3 – Knights Templar
When we go back from the Freemasons to the Rosicrucians, the next logical step is to retreat yet further through history to the Knights Templar. The trouble there, however, is that the secret society that bears the name of the Knights Templar is merely inspired by the original organization.
The original Knights Templar was a military order of Catholic knights that had long been linked with all kinds of heretic behavior and malign influence. They were one of the most powerful organizations within Christendom, largely due to their international infrastructure and ability to regulate finances across the breadth of medieval Europe. They wore all white mantles and bore shields with a large red (rosy if you will) cross.
If you went to fight in a crusade in the Holy Land and needed to know that your wealth from back home was being kept safe, you could entrust it to a Templar Knight: they were sworn to perpetual poverty and thus had no use for money. Their reach allowed wealthy pilgrims to deposit money with a local Templar, who would give them a document that could then be used to draw out money on the other side, protecting them from bandits en route, similar to modern-day checking systems.
Of course, while the individual members were not rich, the organization itself became fantastically wealthy. Their secretive nature – with rumors of occult initiation rites involving an organization with such riches did not make them universally popular, however, and when the Crusades wound down, their international network came under suspicion.
On Friday the 13th 1307 (the origin of that superstition), King Philip IV of France – in massive debt to Templar banks – ordered hundreds of Templars to be arrested. They were accused of homosexuality, idolatry, apostasy and spitting on the cross. Plenty was tortured and later that year, Pope Clement V, who at the time was based in Avignon, France, issued a Papal Bull that called for the arrest of every Templar in Christendom. The order was dissolved and countless Templars were burned at the stake.
The name would live on, however, and long be associated with a heady mix of secrecy, piety and international influence. It wasn’t surprising that the Rosicrucians took the image of the red cross from the shields of the Templars for their cause, or that later, the Masons adopted some of their traditions.
The modern secret society known as the Knights Templar is confined to the highest levels of the Freemasons. It does not purport to have any connection to the original organization, but instead to be inspired by the ethics of the Knights Templar. To become a Knight Templar, one must already be a Master Mason – the highest echelon of Masonry – before passing through at least two other higher orders. They will still wear the iconic white robe with red cross, too, for special occasions, and there is a noted crossover between the high levels of Masonry – including a degree called the Knight of Rose-Croix – and the even-higher-level Knights Templar.
All very confusing, but as they’re secret societies, we’ll assume that they’re meant to be.