Knights Templar Research Paper

The knights Templar was founded in 1816 as a fraternal service organization for Master Masons. The order flourishes in the United States, where there were 300,000 members in 1994. The first recorded reference to the Knight Templar degree is in 1769, when it was conferred upon one William Davis at Boston; and in 1780 an Encampment of Knights Templar was organized in Charleston, South Carolina. The organization as currently constituted traces its formal establishment to 1816, from which year the modern constitution dates. The Knight Templar is the 10th degree and highest rank of the York Rite. Candidates must be in good standing in their own Blue Lodge, as well as being holders of the Royal Arch Degree, the seventh of the York Rite. There are

An organization of religious warriors, the Knights Templar protected Christian pilgrims in the Near East during the High Middle Ages (Davis Paul K.; Allen Lee Hamilton 1). The European knights, fighting as heavy cavalry, responded to the call of Pope Urban II in 1095 to march to the Holy Land and liberate it from the possession of the Muslims. The Knights accomplished their main goal of establishing European control in Jerusalem and the surrounding area, but Europeans were too few in numbers to control the countryside, this need for protection of Christian pilgrims brought the Knights Templar into Existence. The Knights Templar was organized into a hierarchy with a grand master at the top, followed by the seneschal, provincial marshals, commander of the land and realm Jerusalem, and commander of the fleet base at Acre, a city in the northern coastal plain region of northern Israel. The Knights wore white mantles with a red cross emblazoned on the front and back. The lower ranks instead had the Red Cross sewn onto brown or black clothing. The Templars’ banner was white beneath and black on top; black symbolized their sternness toward their enemies while the white represented their devotion to Christianity (Davis Paul K.; Allen Lee Hamilton

On the Contrary, with the substantial gifts of land from Aristocracy and European Royalty it was able built up large and profitable estates in various countries to become bankers and therefore the organization wielded considerable financial power (Cavendish, Richard 8). After the end of the Crusades in the late 13th century, the Knights Templar was left without a military role. Instead, they turned to banking. Their secretive ways and enormous wealth excited jealousy and fear, even among kings. In October 1307, French king Philip IV ordered every Templar in France to be arrested and confiscated their French lands. King Philip IV accused the Templars of a variety of heinous crimes which were supported with the confessions of tortured-out captured knights. Pope Clement V subsequently ordered the arrest of every Templar in Christendom, and most of their property was divided between states and the Knights Hospitaler. The pope completely suppressed the Templar order in 1312, and the majority of the remaining knights were burned at the stake (Davis Paul K.; Allen Lee Hamilton