![]() ![]() Templar iconography is popular with European neo-fascists: The Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik claimed to be a Templar, and Knights Templar International is an online network that connects far-right activists, particularly in Britain. The Templars have also been widely revived and imitated for purposes both benign and sinister since at least 1737, when the Scottish Freemason Andrew Michael Ramsey wrote a pseudo-history of Masonry that claimed ties to the medieval Templars. They crop up regularly in modern entertainment, most famously in Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, which cast them as the shadowy guardians of ancient religious secrets, and more recently in the video game franchise Assassin’s Creed, which transforms them into time-traveling supervillains. That grisly demise has lent the Templars lasting notoriety and a thick shrouding of myth. In 1314 the last Master, Jacques de Molay, was burned at the stake in Paris. Its property was confiscated and its members stripped of their rank. In March 1312 a church council formally abolished the order. Templar brothers across Europe were arrested, charged with crimes including sodomy, blasphemy and worshiping false idols they were imprisoned, tortured and forced to make false confessions. The Templars had been tainted by the final failure of the crusades in 1291 they were also victims of the French king’s chronic shortage of money. ![]() However, beginning on Friday 13th October 1307 the Templars were destroyed in a process instigated by the French king Philip IV “The Fair” and abetted by Pope Clement V. Its knights were also renowned for bravery in battle-one Muslim writer called them “the fiercest fighters” of all the crusaders. It counted the pope and kings of France among its clients. The order boasted considerable financial acumen, providing international banking and credit-transfer services. It owned property stretching from Britain to Syria, profits from which were used to fund military expeditions in the Holy Land and charitable deeds across the West. In their day, though, the Templar organization was rich. Members were often called “warrior monks,” since they fought on the front line of the crusades and swore oaths of chastity, poverty and obedience. The original Knights Templar-shorthand for the Order of the Poor Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem-were founded to protect Christian pilgrims on the roads of Palestine following the First Crusade the group was named for its original headquarters on the Temple Mount. Auteri, Grand Treasurer of the Temple of Jerusalem, prepares to induct new knights and dames into the order. The assembled are eager to get the party started, and the cake-cutting kicks off a weekend that will culminate in the dubbing of seven new “knights” and “dames” in a ritual the official literature says will “prepare you for the great works you have yet to complete.” It’s a historical legacy many groups vie for, and in that regard the SMOTJ’s celebration is off to an inauspicious start: Most scholars date the foundation of those first Templars to 1119 or 1120, making the order today just 898 or 899 years old. Members of the charitable organization, known by the unwieldy abbreviation SMOTJ, regard themselves as spiritual descendants of the original Templars. It is Memorial Day weekend and we are in a hotel in Nashville, Tennessee, where about 350 members of the autonomous Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem have gathered to mark the 900th birthday of the Knights Templar. This evening, though, he is Hugh de Payns, a French knight who died in 1136 after establishing a military order known as the Knights Templar. His sword, modeled on one from the Ridley Scott movie Kingdom of Heaven, is not battle sharp, but it cuts sponge cake easily enough.īy day Joe Auteri, 49, is a partner in a financial planning company based in Pennsylvania. The outfit weighs 65 pounds and can cause problems for airline baggage handlers. The crowd is mostly dressed in business attire, but Auteri is wearing medieval-style armor: a shirt of steel-link mail, a mail coif on his head, plate armor on his shoulders and white linen robes emblazoned with a red cross. Auteri draws his sword and hands it to his Grand Prior, Patrick Carney, who brings it down through a layer of yellow icing, cutting a large birthday cake in half. Knights of the SMOTJ wear the red cross pattée, believed to have been first used by the Knights Templar in 1147. ![]()
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