might have been their code of conduct in some way they were like a monastic order they took their vows upon entry and then abided by a set of guidelines called the rule with a capital r it all started with their clothing a
white cloak adorned with a red cross white was a symbol of their purity and chastity the exact opposite of the flashy armor usually associated with knights even something as simple as a belt was replaced with a wolf pore it was all functioned without the passion none of what they wore bore any flourishes since decorations of that nature signified arrogance but that wasn't it for the rule they were beholden to the word of their grand master permission was required from their superiors to adjust their stirrups go into town or even bathe chastity was hugely important and
the topic of women was completely taboo they couldn't talk about times they'd spent with women or even kiss female members of their families meal times were regulated as well meals were taken together two brothers to a bowl and meet only every other day which was done to avoid corruption church services were mandatory of course over time the templars started to garner a reputation as one of the most feared fighting units of the crusades they were seen as absolutely fearless with a code that didn't permit them to retreat from battle combined with an insane discipline they
were forced to be reckoned with they were expertly trained with multiple weapons and exceedingly well equipped and that was when their cavalry wasn't decimating the enemy ranks dan jones's the templars the rise in spectacular fall of god's holy warriors paints them as a linchpin in the second crusade leading entire armies to battle and fighting on the front lines to conquer damascus one of the most prominent cities in the region plus they didn't just fight but also helped fund other military campaigns and battles people living at the time even went so far as to see them
as something close to legendary more importantly though rulers of different countries also started to see them as a legitimate military threat one with too much experience in leeway it was enough that european royalty eventually thought it best that the threat posed by the templars should be removed completely what sets the templars apart from other secret societies is their relationship to the law powerful and secretive organizations like the freemasons would still have to follow the law of whatever country they were in at the time templars didn't have to deal with that the order had papal backing
and with it came a papal bowl in 1139 called amna datum optimum the language is flowery but a heaps praise on the templars while intimately tying them to the power of the pope and with that power came privilege whoever dies here today you will certainly be among them you're a lord i'll skip you the road they alone were entitled to any of the spoils of war that they earned while fighting against the muslim armies none of that had to go back to any other country and the templars could use those riches as they saw fit
they were completely exempt from paying any sort of taxes and their papal protection essentially meant that they answered to almost no one they weren't held to the rule of any kind of local authority and only had to listen to the word of the pope they were almost above the law even though the knights templar started as exactly what their name implies holy warriors one of their biggest impacts wasn't made on the battlefield the templars financial system functioned a lot like a private bank carrying a lot of money on the journey to jerusalem was dangerous to
pilgrims for all the obvious reasons instead they could deposit money in a templar bank in europe receive a letter of credit and then show that letter in jerusalem where they could withdraw the money but the templars also offered other financial services as well beyond a simple banking system although a lot of those services were exclusive to their higher profile clients king henry iii planned to buy the island of oleron and the templars acted as brokers to put that deal together there was also a point in time where they acted as pawn brokers by holding on
to the crown jewels of great britain as security on the loan they were also trusted with the financials of other groups the pope used the templars as tax collectors to help move collected funds to the crusades they were also used by english and french kings to shift money and even put on financial boards to oversee complicated economic matters all this because they were well known for their honesty and efficiency the guidelines set out by the knights templar technically mandated that its members embraced poverty but the reality didn't look like that the templars as a group
were insanely rich he's borrowed money from the temple you tell them we're here to collect the debt part of that came from their battles on the front lines rules laid out by the pope meant that they could keep the riches they found from the lands they conquered but another big part of it came from donations patrons would give them huge sums of money as a way to confirm their piety donating funds to the templars essentially protected the donor's eternal soul which given the time period was a pretty important thing to a lot of people it
also just happened to benefit the templars and on the plus side it was a way for anyone to proof their devotion without actually taking part in the fighting of the crusades a much safer alternative on the whole those donations also occasionally included plots of land which the templars could turn into further revenue streams they would use them as farmland or vineyards among other things which just went to further their wealth aside from growing into one of the most financially wealthy groups in the medieval world the templars also managed to turn themselves into an incredibly property-rich
