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Who were the Knights Templar?

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The templars, who were properly called the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon. Formed in approxamately in the year 1119, the Templars' purpose was to guard the land around Jersusalem for Christian pilgrims. It was common before 1119 for bandits to slaughter the pilgrims. Also, the Muslim armies (scattered at this time) would attack the Christian pilgrims.

The knight Hugues de Payens proposed the creation of this order to protect the pilgrims. Kind Baldwin the Second of Jerusalem approved of the idea and allowed the order to use Temple Mount as a headquarters. Originally, the order remained poor. But as time had passed, they grew stronger. In 1129, the Catholic Church approved of the order. At this time, they recieved large amounts of money, land, and noble born knights to help hold the Holy Land.

In 1139, Pope Innocent the Second passed the "Omne Datum Optimum" which allowed the order to be exempt from local laws. They no longer had to pay tax and only were under the authority of the Pope.

Templar Decline and the Unity of the Muslim Empire

As time went on, the Muslim Empire grew stronger under powerful leaders such as Saladin. The Holy Land was once again at question. In 1187 Saladin recaptured Jerusalem and forced the Templars to relocate their headerquarters to Acre. The Templars held Acre for nearly a century but lost that as well as the Muslims began to push the Christians out of the Holy Land.

As the Muslims conquered, support for the once glorious order diminished. On Friday, October 13th, 1307 King Philip of France ordered the arrest and purge of the Templar Order. The arrest warrant had stated:



This roughly translates to, "God is not happy. We have enemies in the faith"

Source: Wikipedia

Philip listed many reasons for why the Templars had become traitors to Christian Kingdom:

• Heresy
  
• Homosexuality
  
• Corruption
  
• Secrecy
  

Most of these were false accusations. The kind of France had been in a state of mass debt to the Templars. This was the perfect way to get rid of the debt.

Robert de Sable and Assassin's Creed



Robert de Sable is portrayed as the main antagonist of the game, "Assassin's Creed". He is shown as greedy, evil, and cunning. He apparently plotted to kill King Richard according to Altair.

King Richard lead the crusaders in the third crusade with the help of Robert de Sable, grandmaster of the Knights Templar at the time. de Sable had no intention of killing Richard. He was an excellent military leader and thought of what he was doing as a good deed to his god.

Some Interesting Facts:

• The Templars were purged on Firday the 13th. This is believed to be where the ideas of Friday the 13th started.
  

I will add more fun facts when I find them =D.

Credits:

• Some old textbooks I have
  
• Wikipedia for quotations, laws, and a few facts.
  
• Wikipedia for pictures.
  

Discuss what you want here .

You should add in a bit about the freemasons .
My grandfather is a freemason and he has told me a bit about the knights templar. He has a fancy freemason ring and everthing .

If this is why they were traitors then everyday people are considered traitors right?