This is an old revision of this page, as edited by MichaelTinkler (talk | contribs) at 15:51, 25 February 2002 (revision. Removed references to non-scholarly authors by name - there are plenty of scholars who say these things. Robinson and Baigent are not worth a reference.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 15:51, 25 February 2002 by MichaelTinkler (talk | contribs) (revision. Removed references to non-scholarly authors by name - there are plenty of scholars who say these things. Robinson and Baigent are not worth a reference.)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The first of the military orders, the Knights Templar were founded in 1118 in the aftermath of the First Crusade to help the new Kingdom of Jerusalem maintain itself against its Muslim neighbors.
The Templars were organized as a monastic order, following a rule revised for them by Bernard of Clairvaux, the great leader of the Cistercian Order.
There were four divisions of brothers in the Templars:
- the knights, equipped as heavy cavalry
- the serjeants, equipped as light cavalry and drawn from a lower social class than the knights
- farmers, who administered the property of the Order
- the chaplains, who were ordained priests and saw to the spiritual needs of the Order.
On October 13, 1307, what may have been all the Knights Templar in France were simultaneously arrested by agents of Phillip the Fair (Phillipe le Bel), to be later tortured into admitting heresy in the Order.
Under torture, some Templars "admitted" to worshipping a "bearded head." Some authors discount this as a common accusation from the Inquisition, and therefore a typical forced admission, while some use it as the basis of conspiracy theories.
see also: Pope Clement V -- Acre, Palestine --
Military Orders