What is "knights templar"

See knight templar

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of Solomon's Temple or simply as Templars, were among the wealthiest and most powerful of the Western Christian military orders and were prominent in Christian finance. The organisation existed for nearly two centuries during the Middle Ages.

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, in their distinctive white mantles with a red cross, were among the most skilled fighting units of the Crusades. Non-combatant members of the order managed a large economic infrastructure throughout Christendom, innovating financial techniques that were an early form of banking, and building 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. Rumours about the Templars' secret initiation ceremony created distrust, 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 significant player in European society gave rise to speculation, legend and legacy use of their name, which has kept the "Templar" name alive to the modern day.

The Knights Templar was a medieval Christian military order prominent in the Crusades, from the early 12th century until the early 14th century

Knights Templar may also refer to:

• Knights Templar (Freemasonry)
• The Knights Templar (Deus Ex), a fictional organization in the Deus Ex series
• Knight Templar (The Saint), a 1930 novel by Leslie Charteris
• Knight Templar, a superhero character who appeared in the Marvel Comics limited series Marvel: The Lost Generation
• Knights Templar School, a school in Baldock, England
• Knights Templar Cartel, a drug cartel in Mexico.
• Trials of the Knights Templar

The Knights Templar, full name The United Religious, Military and Masonic Orders of the Temple and of St John of Jerusalem, Palestine, Rhodes and Malta, is a fraternal order affiliated with Freemasonry. Unlike the initial degrees conferred in a regular Masonic Lodge, which only require a belief in a Supreme Being regardless of religious affiliation, the Knights Templar is one of several additional Masonic Orders in which membership is open only to Freemasons who profess a belief in Christianity. One of the obligations entrants to the order are required to declare is to protect and defend the Christian faith. The word "United" in its full title indicates that more than one historical tradition and more than one actual order are jointly controlled within this system. The individual orders 'united' within this system are principally the Knights of the Temple (Knights Templar), the Knights of Malta, the Knights of St Paul, and only within the York Rite, the Knights of the Red Cross.

Like the Masonic Red Cross of Constantine being inspired by the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George and the " Order of Malta" by the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, the Masonic order of Knights Templar derives its name from the medieval Catholic military order Knights Templar. However, it does not claim any direct lineal descent from the original Templar order.