The Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and of the Templar of Solomon, better known as the Knights Templar, have been associated with lost treasures and paranormal stories since the 1300s. The Order existed for only 200 years and yet it has made an impact on the consciousness of society that is far greater than the Order ever hoped to be.
There are a number of conspiracy theories associated with the Order, some dating back to the very beginnings of the Templars. According to accepted history, the Order was founded after the First Crusade. This first incursion into the Holy Land has resulted in the capture of the Holy city of Jerusalem in 1099. After the establishment of the Kingdom of Jerusalem many Christian pilgrims traveled to visit what they referred to as the Holy Places. However, though the city of Jerusalem was under relatively secure control, the rest what was known as Outremer was not. Bandits abounded, and pilgrims were routinely slaughtered, sometimes by the hundreds, as they attempted to make the journey from the coastline at Jaffa into the Holy Land.
Paranormal stories aside for the moment, accepted history records that around 1119, two veterans of the First Crusade, the French knight Hugues de Payens and his relative Godfrey de Saint-Omer, proposed the creation of a monastic order for the protection of these pilgrims. King Baldwin II of Jerusalem agreed to their request, and gave them space for a headquarters on the Temple Mount, in the captured Al Aqsa Mosque. The Temple Mount had a mystique, because it was above what was believed to be the ruins of the Temple of Solomon. The Crusaders therefore referred to the Al Aqsa Mosque as Solomon's Temple, and it was from this location that the Order took the name of Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, or "Templar" knights. The Order, which had only nine members for many years, had few financial resources and relied on donations to survive. Their emblem consisted of two knights riding on a single horse, emphasizing the Order's poverty.
The truth is something quite different. It is true that Hughes de Payens and Godfrey Saint-Omer were the two founding members but both were from very wealthy families and the impetus for the founding of the Order was Bernard of Clairvaux a very influential member of the clergy. The nine knights were actually sent to Jerusalem in search of a hidden treasure. Protecting the pilgrims was just their cover story. The treasure for which they searched was buried beneath the Temple Mount; hence their assignment of quarters on the Mount. Evidence discovered in 1913-1914 by British officers showed that the Templars had spent a great deal of time tunneling beneath the mount and revealed a maze of hidden passages. If is believed by mean that the Templars discovered what they searched for and smuggled it out of the Holy Land. This was the basis for their meteoric rise to power.
Unfortunately, it also led to their downfall. Was it the Holy Grail? The Ark of the Covenant? Other paranormal stories include the possibility of a UFO, or a severed head which could speak, the body of Jesus, etc.
Officially endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church around 1129, the Order became a favoured charity throughout Christendom, and grew rapidly in membership and power. Templar knights were among the most skilled fighting units of the Crusades. Non-combatant members of the Order managed a large economic infrastructure throughout Christendom, introducing financial techniques that were an early form of banking, and building many churches and fortifications across Europe and the Holy Land.
The Templars' existence was tied closely to the Crusades; when the Holy Land was lost, support for the Order faded. Rumors about the Templars' secret initiation ceremony created mistrust, and King Philip IV of France, deeply in debt to the Order, took advantage of the situation. In 1307, many of the Order's members in France were arrested, tortured into giving false confessions, and then burned at the stake. Under pressure from King Philip, Pope Clement V disbanded the Order in 1312. The abrupt disappearance of a major part of the European infrastructure gave rise to speculation, numerous paranormal stories linking the Order to all sorts of unearthly powers and legends, which have kept the "Templar" name alive into the modern day.
