Knights Templar

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a <a href="/facts/Military_order_(religious_society)/LxzYqt3S">military order</a> of the <a href="/facts/Catholic_Church/rJ4F4gqH">Catholic</a> faith, and one of the most important military orders in <a href="/facts/Western_Christianity/9YP8vhKs">Western Christianity</a>. They were founded in 1118 to defend pilgrims on their way to <a href="/facts/Jerusalem/PKJ8LT0Y">Jerusalem</a>, with their headquarters located there on the <a href="/facts/Temple_Mount/tjo2RjG6">Temple Mount</a>, and existed for nearly two centuries during the <a href="/facts/Middle_Ages/RqzEKB9v">Middle Ages</a>.
Officially endorsed by the Catholic Church by such decrees as the <a href="/facts/Papal_bull/rddm96cW">papal bull</a> <a href="/facts/Omne_datum_optimum/HkRl2qmh">Omne datum optimum</a> of <a href="/facts/Pope_Innocent_II/hXYjczgy">Pope Innocent II</a>, the Templars became a favoured charity throughout <a href="/facts/Christendom/vWEEqosk">Christendom</a> and grew rapidly in membership and power. The Templar knights, in their distinctive white <a href="/facts/Mantle_(monastic_vesture)/kpLqCePU">mantles</a> with a red <a href="/facts/Christian_cross/Vo1lEvfP">cross</a>, were among the most skilled fighting units of the <a href="/facts/Crusades/mblv9nwI">Crusades</a>. They were prominent in <a href="/facts/Christian_finance/NNYLcj7M">Christian finance</a>; non-combatant members of the order, who made up as much as 90% of their members, managed a large economic infrastructure throughout Christendom. They developed innovative financial techniques that were an early form of <a href="/facts/Banking/l7VsKwas">banking</a>, building a network of nearly 1,000 <a href="/facts/Commandry/6xYYnx36">commanderies</a> and <a href="/facts/Fortification/pyH0FXhH">fortifications</a> across <a href="/facts/Europe/DTAtrKfh">Europe</a> and the <a href="/facts/Holy_Land/lju6CuUX">Holy Land</a>. 
The Templars were closely tied to the Crusades. As they became unable to secure their holdings in the Holy Land, support for the order faded. In 1307, <a href="/facts/Philip_IV_of_France/Woz6oTqW">King Philip IV of France</a> had many of the order's members in France arrested, tortured into giving false confessions, and then burned at the stake. Under pressure, <a href="/facts/Pope_Clement_V/xnKbkkqb">Pope Clement V</a> disbanded the order in 1312. In spite of its dissolution, however, between 1317–1319, a number of Templar knights, properties and other assets were absorbed within the Portuguese <a href="/facts/Military_Order_of_Christ/qINJdnkE">Order of Christ</a>, and the Spanish <a href="/facts/Order_of_Montesa/EjILYg9U">Order of Montesa</a>; the abrupt disappearance of this major medieval European institution in its original incarnation gave rise to speculation and legends, which have currently kept the "Templar" name alive in <a href="/facts/Self-styled_order/95Vsdnk9">self-styled orders</a> and <a href="/facts/Knights_Templar_in_popular_culture/PnwgKvnW">popular culture</a>.

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Knights Templar