group at their height they ended up owning land all across europe their estates were scattered through england and ireland as well as across spain germany italy hungary and most of mainland europe aside from their lands on the continent they also held on to a handful of locations in the holy land this includes castles and fortresses scattered in strategic locations stretching as far north as antioch which is northeast of cyprus and nearly as far south as egypt speaking of the island of cyprus the templars also owned that for a while the whole island the templars bought
the island from the then king of england richard the lionheart that said their occupation didn't go well the inhabitants of cyprus resented the severe templar rule and planned a massacre in 1192 the templars learned about the plot and slaughtered people in the street rather than be besieged in their stronghold they ultimately gave the island back to richard but retained their foldings some of them even returning in the late 1200s the power of the templars is also exemplified by the people they associated with because while most of the individual templars aren't named in history books they
counted kings and popes among their allies that was the case from the beginning baldwin ii the king of jerusalem at the time took an immediate liking to the order giving them the use of his palace on temple mount at 1120. this amazing location is better known as the temple of solomon and the place where the templars first got their name about a decade later they were officially recognized by the catholic church and pope pinourius ii they also had the backing of bernard of clairvoy a prominent french abbott who wrote texts in their favor their connections
only grew from there they had close ties to english royalty and richard the lionheart in particular who called on them to be as tithe collectors they were especially close with french kings as well going out of their way to help them louis ix was short on funds so the templars saw to it that they played a role in getting his armies to egypt then when he was captured the templars again intervened this time to pay his ransom by the late 12th century the crusades were starting to lose steam muslim armies finally took back jerusalem and
over the next century crusader refugees fell one by one with the templars themselves also losing their foothold in the holy land support for the crusades dwindled which let criticism of the templars rise people began to doubt their intentions and fear their influence king philip iv of france was the one who acted on those accusations and vowed to bring them down in october 1307 he rounded up a bunch of french templars including their grand master jacques de moulay arresting and torturing them until they confessed to a laundry list of sins including heresy sodomy and financial corruption
it's hard to say whether any of those forced confessions were true but in the end it didn't really matter in 1310 a trial led to over 50 templars being burned at the stake in 1312 phillip pressured pope clement v into officially dissolving the templars the final nail in the coffin came in 1314 when dozens of templars demolay included were executed for those earlier confessions so they are dying for what the pope would command them to do yes and not christ i think even though modern perspectives tend to see the templars as a secret society their
existence was never doubted at the height of their power after all it's hard to think that a well-oiled military machine that could help facilitate wars would be able to go completely undetected and under the radar but they still fit the profile of a secret society despite the renown they won in their time for the most part what they really saw was privacy but they weren't trying to remain hidden among their most private ceremonies were their initiation rituals and these came under a lot of fire friends and family weren't invited to them and that made others
believe the practices were suspect for a while people believed that the rituals included spitting on the cross and denying christ but many of these claims came from confessions made under torture the rituals were nothing near that they were mostly a series of questions and vows still questions abound for instance in 2017 the k-10 caves were discovered showing the world a labyrinth of carved caverns though extremely unlikely some believe that the caves were used by the templars but to what end some sort of secret religious ritual probably but the details are sparse despite having been dissolved
in the early 14th century the knights templar still managed to capture the wonder and imagination of the modern world even 700 years after the death of the last grand master myths and legends still abound conspiracy theorists still pose questions about the relics that templars may or may not have had in their possession no they didn't have the shroud of turin the holy grail the ark of the covenant or actual pieces of the cross from the crucifixion but it's fascinating to speculate about if they did then there are myths of a templar treasure horde taken to
some mysterious place just before the persecution they faced in the 1300s the templar fleet did disappear around that time but no one knows where or what was contained in the cargo some speculate that they made their way to scotland where they might have inspired the freemasons but no one knows for sure the templars have lived on in the popular imagination for centuries since our official dissolution whether through the creation of contemporary branches works of fiction like the da vinci code or the assassin's creed franchise or through the intrigue of scholars and anyone who likes a
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